Movement of Protesters from Provinces Curbed – Opposition

A convoy of cars and minibuses with protesters traveling from Adjara Autonomous Republic to Tbilisi to participate in the November 2 protest rally was stopped and attacked by an unknown group of young men, reports said on November 1.

Video footage aired by Imedi TV showed a couple of vehicles blocking a convoy of protesters’ cars, as several men in black civilian clothes forcefully seized a minibus’ keys from drivers and ran away.

Eter Turadze, an editor of Adjara’s local newspaper, Batumelebi, told Civil.Ge on the phone that an unknown group of young men blocked both roads from Adjara to Tbilisi.

“We do not know who these people are. They are blocking the tunnel at Chakvi, as well as the bypass road,” she said.

Opposition leaders said the incident in Adjara was the latest in a series of the authorities’ attempts to thwart the November 2 protest rally in Tbilisi by creating obstacles to opposition activists in the provinces. Opposition claims that the authorities, in particular, have restricted the movement of public transport in the provinces.

“We have information that even the train tickets were not sold,” Salome Zourabichvili, leader of the opposition Georgia’s Way party, said on November 1.

The state-run Georgian Railway Ltd., however, denied these allegations as groundless.

Shota Khizanishvili, a Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman, also denied that obstacles were created on the roads in the provinces. “Movement on the roads in the provinces is absolutely free, and no obstacles are created,” he said. “There was a problem in the tunnel in Adjara, but it was a technical problem, which will be resolved, and movement via the tunnel will be resumed soon.”