Georgian opposition equates struggle against authorities with struggle against government institutions.
Skirmishes between the police and the opposition preceded the recent events in Georgia. Two celebrations - governmental and church - were held on May 6th. The Georgian Orthodox Church celebrated one of St. George's Days (the second date is November 13th), and the secular authorities named May 6th 'Police Day' and decided to hold a police parade at the new building of the Interior Ministry. The opposition interpreted this as blasphemy. Exactly one year ago special forces used rubber bullets against demonstrators trying to break into the building of the Tbilisi department of the Interior Ministry in order to free several supporters who had been arrested by police, resulting in two people being injured.
The authorities are trying to 'legitimize' the Interior Ministry and attach bigger importance to it by sanctifying this structure under the banner of the most hallowed saint in Georgia. According to Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, "Police Day must only be celebrated on May 6th, because St George is a symbol of the victory of good over evil. We cannot celebrate our holiday on the day of Soviet militia or the Cheka!"
Thus, conducting the first parade in honour of the new holiday became a matter of principle. Against the background of the election campaign (on May 30th regional elections took place in Georgia) the authorities needed to demonstrate their stability and the opposition needed to demonstrate its readiness to strive for change.
Gathered at the metro station Varketili (Georgian for "good, nice") the opposition held a short demonstration and then headed towards the Interior Ministry building. But all routes to it were already cordoned off by police and roadways were blocked by buses. Then, at the behest of the spiritual leader of the opposition, singer and composer Georgy Gachelidze, the column took a detour along the railway, not far from the parade. But a police unit armed with shields and truncheons was also there. The participants in the action did not manage to pass this barrier, the special forces cut the crowd off and pushed them back from the railway, after which the main weapon of revolutionaries of all time was used - stones. Ten policemen were injured and hospitalized. The leaders of the opposition say the police also threw stones (by all appearance, they were not allowed to use rubber bullets this time), and that as a result several demonstrators were also hospitalized.All this time the parade was taking place at the Interior Ministry building. Orderly rows of workers of the subdivisions of the ministry - patrols, district officers, border guards, special forces - were marching pass the tribune where the president and the interior minister, deputies from the ruling party stood, together with foreign ambassadors. There was also military equipment used by this ministry, specifically Turkish armoured personnel carriers, taking part in the parade.
Giving a speech at the demonstration, President Saakashvili spoke of how, before the rose revolution, high-ranking officers of the Interior Ministry were drug dealers, and of how interior ministers and their deputies were friends with underworld barons. “Now everything had changed and the police force is the most trusted institution in Georgia after the Orthodox Church,” the president said. He could not refrain from a dig at Moscow. “We thought the Soviet Union had died, but it turned out it was alive and is now trying to stifle us again,” claimed the head of the country, talking about the 5-day war and the policemen who died in a war against
criminals and Russian occupiers.
According to observers, that day could be considered yet another tactical defeat of the opposition, the leaders of which do not understand that protest actions against the authorities should not look like protests against government institutions. Little children wearing police uniform and T-shirts saying "I want to be a policeman and defend people from bandits" are waving at the columns of police and at the same time country. This opposition hardly can convince the people that if it the opposition is throwing stones, yelling and swearing, trying to get to the parade, to wreck a colourful event broadcast over the whole gets into power the country will not return to the times when it was ruled by underworld barons, and Georgia will not be immersed in criminal chaos and a war of all against all.
Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively for VK.
