"The people themselves will determine the future"

The Georgian opposition has been entering the ICS hour, which the representatives of all 10 leading opposition parties in Georgia have been talking about for a month now. On Friday, in the center of Tbilisi, at least 100 thousand residents of the republic should gather in front of the parliament building in order to protest against the internal policy of the authorities and vote for parliamentary Georgia (the main slogan of the action is “Georgia without the President”). Surprisingly, preparations for the rally united the warring parties: both the authorities and the opposition intensified as much as possible.

If the president’s opponents did everything so that the action took place, then his supporters found all the possibilities to disrupt it.

Oppositionists have already called November 2 in the afternoon that could determine the future of the country. The tasks that were set before the action was formulated on Thursday by the opposition deputy Giya Tsagareishvili, who took part in the Tbilisi meeting of the leaders of the united opposition with the OSCE head, Mark Perrone de Brishanbo and the deputy Secretary of State Daniel Frida, organized at the request of the OSCE. “The main task is to achieve the appointment of parliamentary elections for the spring of 2008, and not in the fall, as the authorities decided. If they fulfill this requirement, the public will be satisfied and the conflict will be settled. If the authorities do not, the Georgian people themselves decide how the events should develop,” the parliamentarian said.

Oppositionists made a lot of efforts to make the rally take place and become really many thousands. Within several weeks, their representatives went around all regions of Georgia, urging the population to take part in the action. It is unlikely that we can talk about the complete unity of the views of agitators and campaigned, but one way or another public surveys showed that the opposition’s requirements support about 70% of Georgian citizens. The official Tbilisi in simple ways tried to interfere with the organization of the rally. To do this, they simply blocked all the main routes leading to the capital. “Starting from Thursday, buses and route taxis are not missed at all, and their drivers are taken from a driver’s license,” Gazeta, Georgy Haindrava, told the newspaper correspondent.

At the same time, the head of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Shota Khizanishvili, said that law enforcement agencies do not intend to take additional security measures related to the rally. Moreover, he clarified that on November 2, the metropolitan police will work as usual, and additional forces are mobilized only in extreme cases.

However, the opposition refuse to believe in the authorities so deliberately demonstrated. It was with their fear that they explained what happened on Wednesday at night. According to Haindrava, not wanting one of the opposition leaders - Irakli Okashvili to take part in the rally, at about three in the morning, special services worn out in his apartment, took him to the airport and put him on a plane in Munich.

"Distribvili phoned me from there and said that he was forced to leave Georgia," the lawyer of the former Minister of Defense ECA Beselia told the newspaper correspondent. The information was also confirmed by the Prosecutor General, where, however, they tied the sudden departure of Okashvili with a deterioration in his health. According to a statement that was widespread on Thursday, three days ago he was given permission to undergo a medical examination abroad.

11/01/2007 / Albert Eremian / Tbilisi, the material was published in the "newspaper" No. 206 dated 02.11.2007.