(26 May 2011)
689768
Georgia - Thousands call for resignation of President Saakashvili
AP TELEVISION
Tbilisi, 21 May 2011
1. Wide of large crowd of opposition supporters marching towards main square
2. Mid of opposition supporters marching, waving flags
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Nino Burjanadze, opposition leader:
"We are protesting about neo Bolshevism in this country. We're living in a neo-Bolshevik country right now."
4. Wide opposition supporters marching
690377
Georgia - Police crack down on anti-government protesters
AP TELEVISION
Tbilisi - 26 May 2011
++NIGHT SHOTS++
5. Police using water cannon to disperse opposition protesters, UPSOUND: tear gas and rubber bullets being fired, alarm going off
6. Police forming barrier using shields
7. Close of police firing weapon to crowd of special forces wearing helmets
8. Police fire tear gas outside Saint George's church
STORYLINE:
On May 21st 2011 approximately ten thousand opposition supporters marched through Georgia's capital Tbilisi demanding the resignation of President Mikhaill Saakashvili.
It was the first of a new wave of anti-government rallies promised by the radical opposition group and led by the former speaker of the Georgian Parliament Nino Burjanadze.
Burjanadze accused Saakashvili of prosecuting opposition supporters and ruling the country with a "neo-Bolshevik style."
The protest was organised by the opposition alliance "National Assembly" and by former Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze's Democratic Movement - United Georgia party.
****
On May 25th one police officer was killed in the forceful breakup of an anti-government demonstration outside parliament in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi.
Some 15-hundred protesters had gathered outside the building to call for the resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili, who they accuse of corruption and of backtracking on democracy.
But their demonstration permit expired at midnight local time on Wednesday 25th (2000 GMT) and within minutes after time ran out, police moved in on the crowd, spraying water on them and letting off tear gas.
Some witnesses said police also fired rubber bullets.
A number of protesters were arrested and at least one was filmed being hit by police.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said the policeman died after being struck by a car that was speeding away from the site of the clash.
Protests leaders, hoping to assemble a massive and dramatic manifestation, had aimed to move from the parliament building to a nearby square on May 26th and block the Independence Day military parade.
The Interior Ministry spokesman said that authorities had offered the protesters alternative venues for May 26th that would not block the parade, but that protest leaders refused.
Saakashvili came under severe criticism at home and abroad in 2007 after a violent police crackdown on protests, which damaged his image as a democratic reformer.
Dissatisfaction with him rose further after Georgia's brief war with Russia in 2008, in which Russia advanced far into Georgian territory and Georgia fully lost control of two Russia-friendly separatist regions.
But weeks of protests in the spring of 2009 failed to force his resignation and the opposition, weakened by factional disputes, appears unable to galvanise people in numbers similar to the tens of thousands who came to the streets in the 2003 Rose Revolution that helped bring the president to power.
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