Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said a substance was mixed into the water cannons used to disperse protests in 2024, but ruled out camite, the military-grade chemical compound that the BBC suggested in a recent investigation may have been deployed.
“A substance was mixed [into the water cannons.] What matters is whether this substance was banned,” Kobakhidze said at a December 3 briefing at the government administration.
“As for reports about the use of camite…The Interior Ministry has already confirmed that the substance was not used and has never been purchased, even during the period of the United National Movement’s rule,” Kobakhidze added, declining to disclose the specific substance and adding that the State Security Service of Georgia’s investigation would determine what exactly was used.
He also acknowledged that the chemical code UN 3439 was correctly cited in the BBC investigation, but stressed that it covers “dozens” of chemicals, including camite, adding that “many of the substances” under the code are not banned.
While current Georgian Dream Interior Minister Gela Geladze said on December 2 that camite was not used, former Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri said the night before that “the substances they are talking about” in the BBC investigation “were indeed purchased and used by the Interior Ministry, but only before 2012,” blaming the former United National Movement government.
“By what Mr. Vakhtang was referring to, various substances were purchased in 2009,” Geladze told journalists. “Your expectations have simply led to disappointment – this is not camite,” he insisted.
Citing chemical weapons experts, whistleblowers from Georgia’s riot police and medical professionals, a BBC Eye investigation suggested that an agent known as camite, which France used against Germany during World War I, but which was phased out by 1930 over concerns about its effects, may have been used during the first days of pro-EU demonstrations in Georgia that began on November 28, 2024.
The report followed long-standing concerns raised by Georgian professional and civil society groups about the use of unidentified chemical compounds during the dispersal of the November–December 2024 protests in Tbilisi. Police used tear gas, pepper spray, and water cannons against protesters, with some reporting long-term effects afterward, including headaches, fatigue, coughing, shortness of breath, and vomiting.
Georgian Dream has denied the allegations, calling the BBC investigation “absurd” and “a lie,” and has pledged to sue the broadcaster.
“The BBC report is not only a falsehood but also a cheap provocation planned by foreign intelligence services, serving two objectives,” Kobakhidze said.
“First, ill-wishers of our country seek to create a pretext to artificially reignite protest momentum that has already completely died down. Second, they aim to continue blackmailing the Georgian people and their elected government,” adding that the report will fail to fulfil these objectives,” he added.
He further warned that the accusations would not be left uncontested. “We plan, alongside conducting an investigation, to appeal to both the British communications regulator and, if necessary, to international judicial bodies, so that the BBC is held properly accountable and compelled to retract false information spread with the hallmark of intelligence services.”
The State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) opened an investigation into the alleged “exceeding of official powers” and potential “assistance to foreign entities.” The agency summoned individuals featured in, or whose work was used in, a BBC investigative documentary that alleged Georgian authorities may have used a military-grade chemical compound known as camite to disperse protests in 2024.
While civil society groups are demanding that the government disclose what was mixed into the water cannons, they say the summonses of individuals featured in the BBC investigation appear less focused on establishing the facts than on pressuring those who spoke about or helped expose alleged human rights violations.
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