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.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS