After the U.S. Department of State condemned actions of the opposition, Georgian authorities sent in riot police to battle protesters.
Photo: AP, AP
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Georgia Declares Emergency after Clashes with Opposition
A week-long confrontation between Georgian authorities and opposition came to a climax in Tbilisi on Wednesday as riot police dispersed a rally outside Parliament using truncheons, water canons and tear gas. In his address to the nation President Mikhail Saakashvili attributed the crackdown to a threat to the country’s security posed by Russia. Mr. Saakashvili accused Russian intelligence of plotting a coup in Georgia and announced that several employees of the Russian embassy would be expelled from the country. He also recalled Georgia’s ambassador from Moscow and declared the state of emergency in Tbilisi.
On Wednesday morning, no more than 100 people were on Rustaveli Avenue outside Parliament. They gathered by the fire signing songs. Several opposition activists who had announced a hunger strike were standing at the parliament’s walls under tents. At half past eight, five trash pick-up trucks appeared on the avenue followed by columns of policemen dressed in bright yellow raincoats. The police surrounded the square from two sides and tried to push the demonstrators out of the square. They seized cameras from reporters who were on the square threatening to arrest those who would resist. Opposition leader Georgy Khaindrava was the one to resist the most. The police tied his hands and threw him into the police car. Once the square was empty, the policemen pulled down the tents while janitors started to pick up the garbage left after the rally.
“There were 50 or 60 of us,” Vakhtang Koberidze, a 42-year old participant of the rally, told Kommersant. “We were signing so that we don’t fall asleep. It was freezing, so we made fires. In the morning, we saw that lots of policemen with truncheons coming to us. Two policemen seized my arms and pushed me in a direction towards the church.”
“Did they beat you?”
“No, they didn’t. I don’t think they were beating anyone. We just didn’t understand anything. It all happened so quickly.”
Shortly afterwards, Tbilisi Mayor Givi Ugulava made a statement on Georgian television saying that “Tbilisi will never turn into a camp town, so the police made a reasonable decision to restore the traffic in Rustaveli Avenue.” The statement explained why Georgian authorities dispersed the rally. Late Tuesday night, opposition leaders announced on the square that they were pitching a tent town outside Parliament like their counterparts did in Ukraine several years ago. It looks that the Ukraine-like prospects forced officials to crack down on the rally. The mayor underscored that the police was not breaking the law. The Georgian constitution allows rallies in the pedestrian zone of streets but not on the roads. Traffic was resumed on Rustaveli Avenue and the demonstrators who were standing on the sidewalk and the stairs of the parliament were free to keep rallying.
Operation to Protect the Law
However, opposition’s activities were resumed two hours later with more vigor. Opposition leaders and television cameras reappeared on the stairs of the parliament. They were calling on people not to give in and come to the rally. Their speeches were broadcast live on several major TV channels. “Authorities made a grave mistake,” opposition leader David Berdzenishvili told Kommersant. “Use of force against peaceful people who went on a hunger strike has shown that the authority has completely lost touch with people. Georgian society has no more confidence in this authority left. The rally is gathering again, and soon there will be more people here than on November 2.”
People started gathering outside the parliament again. They went to the road and tried to cut the traffic. The police who were standing in a chain on the roadside started clubbing those who were pushing to get in there. Several people with bloodstained heads were violently attacking the police. By that time, the demonstrators had outnumbered the policemen who eventually had to retreat. The rallying crowd occupied the road again. Opposition leaders shouted in the microphone: “Georgian people got a dictatorship instead of a democratic government! Saakashvili acted like the Bolsheviks did. Dispersing peaceful demonstrators is a shame for any modern state!” They urged the people to come to the square by 2 pm to launch a large-scale rally. But half an hour later, the Georgian riot police was sent in to the parliament.
Riot police in black uniforms, bullet-proof vests armed with truncheons and rubber knuckledusters surrounded the square and stopped at that point. The loudspeaker from a police van called on the demonstrators to leave: “We ask you to take out of the square women, children and the elderly as the police has to start actions to protect the law.” The demonstrators tied white handkerchiefs onto their noses to get ready for tear gas. The second warning was followed by a launch of a water canon, and then the police shot cartridges with tear gas. People started to run away, but in the center there was a jam, and a large group rushed to the only free way which was to the parliament. The security guards let them in. Several people lost consciousness, and the security called for a doctor who diagnosed them with concussions. A correspondent of the Khronika news program from the Imedi TV channel was reporting live from the parliament that a policeman with a truncheon had just attacked an Imedi journalist Levan Tabidze shouting: “You’re Badri’s rats!” Reports appeared later that opposition deputy Levan Gachechiladze, who had gone on a hunger strike, had severe head injuries.
Ambulances look some 250 people from the square. Most of them got gas poisoned and were discharged from hospitals after first aid.
The riot police operation took some 40 minutes. Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, Defense Minister David Kezerashvili and Chief of the General Staff Zaza Gogava appeared on the empty square where the smell of tear gas was still in the air. They were not wearing respirators showing to the state TV channel that the gas was not dangerous.
