A pipeline of trouble in Georgia

[Resistance]

By Fred Weir | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

An oil corridor through the Caucasus, set to open next year, angers villagers and environmentalists.

KHAISHI, GEORGIA – The 130 dirt-farming families in this Caucasus village barely manage to scrape a living from the stony pastures they collectively own. And so when a big oil company wanted to lay a pipeline through this hard patch of earth, it was, as one local leader put it, like "a bolt of good luck from heaven."

But what looked like a boon is now clouded in discord. Some residents are threatening to halt the project's advance by sitting in front of the bulldozers when construction teams begin work in Khaishi in May. "We'll put our babies down in their cradles, if necessary, and we'll stay there as long as it takes to make BP listen to us," says Natia Gulidani, reflecting the view of dozens of her neighbors.

About two-thirds of Khaishi's families claim they were cheated out of their share of about $330,000 - a fortune here - when their former village headman and his relatives allegedly absconded with the money BP and its partners paid to use the community's lands.

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[jmcgowanjm]

1. and as I posted in oilcrash post the pipe itself isbeing bypassed by RU