EURASIA INSIGHT
GEORGIA: TBILISI PROTESTORS START STREET BARRICADES
Molly Corso and Elizabeth Owen 4/10/09
Hours after Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili rejected the
opposition’s ultimatum to step down, opposition leaders threatened to
seize systematic control of the country using civil disobedience.
Opposition leaders announced a blockade of streets in front of
parliament, the presidential residence and the Georgian Public
Broadcasting headquarters every day between 3 pm and 9 pm in Tbilisi.
Levan Gachechiladze, the former presidential candidate, told
EurasiaNet that the opposition plans to extend these blockades
throughout the capital and, eventually, to the rest of the country
until Saakashvili resigns.
At an afternoon briefing, National Security Council Secretary Eka
Tkeshelashvili told reporters that the government "will not obstruct"
protestors from closing the three roads, two of which are major
thoroughfares.
"We will have to see for tomorrow how the situation develops,"
Tkeshalashvili said, noting that the government’s official policy is
to allow people to demonstrate. "We are counting on the wisdom of our
public as well." Uniformed police in the Georgian capital remain
minimal, but alert.
Roughly 90 minutes into the blockade’s 6pm start on April 10, police
had partly closed access to one of the blockaded roads, outside of
Georgian Public Broadcasting. Yelling slogans, opposition supporters
on foot and in cars were loosely grouped on the road outside the TV
station, but did not extend much beyond the building.
Meeting with foreign journalists in his office, the Georgian president
showed no sign of disquietude at the protests or the opposition’s
demands. "I’ve been facing these ultimatums every other month for the
past five years," Saakashvili said, calling the demonstrations a
"normal part of the Georgian political scenery."
But while neither government nor opposition shows signs of acceding to
the other side’s demands, Saakashvili and one opposition leader both
are repeating calls for dialogue.
"The way forward is by sitting down together, by listening to one
another," Saakashvili said. He listed the election code,
constitutional amendments to increase parliament’s powers and the
direct election of "some" mayors and "local government officials" as
topics up for discussion. (A separate English-language statement
specified direct election of the mayor of Tbilisi, now selected by the
city council).
"This offer is real. This is profound. This is substantial," he
continued, speaking in English. "And I’m sure that this will produce
real results."
Within a few hours, Irakli Alasania, the leader of a moderate
opposition coalition, publicly invited Saakashvili to a discussion
with opposition leaders.
"[I want] to personally meet with him, to explain what is the base for
the demand for early presidential elections, and, hopefully, this will
be the opportunity for us all to sit down and calling from the street
– and him calling from the presidential residency," Alasania,
Georgia’s former United Nations ambassador, told journalists in a
briefing room set up in a downtown Marriott Hotel.
National Security Council Secretary Tkeshelashvili told journalists
after Alasania’s statement that while it is too early to comment on
the offer. "Generally," the government has never been "restrained"
from "open dialogue" with the opposition, Tkeshelashvili insisted,
adding that the government does remain in some form of contact with
the opposition, although those contacts have diminished since the
April 9 protest began.
Aside from Alasania, opposition leaders gave little public sign of
being ready for discussion with Saakashvili. Earlier such offers – to
discuss the economic crisis, national security and election reform —
have also been rebuffed.
Former Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili told supporters in front
of parliament that the only matter to discuss is Saakashvili’s
resignation. Koba Davitashvili, leader of the People’s Party, also
dismissed the offer, saying that Saakashvili "has nothing to do" with
the economic crisis so there is no point in talking about it or other
issues with him.
How long protestors will opt to see the blockade through remains open
to conjecture. The number of rally participants outside parliament was
noticeably less than on April 9, although the turnout was sufficient
to close the street, Tbilisi’s central Rustaveli Avenue.
Stressing that there will be "enough" people to force Saakashvili to
resign, former Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze told EurasiaNet that
the opposition is not afraid to split up into three separate protests
– one at each of the street barricades.
For now, if his reading material is any indication, the 41-year-old
president looks set to wait the barricades out.
On his desk, alongside copies of Jane’s Defense Weekly, the Russian
tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolyets and an iPod, lay "The Hole in the
Flag," a non-fiction account of Romania’s transformation after its
violent 1989 revolution. "Georgian democracy showed its maturity
yesterday," he told reporters. Holding peaceful demonstrations without
incident, he added, "was a major step forward."
Editor’s Note: Molly Corso is a freelance reporter based in
Tbilisi. Elizabeth Owen is EurasiaNet’s Caucasus news editor also
based in Tbilisi.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress