Opposition warns of “civil confrontation”

EU Special Representative to the South Caucasus Peter Semneby, who is paying another official visit to Tbilisi, has described the incident at the Tbilisi Police Department on June 15 as “unacceptable”. “Both sides should learn to respect each other. I hope these incidents will not be repeated,” Georgian media quoted Semneby as saying on June 18.

The EU envoy met representatives of the “radical” opposition on Thursday. Nino Burjanadze from the Democratic Movement-United Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili from the Way of Georgia and Kakha Kukava from the Conservative Party met Semneby in the Tbilisi Marriott Hotel. The subjects of the meeting were the current situation in Georgia and the way of resolving it and the June 15 incident and the “terror imposed by the Government,” opposition leaders have said.

Former Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze stated after the meeting that the opposition presented video footage of the June 15 incident. “In the footage given to Semneby it is clearly seen that a policeman is holding a steel hammer. Which is a bigger crime – throwing stones or using a steel hammer? We have presented concrete examples of the oppression and terror and unjust detention taking place in Georgia. We call on the EU and the diplomatic corps to stop Saakashvili’s terror, otherwise the situation will get out of control. When there is a syndrome of impunity, protest grows,” Burjanadze noted.

Salome Zourabichvili asked the EU envoy to help her obtain her promised appointment as Deputy Interior Minister. “Peter Semneby has called for dialogue every time he has visited Georgia. This is a normal position for an international organization such as the EU. In this case I have given my response to the main proposal of the dialogue and I have asked Peter Semneby to help us on this issue.” Zourabichvili said after the meeting.

Co-leader of the Conservative Party Kakha Kukava said he warned Semneby about the possibility of civil confrontation in the country. “We informed the EU Special Representative about the detentions and raids. Saakashvili will pull society into civil confrontation if such actions are not stopped,” Kukava stated, adding that usually dialogue is not conducted with “terrorists.” “The Salome Zourabichvili incident indicates that holding dialogue with the Government is pointless. Mikheil Saakashvili did not keep his word about appointing Zourabichvili as a Deputy Interior Minister, so there is no sense in having a dialogue with Saakashvili,” the leader of the Conservatives said.

Meanwhile, Free Opinion House, a public organisation established last January, has released a special statement condemning acts of violence from any side. “Since April 9 (leaving alone the November 7, 2007 events) we have seen a lot of open, hidden and provoked acts of violence. However, none of these have been investigated objectively. It is significant that journalists are often the victims of this violence,” the statement, signed by 40 people, including political scientists, experts and journalists, says. The statement says that there is a dangerous tendency which “leads the country into confrontation and worsens the political crisis in the country day by day.” The signatories call on the Government to investigate each case of violence, otherwise the signatories place the responsibility for “any violence and provocation” on the Government.

Political analysts say civil confrontation in the sense of a confrontation between two parts of society is unlikely. Political commentator Gia Khukhashvili has said that most probably a confrontation between the “semi formal” police units and part of society can be expected. “The Government has supporters, but they are silent, because it is not very popular to support the Government which has made a lot of mistakes,” Khukhashvili told The Messenger “The administration is inclined towards dictatorship. There are only two ways forward, either the people bring the processes to a peaceful end or the Government establishes a dictatorship in Georgia,” the analyst said, adding that “it is a pity that some foreign diplomats are helping to strengthen dictatorship in this country.”