Manon Bokuchava, Kvemo Kartli
Public officials in the Kvemo Kartli region, who are on holidays, actively meet the population before the elections. They speak about the achievements of their party and try to persuade the voters that the government always supported the society. The humanrights.ge reminded the single mandate candidate of the National Movement in Rustavi Mamuka Abuladze how he congratulated the masked law enforcement officers about the dispersal of the demonstration on November 7, 2007.
“Our regional governor Davit Kirkitadze will soon write number 5 on his forehead (the election number of the ruling party). He accompanies the candidates of the ruling party to the schools and parks and requests the people to elect them. On November 7, when people were dispersed in Tbilisi, why did not he think then that they would also need us some day? On that day, he thanked to the soldiers for beating and poisoning people,” said a student from Rustavi Natia Gelashvili who was still under-age child during the protest rallies on November 7 and was poisoned by tear gas.
On November 7, 2007 together with the peaceful demonstrators, the hunger-strikers were dispersed by water cannot, tear gas, truncheons and rubber clubs. Everybody can see video-recordings of the day on Georgian websites; more precisely on the website of the TV-Company “Maestro” (maestro.ge/?address=sakani5&id=1532) and tvali.ge. In the video-recording you can see the soldiers shooting rubber bullets at the demonstrators; you can also see the current Kvemo Kartli regional governor Davit Kirkitadze expressing his gratitude to the soldiers in Rustaveli Avenue after the dispersal.
On November 7, 2007, in his interview to TV-Companies in front of the opera house which ended with pushing down the microphone of the TV-Imedi, Kirkitadze said: “I want to express my particular gratitude to our law enforcement officers for rapid eradication of the problem. I want to tell these people that they would never make Georgia kneel down! Georgia is a successful state. I want to thank to the law enforcement officers for protecting the people who were really astonished and prevented the clash between the societies. We all witnessed and I think nobody doubts who coordinated these processes and what was going on here. Georgian people always expressed their position and will do it in future too. The aim of their protest was not holding elections four months earlier; they wanted to destroy Georgian state but could not do it and will never manage it.”
According to official information, 360 people were injured as a result of the dispersal. 109 of them needed more serious medical assistance than first medical aid. They had to remain in hospitals.
Mamuka Abuladze is one more public official on holiday in Kvemo Kartli region who thanked to the soldiers for dispersing the protest demonstrators on November 7, 2007. Currently, he is a single mandate candidate of the National Movement in Rustavi.
When we asked Mamuka Abuladze about the events of the November 7, he gave a long reply: “I did not expect anybody ever to ask me this question again. I have already clarified to my parents and colleagues everything and the time has also uncovered the reality. You have to pay attention to one moment – where are the people who organized those protest
rallies? During all pre-election campaign nobody has asked me this question yet and it aims my discrediting; I am sure in it. The most important point is what could have happened after the November 7. The information about my congratulating to the soldiers is false. Simply, people saw me in Rustaveli Avenue together with my colleague Zaza Begashvili. I had some business with him and turned up there quite by accident.”
At the end of the conversation, Abuladze changed the version and said that on that day, he wanted to express his personal position by arriving at Rustaveli Avenue. “In 1991 my friends took part in the protest rallies against Zviad Gamsakhurdia (late president of Georgia); we all saw what result they received from it. By requesting better democracy they received terrible situation which degraded the country.” We asked him which of his replies we should write in the article. But he replied: “Do not write anything at all; is not it possible? You’d better not to write anything.”
Mamuka Abuladze continues his pre-election campaign in Rustavi. We would like to remind the voters that several international organizations prepared reports regarding the events of November 2007. They particularly focused on excessive use of power by policemen. That time public defender Sozar Subari requested punishment of the officials who ordered the dispersal and the law enforcement officers who were particularly brutal with the demonstrators.
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