Peaceful protesters arrested and beaten across Georgia

Crying out for freedom: peaceful protesters arrested and beaten across Georgia

May 22, 2011 – Tbilisi, Batumi Georgia

The opposition, often declared by the government as ineffective and an instrument of Russian Foreign Policy is finally having an effect. With a new flare of violence,  the people of Georgia are demanding the rights and freedoms as promised to them under the Georgian constitution and by their president elect, Michael Saakashvili, their plight is getting all the more difficult. They see no alternative but to take to streets to demand change as they come to realize that their country is being looted and the national wealth sold off by ruling elite.

In front of Georgian State TV, Tbilisi

Georgian police clashed Monday morning with demonstrators who massed for a night outside the Georgian Public TV station to demand that their country’s president resign. Disgruntled but hopeful looking protesters were physically provoked by a “gang” of what appeared to be plain clothed police officers. The purpose of the police (if they were actually police in the first place) was to intentionally provoke the protesters following an earlier instance with rubber bullets being fired along with canisters of teargas. The police present was clearly not for the sake of crowd control for what would have otherwise been a peaceful protest.  Later they joined in with a rock and stick throwing match to further inflame the crowd.

What is happening in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, comes a day after a similar protest action in Batumi, a Black Sea port city that once strongly supported President Mikheil Saakashvili. Times change, and now one only needs to look at what is happening in Georgia and to judge for oneself to understand the reality on the ground.

In front of Adjara TV, Batumi

The following clip shows the mood of the crowd in Batumi , and exactly 40 seconds into the film you can see the face of one of the persons who was rounded up last night by enforcers the Saakashvli regime, Temuri Chanturiashvili, a retired school director from Batumi, and former supporter of Saakashvili back in 2004, when there was a tense standoff between Tbilisi and Aslan Abshadze, the mafia head of what was at the time a Black Sea fiefdom.

Neither his wife nor his two daughters know of the plight of a nearly 60 year-old-grandfather.  Temuri was arrested with scores of other protesters yesterday evening and is now in lockdown in an unknown location. The family is fearful for his health, and he has been subject to previous attacks, including his car was destroyed.

Details are still sketchy, but it is so far understood that he is facing at least 45 days of detention. However, this can mean torture or even death in the Georgian criminal justice system, especially those who are arrested on political grounds.

Now the tides appear to be turning, even people within Georgian ministries are sharing on facebook the displeasure with the corruption and mafia policies of the Government of Georgia. They are beaten many people; police are shooting rubber bullets and have goons working over the crowds.

Even the first channel, Georgian Public TV is not acting as it did in 2007 and being the mouthpiece of the State. WOW I SAW NOW THE FIRSTS CHANNEL'S REPORTAGE... FIRST TIME THEY SHOWED SOMETHING WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON??? As one journalist wrote back in a response for information as what is being reported on state TV, “too busy unspinning the news, check out www.1tv.ge”

One American journalist shared, “this morning it was getting really harry, especially with Misha's goons, there was a big crowd outside of Georgian TV.”

The people are saying in general much the same as one lady from Batumi.  "The only friends life for the president is money without principles, Georgians are are blogging across the Internet: "we need democracy, freedom of the mass media, and that these animials in government should be in prision, the people of Adjaria are very tired of these two legged pigs in government, and all the rhetoric of the West and membership in NATO; ot was not the people who broke the windows of Adjarian TV but those working with the government."

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