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MASS PROTESTS IN Georgia fuelled by the country’s governing party’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the EU entered a second week today as police cracked down on protesters with increasing force.
More than 300 protesters have been detained and more than 100 people have been treated for injuries.
An opposition leader was dragged into a police car and arrested today, according to his party.
Scores of demonstrators and some journalists have been brutally beaten.
The ruling Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in the disputed 26 October election, a vote widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s EU aspirations.
The opposition and the pro-western president, Salome Zourabichvili, have accused the governing party of rigging the vote, with neighbouring Russia’s help, and have boycotted parliament sessions.
Opposition protests gained new momentum after the Georgian Dream’s decision last Thursday to put new EU accession talks on hold.
The EU granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that the country meets the bloc’s recommendations but put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June after the passage of a “foreign influence” law that was widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms.
The law requires organisations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power”, similar to a Russian law used to discredit organisations critical of the government.
Riot police have used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the rallies and beat scores of protesters, who threw fireworks at police and built barricades on the central boulevard of the Georgian capital Tbilisi .
Yesterday, the Coalition for Change opposition party said that police raided its offices and detained its leader, Nika Gvaramia. It shared a video showing several officers dragging Gvaramia into a car.
Activists have also been arrested in police raids on offices of several opposition parties and non-government organisations, and one of them, Aleko Elisashvili, was in hospital for injuries he suffered during the detention.
One of the protesters, 22-year-old Aleksi Tirqia was placed in an induced coma after he was allegedly hit with a tear gas capsule.
Lazare Maghlakelidze, a 20-year-old student who joined the protests, said policemen who detained him at the protest early on Monday threatened to rape him and then hit him over the head several times.
“They started beating me up immediately as soon as they made sure that there were no cameras around,” Mr Maghlakelidze said. Despite a head injury and a broken nose, he said he is even more determined to keep protesting.
Georgian Special Investigation Service, a government agency that investigates alleged abuse of power, said it was investigating violence against protesters and interference with the journalists’ professional work.
It said that more than 300 people, including journalists and protesters, have reported violations of their rights during the protests.
Tamar Oniani, a human rights lawyer, said such investigations in the past never gave visible result and no officer has faced charges of at least suspension from duty. He said that police brutality appeared to have the authorities’ blessing.
“It was systemic, widespread violence against demonstrators, just because of the fact that they were at the demonstration and they were protesting,” Mr Oniani said.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of the Georgian Dream party said the raids of the opposition groups’ offices targeted those who encouraged violence during protests in an attempt to topple his government.
“I wouldn’t call this repression, it is more of a preventative measure than repression,” Kobakhidze said.
Georgian journalist Guram Rogava was doing a live broadcast from a protest when a riot policeman went up to him and hit him in the head on Friday. Rogava suffered fractured facial bones in the assault.
After being discharged from hospital on Monday with an immobilised neck and a bandaged head, he said he was lucky to be able to move his hands and talk.
“It was clear that they were deliberately attacking media representatives,” he told The Associated Press.
“The government is in such a state that, for some reason, its survival instinct dictates the need to intimidate the media.”
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Having driven through the snow in South Tipperary, and up through Limerick and Clare on the new Limerick-Galway motorway last Sunday, I can say that a red warning was absolutely required for the conditions that the region was inflicted with.
@Garry Coll: yes red should have been given very dangerous condition and met eire failed many many people dangerous lives
Warnings should only come from Met Eireann
@I’m a robot Robot: why would you even have to ask. It’s like saying amateur traffic channels should be able to set speed limits
@Laois Weather: One model for all, the weather says no
Amateur forecasters have no precedent to issue weather warnings. They should be ignored.
@John Doe: precedent? What’s dat mean,
@John Doe: Methinks you do not understand the words you use! Check out the meaning of “precedent”.
Peadar Tóibín being populist again. Imagine giving out about a weather warning!!! What a joke of a TD
@Caoimhin O’Connor: He’s not wrong though. We had no snow but most schools closed around us last week on account of this low temperature warning and it was simply a case of icy by roads, which are generally fine if you take it easy on them. Issuing warnings for what should be standard winter weather is excessive.
@Caoimhin O’Connor: Yup. Absolutely they should give a warning, granted most don’t need them, and may (myself included) will ignore them in favour of whatever they choose to do… but for that one octogenarian who had the first appointment in a clinic 50 miles away maybe it helps. People no offended by information thats not even FOR them!! Tobin is harming his core voter here.
@Longlin: How many people would have gotten hurt with the school open?
they took the safety first approach!
Wow riveting journalism lads
@Trump24: You probably don’t live here if this doesn’t interest you, having a disability it is essential to know the weather, especially this week.
@Brian D’Arcy: Well incorrect I do live here for a portion of the year but for tax purposes I can only be here a certain amount of days.
@Brian D’Arcy: look at the username, all you need to know about the caliber of person you’re dealing with
@Trump24: No. you can be here for as long as you choose to be. You choose to avoid paying tax here.
@Trump24: Hahaha nice bit of fantasy there, as if you reside anywhere apart from your mammys box room. You’ll need a PPS number and wash before you start paying any tax
@Minnie Mouse: Absolutely I do and it’s all above board it’s called financially smart.
