Czech Ambassador Condemns ‘Attack on Police Station’

Czech ambassador to Georgia, Ivan Jestrab, said while commenting on the May 6 confrontation between police and protesters outside the Tbilisi police headquarters, that “yesterday’s attack on a police station was a criminal act, absolutely intolerable in a democratic society,” according to Reuters.

He was speaking with journalists after a group of foreign diplomats accredited in Tbilisi met with two deputies of foreign minister, Alexandre Nalbandov and Davit Jalagonia.

Ambassador Jestrab, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency also said that the authorities and the opposition should “start talks on the political solution of the existing situation.”

“It is very strange that the ambassadors have made such comments especially without prior meeting with us and probably without an opportunity to see the full picture of what was happening there,” Nino Burjanadze, a former parliamentary speaker and leader of Democratic Movement-United Georgia, said before meeting with a group of foreign diplomats.

“There was nothing criminal there. There really was nothing criminal, at least on the part of the opposition. If the ambassador meant criminal act on the part of the authorities, yes that’s right,” she continued.

After the meeting with European diplomats, including the Czech ambassador, Nino Burjanadze said: “It seemed to me that the ambassadors had no concrete information about certain issues, including about the fact that special task force [referring to riot police] was constantly chanting ‘Misha, Misha’ and it caused great astonishment among diplomats… We provided them with additional information, we are also ready to deliver additional video footage, which will assure them once again and there was no violation of law on the part of protesters.”

After the meeting the Czech ambassador declined to make additional comments on the May 6 confrontation between the police and protesters and said that he had already made the statement on the matter earlier on May 7.

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