GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER BLAMES PRISON RIOT ON FORCES INTERESTED IN DESTABILIZATION

Armenpress
Mar 27 2006

TBILISI, MARCH 27, ARMENPRESS: Georgian parliament chairwoman Nino
Burjanadze praised today the police for using “adequate force” to
prevent a jailbreak in a Tbilisi prison, which she said could have
triggered “massive destabilization” in the country.

She was quoted by Georgian news agencies as saying that the jailbreak
would have stirred up what she called “chain reaction” in other
detention centers.

She put the blame on forces ‘which are interested in destabilization in
the country.’ “I think that each person who participated in curbing
this mutiny and preventing its spillover into the city’s streets
demonstrated personal courage and saved the country >From a very
serious threat,” she added.

“This was not a spontaneous riot. What happened today in the prison,
what happened today in Kodori gorge (where unknown suspects shot at
electric power lines Monday, cutting off electricity supplies from
Russia) is part of a chain and this is a very serious attack aimed to
spark disorders, destabilization in the country,” she said. Meantime
an opposition New Rights party condemned the “brutal” use of police
force against inmates of the Tbilisi 5th prison, which resulted into
death of ‘several’ prisoners, and demanded resignation of chief of
prison system Bacho Akhalaia.

Speaking at a news conference on March 27 MP Davit Gamkrelidze, leader
of the New Rights, said that officials’ version of “planned prison
riot and attempted jailbreak is very doubtful.” Justice Minister Gia
Kavtaradze said earlier today that officials had information that
a prison riot was planned by criminal bosses. MP Elene Tevdoradze,
the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights,
criticized prison officials at a news conference on March 27 for
a failure to prevented riot. “Why did they fail to prevent it if
they knew about it in advance? I think these officials – I do not
know exactly who, but those who had information – should be held
responsible,” MP Tevdoradze said.

Gamkrelidze also called on Nino Burjanadze to set up a special
parliamentary commission to probe into the incident. He demanded that
the authorities publish the list of the killed inmates.