Opposition: time for Saakashvili decision
Published: 11 April, 2009, 09:20
TAGS: Conflict, Georgia, Protest, Saakashvili
A campaign of civil disorder is due to start in Georgia, says the opposition. It follows the expiration of an ultimatum for the president to step down. Mass demonstrations in the capital are set to enter their third day.
The ultimatum for the president to step down by 4 pm (12:00 GMT) on Friday has expired, and now the opposition leader, Levan Gachechiladze, announces a campaign of civil disorder.
Firstly, this means that the protests will expand beyond the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
Secondly, living in Tbilisi during the next couple of days is not going to be something easy. The opposition is planning to move to several points around the city and block traffic. They are going to be outside one of the state-run television channels, and they are also planning to hold protests outside the presidential residence.
In their statement, the opposition leaders have made clear that they want to openly disrupt Saakashvili’s schedule. So, what they are going to do is to try to find out about any meetings or plans that the president might have over the next couple of days, and purposefully keep him from getting to where he needs to be.
If Saakashvili still does not give in to their demands, these protests will expand even further. It won’t just be two or three streets that are blocked. They say people will be staying on the streets day and night, until he does turn in his resignation.
“If we do not succeed in gaining what we demand based on the peaceful psychological pressure on Saakashvili within a few days, we are going to expand our campaign of civil disorder,” stated Eka Beselia, one of the leaders of the "Movement for United Georgia”.
“As many sites will be picketed in Tbilisi as will be necessary, in addition to the present three, to make Saakashvili resign,” she added.
The president is confident that the elections that were held last year were free and fair. It is also important to mention that he was openly supported by the West, and international organizations, and NGOs did declare those elections were free and fair. So, he feels he is in his right to stay in the office until his term runs out.
The Georgian leadership, said earlier, "The question of resignation of the president of Georgia – a country with a population of 4.5 million people – cannot and shouldn't be solved by 150,000 participants in the protest rally."
Saakashvili said he would't resign until his presidential term officially ends in 2013.
Reasons to protest
 AFP Photo / Vano Shlamov |
On Thursday, over a hundred thousand protesters came out to demand that Saakashvili steps down.
Georgia's opposition parties believe that President Saakashvili’s policies have brought the country to a deadlock.
According to Salome Zurabishvili, one of Georgia’s opposition leaders, the president is unable to manage the economy and get back the trust of the population, “which is an integral part of being able to govern the country."
Nino Burdzhanadze, the ex-speaker of the Gerogian parliament, has apologized to the country’s population for not taking enough of a stance during the meeting on the 7th of November, 2007.
Why April 9?
On April 9, 1989, a mass anti-Soviet rally was held in Tbilisi, the capital of what was then the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. The demonstrators were dispersed by the Army, resulting in 20 deaths and hundreds of injuries. Now the Day of National Unity is marked in Georgia on April, 9.
She stated that she takes part of the blame for those who suffered as a result of police violence during that action.
“We have no democracy in this country, which Saakashvili promised during the revolution of 2003. He has broken his main promises to the people. Instead of the promised democracy we have an autocratic regime right now. He also promised to re-unite the country, but instead of unification he lost even more territories than we had before under the control of separatists. These reasons are enough to call for the president’s resignation,” said Nino Burjanadze.
Roland Oliphant, a political analyst from "Russia Profile" magazine, said Georgia's president is facing some tough challenges, both at home and internationally.
"The Obama administration is going to be a lot less sympathetic to him and is not going to tolerate things Saakashvili did last time. There is a lot more antipathy towards him this time,” Oliphant said.
He added that “If you look at the situation, what has changed in Georgia has been a few economic changes under Saakashvili. He won the election last year but the war has changed everything. Georgians are very angry. They say he has lost 20% of the country’s territory. Also, by spoiling relations with Russia he is putting Georgia in unnecessary danger.”
Many of the present-day opposition leaders are former close allies of the Georgian president, including Nino Burdzhanadze and the former ambassador to the UN Irakly Alasania. It is important to say, that if Mikhail Saakashvili steps down, Alasania is seen as the favourite to, perhaps, become the next president of Georgia.
So far, no clashes have been reported. However, many fear government forces might resort to violence to disperse protesters, just as in 2007. Security has been stepped up.
