“Acts of torture” against demonstrators
Demonstrations in Tbilisi, punctuated by violence, broke out on Thursday after the government announced the postponement until 2028 of this Caucasian country’s ambitions to join the European Union. On Tuesday evening, protesters were still in the thousands, but slightly fewer than in previous days, throwing fireworks at parliament and police and waving flags of Georgia and the EU, journalists from the AFP.
Riot police responded first with a water hose, notably to push back demonstrators who tried to scale the walls of parliament, then with a water cannon and tear gas when the crowd moved towards an avenue near. The Ministry of the Interior accused in a press release demonstrators of having thrown “various types of blunt objects, pyrotechnic devices and flammable objects” at the police.
President Salomé Zourabichvili, who supports the protest movement, denounced on X a “disproportionate” use of force by the police, “mass arrests and mistreatment”. For his part, Human Rights Commissioner Levan Ioseliani accused the police of “acts of torture” against demonstrators, after visiting detained and injured protesters. Most had “serious injuries” to their heads or eyes, the public defender said. “Serious and deliberate violence inflicted in a punitive manner constitutes an act of torture,” he said. Levan Ioseliani notably mentioned the case of a 21-year-old student whose condition is “serious”.
Rejection of any form of negotiation
A few hours earlier, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze had accused the opposition and NGOs of being at the origin of the clashes with the police and warned that they “will not escape their responsibilities”. His party, which claims not to give up on the EU despite the announcement of the postponement of negotiations, estimated that the dissatisfied Georgians had “misunderstood” and that European integration was “progressing”.
The day before, he had rejected any negotiations with the opposition, which is demanding new legislative elections by denouncing fraud during the October 26 vote, just like Brussels, which Irakli Kobakhidzé described as “blackmail”. The Georgian Dream also attempts to present the protest movement as the result of external interference. “No one pays us, we come here by our will, on our own,” a demonstrator, Nougo Chigvinadzé, a 41-year-old logistician, told AFP, who simply said he wanted “a better future for our children.” “Everything our government says is a lie. They have been lying to us for twelve years and they continue to do so,” he added.
In mid-November, opposition groups and the president, breaking with the government but with limited powers, filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court to have the results of the October legislative vote annulled. The Court, in a decision published Tuesday, refused this request, specifying that its verdict was final and without appeal.
According to the Interior Ministry, 293 demonstrators have been arrested since the start of the movement and 143 police officers have been injured. Demonstrators and journalists have also been injured in recent days. The opposition accuses the government of wanting to get closer to Moscow, and of imitating its repressive and authoritarian methods.
“Against the Russian puppet regime”
“Throughout Georgia, people are rising up against the Russian puppet regime,” President Salomé Zourabichvili greeted Monday evening. This former French diplomat assured last week that she would refuse to give up her mandate as planned at the end of December and would remain in her post until new legislative elections are organized.
Although she only has very limited powers, Salomé Zourabichvili is popular with the demonstrators, whose movement, largely spontaneous and organized online, has neither a dominant political leader nor a real structure. Every evening, the police want to chase the protesters from Parliament Square, the epicenter of the mobilization and tensions.
The Georgian Dream claims to want to avoid the country’s fate as Ukraine, which has been invaded by Russian troops for almost three years. Its officials accuse the West of wanting to drag Georgia into a war with Moscow.
The country nestled on the shores of the Black Sea remains traumatized by a brief war with Russia in the summer of 2008. Moscow then recognized the independence of two separatist regions bordering its territory, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. , where it still maintains a military presence.
