Today’s State of Emergency: Georgia
Another one of Bush’s model democracies is not playing so well with others, namely its own people.
Like Musharraf a few days ago, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili today (7 Nov) declared a state of emergency.
Riot police tear gassed apparently peaceful protesters outside Parliament, and special ops shut down the opposition television station.
Clips from RussiaToday are available on YouTube, and the reporter in this clip says that the police dispersed only to be replaced with riot police, who fired tear gas into the crowd, hit protesters, and used some sort of deafening/noisemaking device against those assembled:
Sam Machkovech over at Slog also posted two clips, which show the news channel being shut down. The first is translated, but Machkovech is right to recommend watching the second, untranslated clip. While you might not speak the language, the terror in the presenter’s voice (he takes over for the two at the beginning) is palpable.
Meanwhile, from the NYT:
Reached by telephone shortly after the first police sweeps, Sozar Subari, the country’s human rights ombudsman, denounced the government’s use of force and suggested that Georgia, which had undertaken many reforms since 2003, had taken large steps backward.
…
Mr. Subari later called the police action “illegal” and said that he himself had been beaten by the police. “Even after I declared that I am the ombudsman, they beat me more,” he said.
You would think that if this was really just a reaction to pro-Russian elements, as the government claims, they wouldn’t be so quick to beat journalists:
A photographer working for The New York Times was seized by an officer who wrestled away her camera and shattered it on the street. She was able to retrieve her disk of pictures, but the camera was ruined and she had two bloody scrapes on her face. Late at night the police fired rubber bullets at her as she tried to photograph the police cordon at the offices of Imedi-TV.
The State Dept. had this to say:
“Neither side, whether the government or the opposition, should take any steps that would be deliberately provocative to the other and could lead to violence,” said the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack.
And we can probably presume a strongly worded statement followed by business as usual from the White House tomorrow.
That’s what we’re doing in Pakistan.
Update: The shut down station, Imedi, was recently acquired by NewsCorp. Or at least that’s how I’m reading the story. h/t to goodnewsfortheinsane who posted it on MiFi.
Links:
Georgian Leader Imposes a State of Emergency [NYT]
Here Are Our Guests [SLOG]
Bush Says He Pressed Musharraf to Schedule Elections [Bloomberg]
Bush Praises Georgian Democracy [BBC News]
News Corp Takes Over Imedi Channel [The Georgian Times]
November 14th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Today in Slate: