GEORGIA’S GROWING opposition movement has accused President Mikheil Saakashvili of persecuting its members, as it prepares to launch major street protests against his rule.
Security officials said 10 people had been arrested this week for allegedly buying automatic weapons, including some members of the Democratic Movement-United Georgia party led by Nino Burjanadze, a former key ally of Mr Saakashvili who is now his most serious challenger.
“The government of Georgia has resorted to illegal and deplorable methods to fight its political opponents. The police regime has launched a full-scale attack against the Democratic Movement-United Georgia,” the party said.
Ms Burjanadze accused Mr Saakashvili’s regime of launching a “reign of terror” against its opponents, but urged her supporters to show restraint, saying: “This government has little time to rule, so stay calm and don’t be provoked.” She split with the president after he used riot police to break up peaceful protests against his government in November 2007, and she launched her own party following his failed attempt to retake control of the separatist region of South Ossetia last August.
That disastrous campaign prompted a retaliatory invasion by Russian forces, swift defeat of Georgia’s military and Kremlin recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia.
Ms Burjanadze’s party and several other opposition groups are planning large-scale demonstrations against Mr Saakashvili unless he steps down before April 9th.
Major public events are already planned for that day to commemorate the 20th anniversary of a pro-independence march in the capital, Tbilisi, which was brutally crushed by Soviet troops. Twenty people were killed and hundreds injured in the crackdown, which galvanised Georgian opposition to Kremlin rule.
Mr Saakashvili – who came to power alongside Ms Burjanadze in the 2003 Rose Revolution – is a vital western ally in the volatile Caucasus region, an area traditionally dominated by Russia and lying on the main route for Caspian Sea oil and gas exports to the EU.
Officials denied that the arrests were part of any crackdown on the opposition. “This operation was not aimed against any political party or the demonstration,” said interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili. “We are not going to restrict demonstrations. What we are going to do is make sure that nobody gets shot and that we don’t end up in large-scale violence.”
