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Sozar Subari: “Many Acts of Violence Were Organized andCommitted by or With the Support of the Ministry of Interior

April 29, 2009

Qartlos Sharashenidze

Public Defender of Georgia Sozar Subari assesses critically the ongoing situation in Georgia.He blames the Ministry of Interior for the violence. The Ombudsman blames the government for having established a dictatorship and an one-party government in the state. In his Subari’s interview with the Human Rights Center he said that the government of Georgia still continues the old policy of violence that started in November of 2007.

- Mr. Subari, how would you assess the current events in the country; how democratic are those events?

- Citizens are enjoying their constitutional rights to express their opinion or protest and it is being done in a very civil form. In connection with the civil protest by the citizens the government is doing terrible things. There is no similar precedent in any other civil state – “establishment of a political zone”. As you know, pursuant to the order of Gigi Ugalava patrol police, ambulances, fire-brigades and other emergency services are not allowed to enter the area where rallies are going on . That order is incredible and often becomes the reason for misunderstanding and incidents. In fact, the Mayor of the city refuses to rule the city. In such a situation the government should resign because it is responsible not only to their supporters but to those who oppose the government.

- The surnames and cars of high-ranking officials often are mentioned in the attacks on the demonstrations. Opposition leaders circulate similar information almost every day. What information do you have regarding this fact and what do you think patrol police can eradicate similar problems?

90% of the incidents happen in front of the patrol policemen but the incidents are thought to be initiated by the government officials. How else can we explain why the president of the Coca-Cola Company was beaten in the center of the city. The state numbers of the cars involved in the beating are known, b the case has not yet been investigated yet. The video-recording of the incident is not posted on the website of the Ministry of Interior. However, the video-recording of opposition leaders who give out money to demonstrators is posted on the website. Is it criminal? If it discredited the opposition forces, the video-recording might have been posted on the website of the National Movement, the ruling party. The Ministry of Interior is not a structure of the National Movement so why does it protect the interests of the ruling party?! The Ministry is entitled to protect the public order and they should not try to discredit political forces. It is a very astonishing symptom and it means we do not have a state but a single party that rules the state. There are no valuable governmental structures and every institution obeys the directives of the ruling party—the National Movement. A similar situation was in the Soviet Union and in Fascist Germany.

Have you appealed to the appropriate institutions regarding those incidents where names and cars of high-ranking officials are mentioned?

Of course we will apply to the appropriate institutions and we demand investigation, though as a rule such applications yield no result. Our appeals are never receive a response and cannot receive a response because we know that they cannot punish Vasil Sanodze and those people who beat the demonstrators. If they do punish those people the repressive regime would be destroyed. This regime relies on such people because they eagerly carry out the orders of the repressive regime. In exchange for carrying out the orders of the regime these people are sure they will not be punished.

- Have ordinary citizens who do not belong to any political party, applied to you for help about the violation?

- Of course they do. They report about many acts of violence. We were informed about the incident when demonstrators were herded from the building of the ministry of interior and were shot with rubber bullets. Even more paradoxical and astonishing was the fact that Vasil Sanodze, head of General Inspection within the Ministry of Interior, threw bags full of water at the demonstrators from the same building. Similar incidents have happened several times. Even more astonishing is the fact that the chairperson of the parliament of Georgia gave a terrible explanation of this incident. He stated that Sanodze was playing with his colleagues. We have interviewed many witnesses and they confirmed that the demonstrators were in the place and that Sanodze was throwing bags at them. Sanondze, however, still occupies his position.

Similar cases demonstrate that every incident was supported or committed by the officials of the Ministry of Interior. Consequently, similar situations make more convincing my information about the secret meeting of high-ranking law enforcers on November 4 2007 before the dispersal on November 7. (Sozar Subari mentioned this information in his report of 2008 to the parliament of Georgia)  According to this information I claimed that Vano Merabishvili, Minister of Interior, Zurab Adeishvili, former Minister of Defense Davit Kezerashvili and Data Akhalaia former head of the Constitutional Security Department were discussing how to disperse the peaceful demonstration in November of 2007. I see that the same policy continues today.

- Lately, demonstrators and politicians insult and physically assault journalists--what do you say about that?

- The incidents I have spoken about are not astonishing. However, they might result in a rebellion by the people and it is unacceptable to all sides. In fact, the citizens have abused journalists of the TV Company Rustavi 2. We study this incident and categorically demand the prosecutor’s office of Georgia investigate this fact and punish those people who assaulted journalists. And we categorically demand an investigation of all cases that occurred recently and which allowed certain people to abuse journalists.

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