Two killed, 39 injured in Georgia riots

May 26, 2011, 12:51 GMT

Tbilisi - Two people were killed and at least 39 injured in clashes between hundreds of opposition supporters and security forces in Georgia, media reports said Thursday.

Interior Ministry riot police used rubber batons, tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters overnight in the capital Tbilisi, Georgian media reported.

A government spokesmen identified the dead as a policeman and a former security force member. The two were run over by a car as the protesters tried to leave a main square near the parliament, where the clashes took place, officials said.

Tbilisi's street cleaners had removed almost all signs of the clashes by Thursday morning. A military parade presided over by President Mikheil Saakashvili took place as scheduled in the afternoon along Rustaveli street.

According to witnesses, police made hundreds of arrests as the demonstrators dispersed, and many injured people who were detained received no medical assistance.

'I don't know what's going to happen with everyone who was arrested. They are being interrogated. A great many are bloody and some of them cannot move because of broken legs. Many have smashed heads, and everywhere you can see blood,' said Interfax reporter Malkaz Chkadua after being released from a Tbilisi jail.

Tiblisi city police said about 90 people were being held on charges including public disturbance and resisting arrest. Those hospitalized included eight police officers, 28 demonstrators and one journalist, the Interfax news agency reported.

Four of the police officers were injured when an SUV driven by suspected demonstrators ran them over, Interfax said.

Two men suspected of having driven the vehicle were arrested Thursday. Both were identified as subordinates of Nino Burjanadze, the leader of Georgia's opposition.

Burjanadze called for the international community to punish the Georgian government for ordering a police assault she said was aimed at injuring peaceful protesters.

'This was a punishment operation,' she told the Maestro television channel.

'The violent actions of the security agencies of Georgia against demonstrators in Tbilisi are a gross violation of the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression,' said Aleksandr Lukashevich, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, at a Moscow briefing.

Opposition activists led by Burjanadze began camping out on Wednesday in Tbilisi's central Rustaveli street to protest what they called Saakashvili's authoritarian and corrupt government.

During a weekend rally, about 10,000 opposition protesters demanded Saakashvili's resignation.

Saakashvili, a Western-educated politician in power since 2004, was popular until August 2008, when Georgia's military was routed by the Russian army in a war over the border province of South Ossetia.

He now enjoys little support in Tbilisi and other major cities, but retains some popularity in rural districts.