President declares state of emergency
Thursday, November 8, 2007, #214 (1481)
By Winston Featherly
President Mikheil Saakashvili declared a state of emergency Wednesday night, after the center of the capital fell into chaos as riot police used tear gas and batons to break up an anti-government rally.
The decree came after protestors and police clashed violently across central Tbilisi, and Imedi TV, founded by business tycoon and opposition financier Badri Patarkatsishvili, was forced off-air.
“This is absolutely normal for any Western democratic country,” influential ruling party lawmaker Giga Bokeria said by phone earlier in the day, explaining the use of force to disperse protestors.
Demonstrators had no legal right to continue to block the city’s main avenue, he said, and when some opposition politicians began urging violence against the police, authorities resorted to tear gas.
The confrontation began at the start of the day as city police pushed demonstrators, who were setting up a “tent city” to continue the six-day-old protest, off the main avenue running by the parliament building.
Protestors, vastly outnumbering Tbilisi police, forced their way back into the street. A number of opposition leaders were arrested in the ensuing fray, and Interior Ministry riot police were called in. They used batons, tear gas and a water cannon to clear the road.
At least one opposition leader, Leven Gachechiladze, was rushed to the hospital for his wounds.
Human Rights Ombudsman Sozar Subari, at a briefing later in the day, claimed he was beaten by police. He compared the ruling authorities to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Hundreds checked themselves into hospitals, suffering from gas inhalation, cuts, bruises and reportedly some broken bones.
In the afternoon, most demonstrators remained peaceful, as did police. Some protestors smashed a police car and shop windows before being restrained by fellow demonstrators.
The protest, led by a loose coalition of opposition parties, began November 2 with tens of thousands of protestors demanding earlier parliamentary elections.
Their demands soon escalated to the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power in the peaceful 2003 Rose Revolution.
Saakashvili, once overwhelmingly popular, is lauded in the West as a liberal democratic reformer but has seen his approval plummet as many Georgians feel left behind by official economic progress.
Protestors, whose numbers had dwindled to at most a few thousand before the clash with police, saw their ranks surge as opposition leader Goga Khaindrava, released after being arrested earlier in the day on drug charges, rallied the disorganized crowd and led them to regroup at Rikhe Square, about a kilometer away.
Speaker of Parliament Nino Burjanadze addressed the public, calling for calm.
“It is crucial to prevent any calls for violence,” she said in parliament. “A state is a state, and no one can confront a state with force and speak to it with the language of violence.”
At 5:30 in the evening, upwards of ten thousand protestors at Rikhe were confronted by a hundreds-strong phalanx of riot police. Demonstrators fled as the approaching police fired tear gas and forced back protestors with batons.
Bokeria, the leading MP, said protestors were making “direct calls for overthrow of the government,” which forced authorities to move in. The unrest, rapidly growing more serious, is being instigated by Russian forces and radical opposition politicians, he said.
Protestors, dispersed for the day, vowed to rally again tomorrow. They will not stop until the president resigns, they said.
Addressing the country later in the evening, President Saakashvili assured Georgians that his government supports all peaceful protest, but pledged that he would not let the country return to the instability it weathered in the early 90s.
He is willing to sit down for dialogue with the more moderate opposition leaders, he said.
And just before nine in the evening, Imedi TV anchors announced that police were storming their studio. They sat in tense silence for twenty seconds before the television station went dead.
Messenger staff reporter Eter Tsotniashvili contributed to this article
The decree came after protestors and police clashed violently across central Tbilisi, and Imedi TV, founded by business tycoon and opposition financier Badri Patarkatsishvili, was forced off-air.
“This is absolutely normal for any Western democratic country,” influential ruling party lawmaker Giga Bokeria said by phone earlier in the day, explaining the use of force to disperse protestors.
Demonstrators had no legal right to continue to block the city’s main avenue, he said, and when some opposition politicians began urging violence against the police, authorities resorted to tear gas.
The confrontation began at the start of the day as city police pushed demonstrators, who were setting up a “tent city” to continue the six-day-old protest, off the main avenue running by the parliament building.
Protestors, vastly outnumbering Tbilisi police, forced their way back into the street. A number of opposition leaders were arrested in the ensuing fray, and Interior Ministry riot police were called in. They used batons, tear gas and a water cannon to clear the road.
At least one opposition leader, Leven Gachechiladze, was rushed to the hospital for his wounds.
Human Rights Ombudsman Sozar Subari, at a briefing later in the day, claimed he was beaten by police. He compared the ruling authorities to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Hundreds checked themselves into hospitals, suffering from gas inhalation, cuts, bruises and reportedly some broken bones.
In the afternoon, most demonstrators remained peaceful, as did police. Some protestors smashed a police car and shop windows before being restrained by fellow demonstrators.
The protest, led by a loose coalition of opposition parties, began November 2 with tens of thousands of protestors demanding earlier parliamentary elections.
Their demands soon escalated to the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power in the peaceful 2003 Rose Revolution.
Saakashvili, once overwhelmingly popular, is lauded in the West as a liberal democratic reformer but has seen his approval plummet as many Georgians feel left behind by official economic progress.
Protestors, whose numbers had dwindled to at most a few thousand before the clash with police, saw their ranks surge as opposition leader Goga Khaindrava, released after being arrested earlier in the day on drug charges, rallied the disorganized crowd and led them to regroup at Rikhe Square, about a kilometer away.
Speaker of Parliament Nino Burjanadze addressed the public, calling for calm.
“It is crucial to prevent any calls for violence,” she said in parliament. “A state is a state, and no one can confront a state with force and speak to it with the language of violence.”
At 5:30 in the evening, upwards of ten thousand protestors at Rikhe were confronted by a hundreds-strong phalanx of riot police. Demonstrators fled as the approaching police fired tear gas and forced back protestors with batons.
Bokeria, the leading MP, said protestors were making “direct calls for overthrow of the government,” which forced authorities to move in. The unrest, rapidly growing more serious, is being instigated by Russian forces and radical opposition politicians, he said.
Protestors, dispersed for the day, vowed to rally again tomorrow. They will not stop until the president resigns, they said.
Addressing the country later in the evening, President Saakashvili assured Georgians that his government supports all peaceful protest, but pledged that he would not let the country return to the instability it weathered in the early 90s.
He is willing to sit down for dialogue with the more moderate opposition leaders, he said.
And just before nine in the evening, Imedi TV anchors announced that police were storming their studio. They sat in tense silence for twenty seconds before the television station went dead.
Messenger staff reporter Eter Tsotniashvili contributed to this article