Also in Georgian: Merab Saralidze a protest participant in Chiatura who has been for five months, calls on the people of Chiatura to cooperate and show solidarity, and talks about the importance of joint protest
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- Created: Wednesday, 01 October 2025 03:14
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Also in Georgian"We have been in prison for five months and are keeping quiet here. As soon as we were caught, they raised expectations, as if they wanted us to be released. This has led us to remain silent, and that is what we have done all this time – we remain silent, we have sacrificed a lot and were prepared to sacrifice ourselves, even if it violated our dignity.
We made sacrifices because our families, children, parents and spouses were worried, and we sacrificed all of that for our families, but we shouldn't feel that these people have any sympathy for anyone's parents or children. They are not human beings, they look like human beings; they have no human feelings.
They only raised this expectation so that the situation would not become tense, so that people would not take active steps that would disturb them. Although it is not entirely sufficient, the five months here and the five months that were not here. They should have solved the problem within a week if they really wanted to get us out of here.
A week later, they started talking about the process. The arrest, and they are still talking about the same thing today as they were five months ago. They are talking about all this because people have not taken any action to gain time.
Hold elections, and then they will punish us as soon as they have secured seats. Then they will start with even more repression, intimidating people, and that will ultimately have a negative impact on every miner, every worker and every resident of Chiature.
At first, their goal was clear: they didn't need miners at all to make a big profit with as little effort as possible. They even said directly that they didn't need miners and would continue to work in open-cast mining and extract ‘manganese’, but in the end they let some of them go because of our resistance...
With elections coming up, they have been somewhat lenient so far, but when they finally get their way, it will be just like before – if someone raises their voice, if you don't want to, leave... If someone raises their voice even louder, we will set a good example and point the finger at someone. Look, whoever disobeys us, we'll put them in prison. That's how we'll catch you all and create the conditions to throw people out of here.
They don't have to commit a crime. Whoever they want to get rid of, they'll invent a crime, and even if it's not convincing, it doesn't matter. They'll say they want to, they'll put them in prison and they'll put them in prison.
When company representatives say that the processes will be affected if they don't take action, then these people are not our benefactors. They say, ‘Don't take this step,’ it bothers them, and on the contrary, we should go there.
They are trying to buy time, and with this silence, this standstill, we are sitting in prison, and they are doing what they have to do. More action is needed. I'm not asking anything of anyone; my life isn't over yet. Ultimately, I'll leave here sooner or later, and I'm not going anywhere. I'll live in Chiatura again. And if you, people, workers, miners, believe that I deserve support, then my friends are there, honest, combative people. Listen to them and stand by me.
Otherwise, if I have been hurt and suffered now, it is not just my injury, it affects all miners, and it affects them even more than is already apparent.
If they are holding back on some things now, they will soon stop holding back when they lose everything. They will not stop because they have planned total repression. They don't need logical-minded people who demand justice and humane conditions. They don't need people, and that's exactly why they put us in prison.
For five months, they couldn't get Koberidze [who the detainees also allegedly attacked] to sign a statement saying he had no objections to our release? All this does is raise expectations among the population that he will not do this or that... Koberidze did not arrest us, I will not mention his name. This provocation was carried out on the orders of this person, and we are prisoners of this person. We are prisoners of the person who says we should not take this or that step. This is precisely what harms the processes, if one believes a company representative...
I would like to express my deepest sympathy to the people who, in my opinion, deserve more support... We are sitting in prison, our friends continue to starve and risk their lives and health, and these people go to the mine.
I understand that it is difficult to live in our country today, and we are all striving for prosperity, but we should not turn our backs on each other. If we work together for the common cause, each individual's work will be done. If we separate, if we drift apart, we will easily break and in the end we will all suffer.
Not only Merab and Achiko will suffer, we will all suffer; our country and our city will suffer. I harbour no resentment, but I expect and hope that you will recognise the truth. Perhaps it will get even worse if they tolerate this, intimidate people, if we give in to threats and blackmail, we will all suffer, and if they want to, they will shoot us.
I want you to stand by these righteous people who are standing on the street after my arrest, telling the truth and demanding justice. If you stand by them, we, the private prisoners of the company, will very soon be able to be free. We need freedom, we need to return to our families...
I was not careful, I do not know prison and court, and I did not think that such great injustice would happen. No one needs to know the truth. "When you show a judge video evidence that clearly proves your innocence, he closes his eyes and does not see it. Does the company want to keep us in prison? It should, and that's it.
...Whatever demands we make, they should be fair. I trust the people who fought with me and are now fighting for my freedom," says Merab Saralidze.
(Merab Saralidze's appeal was published on Sunday, 14 September, on the Facebook page ‘Magharoeli’.)
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