10.04.2009, 22:19
Moldovan journalists seek asylum in U.S.The office staff of the Moldovian newspaper “Jurnal de Chisinau” and the online news channel jurnaltv.md have requested political asylum in the U.S., according to Interfax. |
11.04.2009, 10:42
Liberation day: Holocaust survivors remember atrocitiesMore than 60 years after the defeat of the Nazis, survivors of the Holocaust are remembering the horrors of genocide, and their liberation. On April 11, 1945, allied forces freed over 20,000 prisoners from Buchenwald. |
"MUST be brought into the international courts of the true rule of law and the spirit of the law, too." They control the international court infact it was a political creation on request of George Soros and directly financed by him. The same George Soros that put him into power in Georgia in the first place. "Billionaire speculator George Soros funds the International Criminal Court at the Hague, which is seeking to arrest Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir. Though the Court is affiliated with the United Nations, George Soros largely directed the lobbying campaign that led to the Court's creation in 2002-2003. The Court's charge of "genocide" against President Bashir carries the special irony that its sponsor, Soros, once worked for the Adolf Eichmann apparatus carrying out the extermination of the Jews of Hungary in 1944. Soros's Open Society Institute published (March 19, 2008) brief accounts of its Justice Initiative grant recipients: "International Criminal Court: The Justice Initiative works closely with the International Criminal Court (ICC), helping it function as efficiently and effectively as possible. Among other activities, the Justice Initiative assists local human rights advocates in gathering and presenting information of use to the ICC, pursues advocacy and public education with governments to secure support for the ICC, and contributes to building the capacity of ICC staff on a range of issues." The Soros organization also directly funded another agency at the Hague, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which prosecuted and judicially murdered Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The three primary funders of the current International Criminal Court are 1) George Soros; 2) the British empire through the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office; and 3) the European Union's "European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights," whose initiatives are enmeshed with and co-managed by the Soros apparatus. The International Criminal Court's offices are in the capital of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, by arrangement with the Dutch government and in close cooperation with the Dutch royal family. Princess Mabel of Orange Nassau, daughter-in-law of Queen Beatrix, is a Soros employee, who runs his relations with the European Union. The Princess herself ran Balkans political-military intrigues in conjunction with Dutch lawyer Phon van den Biesen, who represented Bosnia at the Hague when Bosnia charged Serbia with genocide." http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2009/02/19/soros-owns-court-indicting-bashir.html LaRouche has done some good work on Soros especially his involvement in the international drug trade, creation and control of "independent" media and organisations like B92, Human Rights Watch, MoveOn.org, Transparency International, etc. http://www.larouchepac.com/ Short documentary on George Soros. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98fUyrzDyek&feature=channel_page
Saakashvili: "Better to pity him than to scorn him?" How can we know, since the brain gets eaten by the 'white drugs,' and the human who is stupid enough to engage in its own self-cannibalism is clearly brain dead. Cocaine is a highly addictive drug and so are steroids. How many drugs is this guy actually taking, to be a poly-addicted multiple personality disorder! The drugs which stimulate the central nervous system of the human are the opposite of natural. Human brain tissue is absolutely eaten, beginning in the weakest area of the human body --- the mind found in every cell of the body is rendered paralyzed from the drugs that numb and or stimulate the pituitary, thyroid, etc. Duality occurs and the multiple personality disorders appear (narcissism, psychopathy, schizophrenia, paedophilia, etc.). "Ye shall know them by their fruits," said Jesus Christ. Well, then the FRUITCAKES of our species --- who have chosen to ingest poisons to the critical mass level of criminal insanity against its own species and therefore the highest of crimes against all humanity: cannibalism --- MUST be brought into the international courts of the true rule of law and the spirit of the law, too. How difficult is it for the modern so-called intelligent leaders of all nations to demand the medical examinations of any/all so-called leaders of the not so free and then the alleged free - world, to determine whether or not brain tissue is sane ("healthy")? What's it going to take ... to know the fruit has turned into a vacuum of only poisons ... a nuclear or missile reminder of critical mass insanity of our species?
So, Misha should resign because 25000 protesters said so (RT's report of hundreds of thousands was well above what observers there noted, and frankly, the coverage suggesting groups of demonstrators marching down Rustaveli were live when in fact they showed THE group that arrived earlier in the day was, well, yellow journalism)? His approval ratings are still over 50%, which an American president could only dream of. Let's see how long the authorities in Russia would allow anti-Putin or anti-Medy protests to drag on--or happen in the first place.