Opposition Figure Says Picketing to be Part of Planned Rallies
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Activists from the opposition youth group ‘Why?’ scuffle with police outside the public TV on April 6. Photo: InterPressNews
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An area outside the Parliament on Tbilisi’s main thoroughfare, Rustaveli Avenue, will be a focal point of the protest rallies from April 9, but rallies will also be held in some other venues in the capital and as well as in other towns, Eka Beselia of the Movement for United Georgia, who is among organizers of the planned rallies, said.
Beselia said in an interview with the Georgian daily, Rezonansi, published on April 7, that the protesters will gather outside the Parliament at about 2pm on Thursday and then the opposition leaders would announce some of the details of their tactics.
“Afterwards, we will set an ultimatum to [President Mikheil] Saakashvili [to resign] and as soon as deadline of the ultimatum expires, we will launch concrete actions, which will be peaceful,” Beselia said and added that those “actions” would also involve picketing of governmental buildings, as well as the presidential residences in Tbilisi and also outside Tbilisi, including Shavnabada and Bobokvati in Adjara Autonomous Republic.
She also said that that picketing might also involve the Georgian public broadcaster’s office in Tbilisi, as the opposition, she said, would demand live coverage of the protest rallies from the Rustaveli Avenue.
Meanwhile, youth pro-opposition groups continue holding rallies in various parts of the capital city in lead up to April 9. Activists from one of the youth groups – ‘Why?’ – scuffled with police while protesting outside the public TV on April 6. Four activists were held by the police and witnesses on the scene said that the police also assaulted a journalist and a photographer from the Georgian newspaper, Versia.
Brief videos have also appeared recently on the Tbilisi-based pro-opposition Maestro TV, showing various people meant to represent all walks of life saying: ‘Misha Tsadi’ (Misha Go Away.” “Can’t you understand Georgian?” one asks and then others are saying the same slogan in some foreign languages.
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