Hospitals are now overcrowded after the mass tear gas poisoning yesterday. The Human Rights Center tried to visit injured people in the hospital, but was not allowed entry to Republic hospital to interview patients. The reason given was one without precedent: There was not enough room given the number of people being treated there.
Relatives of poisoned demonstrators were looking for their family members in every Tbilisi-area hospital. Some came to Republic hospital, though they were also turned away, instead directed to a list of the injured posted on the wall. People were looking for the names of their husbands, sons, daughters and friends on the 48-person list. Emergency vehicles bearing more patients were entering the hospital yard every fifteen minutes.
It is difficult to get an exact number or the status of injured people being taken to the Republic hospital. According to one physician, there is a mess in the hospital and they could say nothing more at that time.
Almost a hundred people gathered in the yard of the hospital. They wanted to learn the status of their loved ones. When talking with them, the HRC found that not only demonstrators were injured, but that inhabitants of the surrounding area and Parliament workers were affected as well.
“We live on Pushkini street 11,” said Lali Sikharulidze, the wife of one of the injured. “My husband is in the hospital now. We were at home and the gas entered our flat form outside. My husband had problems with his lungs and because of inhaling the gas, he began coughing blood and we had to call an ambulance. I was also not feeling well. Only one person for every injured individual was allowed to enter the hospital. There were 10-15 people next to my husband and there are even more. The gas covered a really large area. One old woman near the Iveria hotel was poisoned. My brother, who lives on Engelsi street, called me saying that the gas entered their flat as well.”
The parents of one of the injured, who declined to give their names, mentioned that their son works at the Parliament on the third floor. He and his colleagues were poisoned in their offices.
“When they started to disperse the crowd, people rushed into the Qashueti church,” said Eka Tsereteli, one of the injured. “The Father came out saying, ‘Come in, they will not dare to enter the church.’ But they shot one gas capsule in the church as well. There was such gas and smoke that we could not even breathe.”
Tsereteli continued, “When they used the gas, it caused eye irritation and foaming at the mouth; people were falling down. I am not yet recovered and still feel ill. My sister-in-law is so badly poisoned that she is still receiving an IV medication drip. The hospital is full of injured people.
I personally was not struck with a truncheon but I saw how severely they beat others. Youngsters were pushed back on the church stairs. I have never witnessed such sadism.
I have not been to a demonstration since the 90s, but I will go to every demonstration now and will do my best to get rid off this government.”
“No Abkhaz, Ossetians or Russians acted towards Georgians in this way on April 9th,” said Eter Romelashvili, a demonstrator. “They [the Georgian police] beat lots of young people brutally. A car was driving announcing over the loud speaker to take away children and old people. ‘If you do not go away we will use gas,’ it said. The voice sounded very similar to that of Burdjanadze. It was probably recorded. After the gas was released, people suffering from heart problems were falling down on the road. Old people were pushed into the fountain. The Gachechiladze brothers were severely beaten, brutally even. I can’t believe that there were no casualties.”
Tea Topuria, Tbilisi
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