Fifth day of protests against Georgia's president

Fifth day of protests against Georgia's president

www.google.com

Georgia's opposition vowed Monday to boost pressure on President Mikheil Saakashvili with round-the-clock protests outside his office as up to 20,000 rallied for a fifth day to demand his resignation.

"Unfortunately our large-scale protests have not been enough for the president to resign," Kakha Kukava, a leader of the opposition Conservative Party, told the crowd outside parliament.

"So we have taken a decision to move towards the presidency where a protest will continue on a round-the-clock

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uk.reuters.com

Saakashvili's true colours finally shine at last!

Remember the seemingly innocent, pro-Western leader of Georgia America backed in 2008 against big, bad "Russian Aggression" in the Caucasus?

The guy referred to as the "epitome" of a post-Soviet democracy according to Condolezza Rice?

Well, so much for that utter BS theory.

Georgians everywhere want this stubborn, Western puppet to get the hell out of office already before he incites another territorial struggle with Russia, after taking orders from Washington:

whistling and chanting "Misha, Go!."

They pledged to stay there until Saakashvili, commonly known as Misha, resigns over his record on democracy and last year's disastrous war with Russia.

Opposition leaders said they were shifting the focus of the campaign from the parliament to Saakashvili's office.

"That way he will hear our voices much more loudly," said Kakha Kukava, one of several opposition leaders taking part in the campaign.

Up to 20,000 people rallied outside the parliament.

Turnout had dipped over the weekend and there were signs that some opposition leaders were considering talks with the president.

Some 60,000 people rallied at the start of the campaign on Thursday, followed by 20,000 on Friday,

Some fun facts about Mr. Saakashvili:

The Western-educated, staunchly pro-American Saakashvili came to power in the highly controversial "Rose Revolution" where Mikhail Saakashvili despite the fact he did not win any Presidential Election, simply booted Eduard Shevardnadze out of office 2 years before the end of his term.

He then initiated the 2008 South Ossetian war by shooting down 2 Russian aircraft, over Russian airspace and firing on Russian peacekeepers in Tshkinvali.

It was hardly 7 months after that disastrous episode before Saakashvili started rattling the sabre, once more:

The warning comes days after Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili stridently vowed to rebuild and prepare his armed forces for missions other than peacekeeping — comments made alongside a top U.S. general.

www.google.com...

Russia of course viewing this activity by the Washington-wannabe on their doorstep as highly suspect and eerily reminiscent of the prelude to the South Ossetian war, which funnily enough, started by a massive arms importation via Western allies:

"As for foreign assistance to Tbilisi to restore (Georgia's) military potential, it cannot be viewed otherwise than as encouragement of the aggressor," Nesteremko added.

"We expect that the United States, Ukraine and other nations considering themselves to be responsible international players will take this into account in their policy," he said.

Georgia has pledged to rebuild its military, estimating direct damage from the war in terms of destroyed bases and armour at $200 million.

uk.reuters.com...

It's time to kick this nutjob out on the curb.

Saakashvili is another Afghan Mujahideen, Saddam Hussein or Iranian Shah waiting to happen.

The United States really needs to evaluate the merits in supporting a locally unpopular leader against the will of his people, just to further their own selfish political interests in the region.

www.google.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 13/4/09 by The Godfather of Conspira]

The reason that the Georgians are protesting is because they feel that Saakashvili was weak during the war with Russia. Also, it seems that the protesters have been losing steam. From your source:

Some 60,000 people rallied at the start of the campaign on Thursday, followed by 20,000 on Friday

That's a cut of 40,000 people, or 66%.

I think that it's good that Mr. Saakashvili is allowing the people to protest and speak out against the governemtn, unlike what would happen in good ol' Mother Russia.

reply to post by octotom

The reason that the Georgians are protesting is because they feel that Saakashvili was weak during the war with Russia.

'Fraid not.

They're protesting at the widespread corruption during Saakashvili's reign, his unbridled relationship with the West in furthering potential conflict with Russia, and restrictions on democratic freedoms:

"This is not a revolution. It is another demonstration of the Georgian people's peaceful will to seek democracy," says Salome Zourabichvili, former foreign minister and leader of the Georgia's Way party.

news.yahoo.com...