Russian Trace
The Rustaveli and Independence Square underground stations were closed at noon. The downtown was cordoned off by the police. Taxis and buses were barred from the city center. Rumors appeared that the state of emergency is being introduced in Tbilisi. Around 300 people who had been pushed away from the square sneezing and coughing were now sitting in a nearby yard at the Kashveti Church. The priests were trying to persuade them to go away and not resist.
The remaining opposition forces moved to the district of Rive, to the embankment of the Kura river where another rally started. Opposition leaders were referring to April 9, 1989, when Soviet troops led by Commander of the South Caucasian Military District Gen. Igor Radionov dispersed a peaceful demonstration on Rustaveli Avenue outside Parliament with tear gas and digging tools leaving 20 people dead most of whom were women. “What happened today is not comparable to April 9,” opposition leader Levan Berdzenishvili said. “The Georgian president is not a Russian general but he followed the ways of Igor Radionov.” Georgy Khaindrava soon appeared at the spot after he had been released by Tbilisi’s administrative court. He was charged with “resistance to police, minor hooliganism and being under the effect of drugs”. His lawyer convinced the court that that there was no evidence of Mr. Khaindrava’s alleged hooliganism but the drugs charge had not been lifted. Mr. Khaindrava refused to be tested by doctors and was fined 500 laris (or $300). “Saakashvili is a terrorist, and everyone who serves him is also a terrorist,” Georgy Khaindrava said. The rally heard more calls to move back to Rustaveli Avenue.
Meanwhile, several influential public figures and politicians urged the in media statements to calm down. Catholicos of All Georgia Ilia II announced his willingness to become a mediator in talks between authorities and the opposition and warned that “external forces who are hostile to Georgia may take advantage of developments in Georgia.” Parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze was even blunter speaking about external forces: “The crucial thing now is to calm down, prevent destabilization in the country and not fulfill plans of the enemy.” Finally, the Georgian Interior Ministry specified references to “external forces” as it released on TV recordings of phone calls between opposition leaders and “operation employees of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service”. In the recordings, a man with a voice similar to that of Labor Party’s leader Shalva Natelashvili was saying to an unidentified many (a Sokolov from the Foreign Intelligence Office, according to the Georgian police): “I’m going to write a paper on the political situation, our party, our history and our political goals and will send it to you.” A video footage showed an opposition leader Tsotne Gamsakhurdia meeting an employee of the Russian Embassy in Georgia. He then said to his brother Konstantin in a phone conversation that the opposition blew its chances for a revolution on November 2. Opposition leaders’ voices were subtitled with the following: “The second plotter is an employee of the Russian Embassy Ivan Volynkin who is also a member of staff of the Russian intelligence and coordinates activities of the opposition.”
The Russian Embassy to Georgian would not comment on the allegations. “All employees are busy at the moment,” the superintendent on duty would say to any call and hang up.
Threads of Plot
Mikhail Saakashvili crowned to the speculations of Moscow’s clout when he addressed the nation in an evening TV statement. He said that the opposition was supplied with “money and guidelines” by employees of the Russian embassy who are “staff employees of the Russian intelligence”. He also announced that these people would soon be expelled from Tbilisi. The Georgian Interior Ministry immediately reported that people to leave the country are advisor and envoy to the Russian ambassador Ivan Volynkin, advisor Pyotr Solomatin and third secretary Alexander Kurenkov. President Saakashvili said that Georgia’s Ambassador was recalled from Moscow “for consultations” so far. In essence, the Georgian president in his speech declared another war on Russia.
“Our intelligence reported of an alternative government that was shaped in Russia,” Mr. Saakashvili said. “But our people will not allow a civil war or events similar to those in 1991 to happen.” The president, who used to call himself a democrat and “defender of people’s right to protest”, said that “everyone is eligible to rally in a democratic country but authorities will no longer tolerate destabilization and chaos.”
In the meantime, the police pushed the demonstrators to the embankment of the Kura river while opposition leaders went to the U.S. ambassador to Georgia, John Tefft urging him to “pass the truth to Washington about what is going on in Georgia, in particular about the dispersion of a peaceful demonstration by truncheons and tear gas.” “If this is not stopped, it means democracy is over in Georgia,” Salome Zurabishvili, leader of the Georgia’s Way party, said. The ambassador promised to inform the White House of the opposition’s demands. However, this information is unlikely to impress Washington. It is no coincidence that the Georgian president took such decisive steps shortly after a speech by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Mathew Bryza who said that the opposition rally was “destructive and irresponsible.” The White House thus virtually gave the Georgian authorities the green light to suppress the protests.
This is also probably a reason why officials ventured to close “the mouthpiece of opposition,” Imedi Television even though it is now owned by Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch who bought out the controlling stake from Georgian oligarch Badri Patarkatsishvili. Later on Wednesday, riot police stormed Imedi’s building, and the TV channel went off air. The state of emergency was announced in the Georgian capital Wednesday night.
Olga Allenova, Moscow, and Vladimir Novikov, Tbilisi
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 08, 2007
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