GD Activists Clash with UNM in Zugdidi

Several people were injured as a result of clashes, which erupted after Georgian Dream ruling coalition activists held protest rallies at the local offices of opposition UNM party and its affiliated groups in the town of Zugdidi in Samegrelo region on Sunday.

Several dozen of people, among them officials and employees of the local self-governance bodies in Zugdidi, gathered at first outside the UNM office to voice their protest over opposition party’s intention to hold a rally in Tbilisi center on March 21.

GD activists then moved to the building where office of pro-UNM group is located and where the first clashes erupted; pro-government protesters, some of them holding sticks, burst into the building, shattering glass doors. After that protesters returned back to the UNM’s office, where confrontation again broke out, including also a stone-throwing. Police were present, but they failed to prevent the incident, during which at least one policeman was also injured.

A senior UNM lawmaker, Giorgi Gabashvili, said that the authorities “made their baton-wielding gangs… to attack our offices” in Zugdidi.

“They want to maintain power through violence and confrontation. [Ex-PM Bidzina] Ivanishvili should know… that he will fail to maintain power through repressions, violence and arrests. Our response will be peaceful, calm – we will gather on the Rustaveli Avenue [in Tbilisi] on March 21 and launch a political process, which will definitely result in the end of his [Ivanishvili’s] regime and resignation of this shameful government,” UNM MP Gabashvili said.

Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG), the main party in ruling Georgian Dream coalition, released a written statement accusing UNM of “staging provocation”; it called on the police to investigate the incident.

GDDG said it “expresses concern over developments that took place in Zugdidi today and states that no one has the right to go beyond legal framework.”

“The Georgian Dream calls on its members and supporters not to yield to such provocations, staged by UNM, which aim at artificially triggering tensions and creating sense of turmoil,” it said.