Thousands of protesters defied a curfew to gather overnight in Georgia's rebel Adzhara region and demand the resignation of its leader, who is locked in a stand-off with the central government.
Police loyal to rebel leader Aslan Abashidze blocked entrances to the city to prevent protesters gathering in the capital and key oil port of Batumi, according to media reports, which said 2,000 people had nevertheless demonstrated overnight.
"Two people have been injured, and have been taken to hospital ... hand grenades exploded and [police] have used automatic gunfire," said Givi Targarmadze, head of the Georgian parliament's security committee.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Abashidze has ignored demands by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili that he bring in reforms or step down, instead reinforcing his state of emergency, closing universities and sending police to disperse demonstrations.
Adzharan's forces turned fire-engine hoses on protesters on Tuesday and men in camouflaged uniforms attacked demonstrators with metal pipes.
Saakashvili called an emergency meeting of his security council in response and ordered the army in the region not to obey Abashidze.
Ex-Soviet Georgia, which faces separatist rebellions in two other regions, ordered Abashidze to bow to central rule by next Wednesday, after his local militia blew up bridges linking Adzhara with the Georgian heartland.
There was no evidence of compliance.
Georgian TV said he had taken all Tbilisi-based channels off the air.
The US, keen for stability in Georgia, which will be crossed by a major pipeline taking oil from the Caspian sea to a Turkish port, condemned the violent breakup of Tuesday's demonstration.
US-educated lawyer Saakashvili, 37, and former Soviet official Abashidze have been at odds since last November when Saakashvili led popular protests that dislodged former president Eduard Shevardnadze, a fellow politician from the Soviet era.
The resulting elections saw Saakashvili voted in as president.
Saakashvili calls the white-haired and diminutive Adzharan leader a relic of the past, while Abashidze calls the burly president a dangerous nationalist.
The Adzhara developments are fraught with dangers for relations between Georgia and its big northern neighbor, Russia, which retains Soviet-era military bases in the former Soviet republic.
Russia said on Tuesday, however, that the crisis was Georgia's internal affair.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
RSS