Afp
La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, December 4, 2024, p. 23
Tbilisi. The Georgian police again used water cannons and tear gas last night to try to disperse pro-European demonstrators who were protesting for the sixth consecutive night in Tbilisi, the capital of the Caucasian country. The crisis erupted after the October legislative elections, won amid accusations of fraud by the ruling Georgian Dream party, and worsened last week with the decision of Prime Minister Irakli Kobajidze to postpone membership negotiations. European Union. Kobajidze, whom the opposition accuses of authoritarian and pro-Russian drift, yesterday accused his political rivals and NGOs of orchestrate violence in these protests that, he assures, are financed from abroad. Although less numerous than on previous evenings, thousands of protesters gathered again in Tbilisi and launched fireworks against Parliament and the police, Afp reported. The Interior Ministry accused the protesters of throwing blunt objects, pyrotechnic devices and flammable objects. Pro-European President Salomé Zurabishvili, who supports the protests, denounced a use disproportionate of the force mass arrests and mistreatment by the police.
