GEORGIA: Georgia political turmoil deepens after talks between President Saakashvili and the opposition fail to reach an agreement

Record ID: 215733

  • Title: GEORGIA: Georgia political turmoil deepens after talks between President Saakashvili and the opposition fail to reach an agreement
  • Date: 14th May 2009
  • Summary: TBILISI, GEORGIA (MAY 11, 2009) (REUTERS) OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS AT RALLY OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS AT RALLY OPPOSITION PARTY FLAGS OPPOSITION LEADER AND FORMER SAAKASHVILI'S PARLIAMENT SPEAKER NINO BURJANADZE ADDRESSING RALLY / BANNER CALLING FOR SAASKASHVILI'S RESIGNATION PEOPLE LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) OPPOSITION LEADER AND SAAKASHVILI'S FORMER
  • Embargoed: 29th May 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Georgia
  • Country: Georgia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5EEYROZGKBQ6VBUM9XJOKJWTP
  • Story Text: Georgia's turmoil deepens after talks between President Saakashvili and the opposition failed to end a month-long stalemate coinciding with NATO war games in the former Soviet republic.
    Georgia's political turmoil deepened on Monday (MAY 11) after talks between the president and opposition leaders failed to end a month-long stalemate coinciding with NATO war games in the former Soviet republic.
    Weeks of protests that flared into violence last week, and a brief, bloodless mutiny at a tank base have raised the spectre of wider anti-government unrest in the Caucasus country, a U.S. ally and an important transit route for energy flows to Europe.
    A two-hour meeting between President Mikheil Saakashvili and four opposition leaders demanding his resignation ended without result.
    Saakashvili said the dialogue would continue, but warned he would not allow anyone to undermine Georgian statehood, block roads or infringe the rights of others for political gain.
    Saakashvili, who came to power on the back of the 2003 "Rose Revolution", said he had offered to work jointly with the opposition on a new electoral code and constitutional reforms, and to increase their participation in state institutions.

    "I have offered the opposition to set up joint constitutional commission to work and produce a balanced constitutional model which will insure the existence of a strong presidential authority, strong parliament and independent court and with will defend the right of each Georgian citizen even better and which will meet the demand of every modern European country, "
    Saakashvili said.
    But his opponents gave little sign they would sit down with him again.
    At an opposition rally outside parliament, the opposition leader and Saakashvili's former Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze said opposition supporters were ready to increase their protests outside Tbilisi and across the country.

    "We will do more, we will block roads, we will go to the regions, we will urge people to take to streets and make Saakashvili run away from this country," she told the rally.
    Some members of the opposition said talks with Saakashvili were over.

    "I think my and their dialogue ended today," said Salome Zurabishvili, one of the protest leaders and a former foreign minister under Saakashvili, during the rally.
    Opposition protesters have paralysed central Tbilisi since April 9, demanding Saakashvili quit over his record on democracy and a disastrous war last year, when Russia crushed a Georgian assault on breakaway South Ossetia in five days.
    The turmoil coincides with the start of month-long NATO military exercises 25 km (15 miles) from the capital, condemned by Russia as "muscle-flexing" on its southern border.
    Analysts question whether the opposition has the numbers or the unity to unseat Saakashvili, and warn the longer the stalemate drags on, the greater the risk of violence.
    Police firing teargas and rubber bullets dispersed the last mass demonstrations against Saakashvili in November 2007, to the anger of his Western backers.
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