Mass protests in Georgia met by violent police response

From The Tablet

Mass protests against the Georgian government continued for the seventh consecutive night on Wednesday, despite the increasing severity of the police response.

Prime Minsiter Irakli Kobakhidze’s announcement on  November 28 that his government would suspend plans to begin accession talks with the European Union provoked thousands of Georgians – around 80 per cent of whom are thought to support EU membership – to take to the streets in the capital Tbilisi, as well as in provincial cities.

The demonstrations have grown despite a violent official response, in which police have arrested more than 330 protesters while reporting that more than 100 officers had been injured. Georgia’s human rights ombudsman accused the police of subjecting detainees to beatings and torture.

The scale of the unrest has drawn responses from churches and civil society groups. The Latin Catholic Apostolic Administrator of the Caucasus, Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto, said in a statement on Sunday that such “difficult minutes, when everything points to disaster and chaos” were also “the pains of new birth”.

He said the Church “stands with and supports those who seek and offer ways to find peace, nonviolence, support and dialogue and especially cares for those who are most suffering in this country of ours”.

“Our Catholic Church in Georgia is close to all those who, with their living love for their homeland and people, especially in these days, publicly expresses that they believe in truth, truth, justice and the common goodness, which is really the first foundation of human society.”

A Catholic priest in Tbilisi, who asked not to be named, told The Tablet on Wednesday that Bishop Pasotto had made “a call for order, peaceful agreement and the like”. He said there had been “beatings both from state representatives and protesters”.

He added, however, that the Church did favour Georgia’s orientation towards the EU, “supports it and strives for it”.

The Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church, to which most Georgians belong, had issued a statement following the outbreak of the protests last week, expressing “heartache and concern” that peaceful demonstrations had “slowly escalated into a physical confrontation between representatives of law enforcement agencies and protest participants”.

It condemned both protesters “attacking police, trying to break into buildings, damaging infrastructure” and “aggressive actions by law enforcement officers”.