On June 29, 1998, nearly 5,000 internally displaced persons from the Gali district (referred to as refugees in the press at the time) organised a protest in Zugdidi district. After the demonstration, the displaced people blocked Zugdidi’s main highway, prompting police and special forces to deploy heavy equipment.

According to Giorgi Kervalishvili, president of the Georgian Association for the Protection of Human Rights, the protest was “brutally dispersed with gunfire into the air and tear gas.” However, Londer Tsaava, head of the Information Center for the Political Settlement of the Abkhazian Conflict, denied reports of a violent crackdown. He claimed that protesters gathered in central Zugdidi near the Gali district’s Georgian administration, demanding humanitarian aid, the promised 30 GEL allowance from the president’s fund, and other financial compensation. Tsaava stated that despite warnings, demonstrators blocked the highway with about 350 people present. Police, he admitted, fired into the air “to calm the refugees.” The rally eventually dispersed after regional officials promised to resolve the issues in areas of compact resettlement.

Reports from Sakartvelos Respublika and Droni newspapers indicated that, by presidential decree, displaced persons from Gali were each supposed to receive 30 GEL. In the “lower zone,” 33,000 residents received a total of 1 million GEL in aid, but funds were depleted before payments reached residents of the “upper zone,” leaving them empty-handed. Authorities explained that Abkhaz punitive operations had begun in the lower zone, forcing those residents to flee to Zugdidi first. The upper-zone population fled later, which is why they were excluded from the distribution.