GEORGIA: PRESIDENT EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE REMIANS IN HIS HEAVILY GUARDED OFFICES AS PROTESTERS CONVERGE ON THE BUILDING

Record ID: 442962

  • Title: GEORGIA: PRESIDENT EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE REMIANS IN HIS HEAVILY GUARDED OFFICES AS PROTESTERS CONVERGE ON THE BUILDING
  • Date: 14th November 2003
  • Summary: (W7) TBILISI, GEORGIA (NOVEMBER 14, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV: RIOT TROOPS TAKING UP POSITIONS INSIDE OF PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE GROUNDS 0.09 2. RIOT TROOPS PUTTING ON HELMETS (2 SHOTS) 0.20 3. RIOT TROOPS IN FULL BODY ARMOUR TAKING UP POSITIONS (2 SHOTS) 0.35 4. RIOT TROOPS GUARDING PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE WITH AUTOMATIC WEAPONS (2 SHOTS) 0.51 5. TILT: GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE BUILDING 0.56 6. GEORGIAN PRESIDENT EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE ENTERS MEETING ROOM, GREETS TURKISH AMBASSADOR TO GEORGIA 1.05 7. VARIOUS: SHEVARDNADZE AND TURKISH AMBASSADOR SITTING DOWN AT TABLE (4 SHOTS) 1.41 8. WS: THOUSANDS OF PROTESTORS GATHERED OUTSIDE OF GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT 1.55 9. MV: OPPOSITION LEADER MIKHAIL SAAKVISHVILI ADDRESSING PROTESTORS 2.03 10. PROTESTORS APPLAUD AND SPREAD OUT TO WS: ENCIRCLE OFFICE OF GEORGIAN PRESIDENT EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE 2.09 11. YOUNG BOY WAVING OPPOSITION FLAG FROM WINDOW 2.14 12. PROTESTORS MARCHING THROUGH STREETS TO ENCIRCLE SHEVARDNADZE'S OFFICE PASSING YOUNG BOY 2.21 13. POLICE CORDON WATCHING PROTESTORS MARCH PAST THEM (2 SHOTS) 2.28 14. TRACK: PROTESTORS HOLDING HANDS TO FORM HUMAN CHAIN AROUND PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE 2.35 15. POLICE BEATING TRUNCHEONS ON SHIELDS 2.39 16. OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS WAVING FLAGS 2.43 17. CU: RIOT POLICEMAN SHOUTING INSTRUCTIONS 2.46 18. PAN: OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS STANDING ACROSS FROM POLICE LINE 2.54 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 29th November 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TBILISI, GEORGIA
  • Country: Georgia
  • Reuters ID: LVACS5GF1SFH2CY91DFYTPC0S93R
  • Story Text: Georgian president stays in heavily guarded
    offices as protesters converge on the building.


    Thousands of Georgians, watched warily by troops,
    surrounded the heavily guarded offices of embattled
    President Eduard Shevardnadze in a human chain on Friday
    (November 14) and demanded he step down.

    Up to 20,000 protesters, ignoring the veteran
    president's emotional appeal to stay at home, responded to
    opposition calls to take the dispute over the November 2
    election result to the streets and press Shevardnadze to
    resign.

    The protests, the biggest in Georgia in the decade
    since the end of a bitter civil war, were watched anxiously
    by Western governments and oil firms hoping for a return to
    stability to permit construction of a key oil pipeline from
    Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean.

    The protesters appeared determined but peaceful,
    hundreds dancing to an impromptu folk concert outside
    parliament square.

    Opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili, stepping up the
    pressure on the president, demanded "total civil
    disobedience".

    As evening fell, thousands formed a human chain around
    the presidential office building, a Soviet monolith with a
    yellowish facade. Interior ministry troops watched as
    protesters chanted "step down" and "traitor".

    Inside the complex of presidential buildings, a Reuters
    cameraman filmed heavily armed soldiers protecting
    President Shevardnazde.

    The embattled leader met the Turkish ambassador to
    Georgia, as mediation efforts by Georgia's neighbours aimed
    at defusing the crisis continued.

    Earlier on Friday, Reuters correspondents saw armoured
    vehicles, trucks and buses with soldiers in body armour
    outside the interior ministry. The ministry has said it
    will use force only if protesters target government
    buildings.

    The crisis was triggered by a disputed parliamentary
    poll almost two weeks ago, in which the opposition said it
    was robbed of victory. Attempts at talks were launched on
    Sunday, but ended on Wednesday when Saakashvili walked out.

    Shevardnadze, 75, has looked to his neighbours in the
    Caucasus and Russia for support in facing down the
    protests.

    The leader of an autonomous region, with whom
    Shevardnadze made a political alliance for support after
    the election, said the situation reminded him of the events
    that plunged the country into civil war after the Soviet
    Union collapsed.

    "If we allow a situation similar to that in late 1991
    then peace will never come to the Caucasus. I have this gut
    feeling that the situation is turning in that direction,"
    said Aslan Abashidze, the leader of Adzhara, after talks in
    Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.


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