State of Emergency Enforced, as Government Boasts of Anti-Bird Flu Measures

Parliament approved on February 28 with 138 to 2 votes the President’s decree on state of emergency in the Khelvachauri district of Adjara Autonomous Republic – an area affected by the H5N1 virus.

The President’s decree on a state of emergency envisages confiscation of live poultry, as well as poultry products in the Khelvachauri district. The decree also orders a ban on hunting of wild birds and confiscation of hunting guns from the local population and restriction of movement, if necessary. According to the presidential decree, the state of emergency will be imposed until October 1, 2006.

Before the voting the opposition parliamentarians called for a cautious while deciding on state of emergency for seven months.

“This area [Khelvachauri district] is in an immediate proximity to Batumi and sea resorts. So while announcing state of emergency there for seven months, which will include the summer season, we should think what kind of effect it will have to tourism there,” MP Ivliane Khaindrava of the opposition Republican Party said at a parliamentary session on February 28.

He also said that according to the Georgian Constitution, if there is a state of emergency announced in certain part of the country, the Parliament should adopt a decision on holding elections throughout the other territories of the country.

“So the statement of Mr. Paliko Kublashvili [a parliamentarian from the ruling National Movement party] that this decision on state of emergency is not politically-motivated, can be questioned. If the state of emergency lasts for the next seven months, the Parliament will have to decide whether to hold local self-governance elections [in autumn] or not. And if it is not in the interests of the ruling party, elections might not be held,” MP Khaindrava said.

But Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze responded that there will be no threat to holding of local elections.

“I have just talked with the PM [Zurab Nogaideli] and he told be very hopeful information that the government’s measures to prevent further spread of bird flu seems to be effective so there are optimistic forecasts that  the state of emergency will not be needed for the next seven months,” Nino Burjanadze said.

Burjanadze also said that she has already instructed Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Issues Levan Bezhashvili to start working over a new legislative base, which will enable the government to perform all the necessary measures in the similar situation without resorting to the state of emergency.

“As we have never had this kind of experience before, the only legal base in this situation was to announce state of emergency, but I think in the future we should have an appropriate legal base which will rule out use of state of emergency in this kind of situations,” Burjanadze added.

The opposition parliamentarians also demanded from the executive government to take measures for compensation of loses caused by the culling of domestic poultry in the area affected by the bird flu.

Agriculture Minister Mikheil Svimonishvili said on February 28 that the government will consider issues related with compensation only after the problem of avian flu is finally overcome in the affected area.

Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said at the government’s session on February 28 that “at this stage the government managed to prevent the spread of H5N1 virus in domestic poultry.”
 
He said this was made possible due to effective measures carried out in the village of Adlia in the Adjara Autonomous Republic, where the first potential case of H5N1 virus was detected.
 
“We should be as careful as possible, because the spread of H5N1 virus in domestic poultry was detected in neighbor countries. Therefore, we should further strengthen control at the border checkpoints,” Zurab Nogaideli said.
 
Georgian Agriculture Minister Mikheil Svimonishvili said that up to now about 1 605 fowls were culled in a 3-km radius of the site of outbreak of avian flu in Adlia village of Khelvachauri district.