Georgia opposition protests continue for fifth day

[News_Editor]

Georgia opposition protests continue for fifth day

2011-05-26 01:34:02 GMT+7 (ICT)

TBILISI, GEORGIA (BNO NEWS) -- Several hundred anti-government protesters gathered on Wednesday in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi for a fifth day to demand the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili.

RIA Novosti reported that activists gathered outside the Public TV building and will march toward the center of the city to Freedom Square where the main event will take place. Protesters were carrying banners with photographs of the people whose death the opposition blames on the Georgian authorities.

The opposition People's Assembly movement is planning to disrupt an official Independence Day parade, after the party leader Nino Burdzhanadze announced on Sunday the start of a revolution in Georgia.

In her remarks at the rally, she lamented the fact that the opposition was divided after the radical opposition group, the Georgian Party, cancelled plans to hold a Day of Wrath rally.

Over the weekend, Georgian police used tear gas, batons and rubber bullets to disperse protesters. Several people were injured and at least 10 arrested in clashes between protesters and police.

Saakashvili was elected president by a landslide in 2004 after the Rose Revolution, but his popularity has waned since a series of corruption scandals in 2007 and the destructive 2008 war with Russia.

Georgia claims that Russian forces and allies killed thousands of ethnic Georgians and displaced an estimated 300,000 more in Abkhazia and South Ossetia in over two decades. These actions led to a five-day war in August 2008 between Russia and the former Soviet Union state.

Hundreds of Russian, Georgian, South Ossetian and Abkhazian soldiers were killed during the violent conflict, as well as over 160 civilians. Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states two weeks after the conflict.

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