A coalition of 13 Georgian political opposition parties will take to the streets of Tbilisi Thursday to stage open-ended demonstrations aimed at unseating President Mikheil Saakashvili, whom they accuse of betraying the promise of 2003's "Rose Revolution," building a personal dictatorship, causing mass impoverishment, and leading the country into a disastrous war with Russia last summer.

www.csmonitor.com...

The primary reason why people are disillusioned with Saakashvili is because he didn’t deliver on the promises he made in 2004. He has not made major inroads in reducing poverty. He has done a certain amount to crack down on lower level corruption such as traffic cops shaking people down, demanding five dollars here and ten dollars there. But the perception among a lot of people is that just like his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze, Saakashvili has turned a blind eye to corruption amongst his closest associates. One of the major scandals of the past couple of years was the murder of a young banker who got into an argument in a bar in Tbilisi with certain high placed members of the interior ministry. The unfortunate young man was found the next morning beaten up with his throat cut. In a normal democracy, if the interior ministry was implicated, the minister would have resigned. The minister happens to be one of Saakashvili’s closest cronies, and still occupies his post.

There are allegations that Saakashvili’s people were handing out financial inducements like wood and flour and food and heating materials to voters to win their support.

The OSCE assessment noted that “the implementation of social welfare programs is frequently combined with campaigning for this former president.”

www.cfr.org...

The claim that Saakashvili is a democratically-oriented, peace-loving, popular leader is the same claim the United States made when they backed the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein or Manuel Noriega.

It's another sad chapter in Washington's political interests overriding the will of a nation's people.

[edit on 13/4/09 by The Godfather of Conspira]

When, besides to the die-hard 'Hannity-nation' people, did anyone actually see Georgia as the 'good guy' in the conflict with South Ossetia?

I sure as hell didn't, considering Georgia invaded with no other reason either than 'we don't want them to exist independant of us' and then went around screaming about the now realized Russian threat.

What the hell did the guy expect to have happen?

He deserves to be outed, maybe that country can scrape it's way out of the puppet theatre nightmare they have been living in for awhile now.

[edit on 4/13/0909 by spines]

reply to post by spines

When, besides to the die-hard 'Hannity-nation' people, did anyone actually see Georgia as the 'good guy' in the conflict with South Ossetia?

You'd be surprised.

If you have the patience, try trawling through the 316 pages of the Russia-Georgia thread active during the Ossetian war and count the enormity of the Georgian fanbase:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

It all comes down to siding with the aggressor, the Georgians because of the perceived "Socialist" tint of Russia's President Putin.

reply to post by The Godfather of Conspira


I remember that thread. Ugh, oh well...people can so easily forget the fact that Georgia was the agressor and wound up getting pushed back and then some.

It was reported that Georgia attacked...and then a few hours later you would be hard-pressed to find that little tid-bit in any news report coming out of the American media. It was spun, not even as Georgia v. S. Ossetia, but rather as the first steps in the evils of Russian expansion.

The number of people who got caught up in the lies and misdirection doesn't surprise me. Look at what happened with Iraq and look at was is being started with Iran (especially just before the election).

You can show people the fact that they are being lied to...and they just close their eyes and pretend that nothing is happening.

I mean...how could us Americans be lied to? We aren't some ignorant fools, just waiting to be taken for a ride...oh wait...as long as we are told it by the news, we believe it.

I just wish the B.S. propoganda was a little more subtle and that the vast majority of my country would learn to open their eyes.

The country of Georgia, will never be part of the EU, will never be part of NATO and will never be able to occupy the sovereign countries of Abkhazia or South Ossetia. Any attempt at launching occupation of mentioned independent states will result in the physical end of Tibilisi !
Any NATO outpost in the country that threatens mentioned independent states or terrorism in Dagestan, will be dealt with by "Lightnings" in a matter of minutes.

Another point is : Georgian people have never been attacked by Russia or by US activities at the Richard Lugar research center ... the so-called illnesses that have been reported in Georgia during the past 1-2 years were caused by their own government usage of Neurological alterations, provided to them by the criminal EU intelligence agencies of Germany, UK, Italy and France .... and all the others as well !

In 1989 Georgia chose its own end , following the false light of the EUropean Satanic institutions.