Keystone-SDA
Clashes left 26 injured Monday evening in Georgia, mostly demonstrators, the Ministry of Health announced Tuesday. This Caucasian country has been agitated since last week by pro-European protests punctuated by violence.
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December 3, 2024 – 10:11
(Keystone-ATS) The rescuers “transported 26 people to medical infrastructures, including 23 demonstrators and three representatives of the Ministry of the Interior”, that is to say police officers, the ministry said in a press release.
On Monday, thousands of demonstrators gathered again in the capital Tbilisi for the fifth day of a large-scale mobilization against the policies of the government, accused of authoritarian drift and of being pro-Russian.
The Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012, triggered these protests on Thursday by postponing accession negotiations with the European Union until 2028 – an objective enshrined in the Constitution of this former Soviet republic.
Police used powerful water jets and tear gas from mid-evening to disperse the crowd, who responded by throwing fireworks at the officers. Some demonstrators took refuge in a church on the central square to escape the police. The same scenario had played out during previous demonstrations.
Several dozen demonstrators, journalists and police officers have already been injured during clashes on the sidelines of these gatherings, although the exact figure has not been established.
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