@Freda Peeple: Do I care if you believe me absolutely not. Enjoy being poor.
@Trump24: it’s called talking out your hoop you big spoof. I have my own building company I’m doing ok. I can afford to pay tax here.
@Freda Peeple: Well clearly nothing worth becoming non dom for.
@Trump24: Ken/buster/chutes is another who made his fortune in America but chose to spend his life taking rot on all day on a poxy news app, what are the chances?
@Tired Jim: My jacks smells funky, I’m ok with that
@Freda Peeple: Never made my money in America
@Trump24: You don’t have a bean, be honest. if your mammy didn’t put credit on your phone we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
@Freda Peeple: You believe what you wish enjoy getting up for work tomorrow.
@Trump24: Yes I will, like I do everyday! I’m sure you won’t be thinking of me on your hammock making big business decisions.. on your bike Rodney haha
@Robert: ah hear, maybe his parents could see the future and at the same time didn’t particularly like him so gave him that name so that he would be laughed at and made fun of for his whole like till 24 when like a dream it all snapped into place and made sense well, at least till the clock struck midnight on new years and the carriage turned into a fat pumpkin with a dodgy wig.
@I’m a robot Robot: Silence troll
@Freda Peeple: Nice round of golf this morning for me hopefully the rain stays away then a light lunch in the club. Enjoy your sambos and tea.
@Trump24: Pitch and putt followed by home packed corned beef sandwiched from your mammy, enjoy! Hopefully you don’t get roasted on the course like you did on the Journal
@Trump24: Just mute these bottom feeders folks, it makes them go away.
@Tezmond McVicar: Indeed Freda is definitely a bottom feeder 100%.
@Freda Peeple: Unfortunately did rain a slight bit today but lunch was delicious in the club. Lovely crab claws today.
In fairness met eireann and experts kept telling us complete with blood red heat maps that Ireland was gonna cook during last summer from May till the end of August….there wasnt a week with the tabloid trash MSM who are more responsible than anyone for people getting angry with weather predictions when they post clickbait headlines and then the actual article is completely different. No wonder so many go elsewhere for information. Covid was a winner for the media between all the free advertising money they got and realising fear mongering headlines are actually a better thing to survive than acfual balanced reporting
@Patrick Newell: I don’t remember any expert or Met Eireann employees giving any such warning last summer.
Perhaps you imagined this due to consumption of vast quanties of illegal hallucinogenic narcotics?
@donal O’brien: Correct me if I’m wrong but every month last year was trumpeted as the hottest month on record ever on RTE on every single news cast every day. It was absolute and utter codswallop. The summer was the coldest wettest summer i have ever witnessed in Ireland in my 50 years on this earth. When people rightly questioned the validity of these claims they were told it was roasting at night when you were asleep, you couldn’t make this c r a p up.
@Michael McGrath:
On a world wide basis some group of international experts said 2024 was the hotest year on record for the world.
Met eireann said last May was the honest May on record in Ireland
They then said June was the coldest June in Ireland for the last 10 years.
March was the second wettest March on record in ireland, after March 2023.
Those I think are the monthly records exceeded in ireland last year.
@donal O’brien: I drive to work every morning in a car pool with 3 others and i can tell you it was a source of much incredulity and laughter in the car when the newscaster duly without fail reported each month as the hottest on record, that may not be what the official records state but thats what was reported on the radio, and also the statement that it was warmer at night and thats why we didnt realise it was so hot
@Patrick Newell: It absolutely should have been a red warning in the likes of North Cork, Limerick, Kerry, Kilkenny ,Tipperary and North Waterford, I live in Tipperary and I only eventually got out on Friday and even that was only after we cleared 20 yards of my drive with a shovel and rake. We got 14 inches of snow and many areas of high ground got similar. They are reluctant to issue red warnings because it has a direct implication on business and their obligations towards their workers. I heard of several stories that some employers disciplined their employees because they could not get into work because of the snow if it was a red they couldnt do that
Weather forecasts for snowflakes
They’ve studied meteorology, right?
@Robert: Yep, from Mrs Miggins’ Facebook page, like every dim bulb who DoEs HiS oWn ReSeArCh
No more frost till the end of the month, warm air from the bay of biscay
Q? What are all the snow-men on here all the week telling tall tales called? A. Snow-flakes.
LMAO, people offended by information about the weather!! if you don’t like then jog on
Because they are more accurate than met Éireann. They are a joke. Should be disbanded and their fancy building turned into apartments.
If it happens at the weekend forget about it. It seems like Met Eireann don’t work the weekends.
Both Irelands Weather Channel and Carlow Weather LOVE the attention when they get their predictions right – but can’t deal with criticisim when they get it wrong. They’re like a big sulky child. And if you criticise them on social media and call them out over duff forecasts, you just get blocked like I did. Childish behaviour IMO. Anyone can predict the weather, eventually you will be right at some stage. But Met Eireann are an absolute disgrace and should be shut down.
Met Eireann if anybody bothers to go to their website give detail explanations to all of the different situations countrywide.
I was helping a friend who was painting a pub. I was able to tell him when to go on lunch or to have a cup of tea as we were going to get rain. I had it down so well we never got wet.
If all you read are the headlines, it is your own fault if you get caught out!
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