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2009-07-09 17:34
Back observation of the protest actions: the black and white
The Georgian opposition has already announced its plan of actions relating to the meeting of the US Vice President Joseph Biden. On the whole, the oppositionists have won the support of the diplomatic corps in respect of the excessive rigidness of the pending amendments to the law which are going to make the meetings and other protest actions subject to the authorities' control. The decoration of the coming meeting has also been designed: the oppositionists are going to be dressed in white. Moreover, one more oppositional party might also appear by the time of the American guest's arrival.
Leader of the United opposition of Georgia, the non-party Levan Gachechiladze is going to represent a new socio-political movement, Defend Georgia. According to VZGLYAD, in this way, the opposition will continue the structural initiation of the protest wave in order to raise a new wave of protest in September. The opposition promises that it will maintain the coordination mode and hold a conference by September in order to summarize the first results of the protest actions and correct the mistakes.
However, considering the fact that there are over 20 oppositional parties today and the leaders of the existing political alliances are going to establish new ones, one can be sure that there will be a lot more mistakes to be corrected. For instance, leader of Alliance for Georgia Irakli Alasania is also going to present his own party in the near future. Its name, Our Georgia - Free Democrats, has already been announced. Before that, on the 8th of July, it was Irakli Alasania whom Alliance for Georgia appointed as its candidate for the presidency.
In case of an early presidential election, the former Permanent Representative of the country to UN Irakli Alasania will become the Alliance for Georgia's candidate. If Alliance for Georgia takes part in any other election, for instance, in the parliamentary election, local election or the election of Mayor of Tbilisi, then, Alasania will be a number-one candidate in any lists and the principal candidate of the alliance. This was stated by leader of The New Rights David Gamkrelidze and one of the leaders of the Republican Party David Berdzenishvili, as ITAR-TASS reports.
Things are not yet clear as to the way the work between the correlated parties and political alliances is going to be organized. So far, one may only state that the oppositional activists are fighting for foreign support. This week, the oppositional representatives again had a meeting with the diplomatic corps accredited in Georgia. This time, they shared with the diplomats their negative opinion of the legislative package of amendments initiated by the ruling party, for these amendments are aimed at stiffening the rules of conducting the protest actions.
Such meetings between the oppositionists and the diplomatic corps have been held regularly but with varied success. The diplomats either criticize the opposition's actions, as the did, for example, during the parliament building picketing on the 12th of June, when the radicals threw eggs at the deputies, or rebuke the authorities, as during the break-up of the oppositional meeting in front of the MIA building, when the journalists also got bruised. However, the diplomatic corps keeps calling the conflicting parties to a dialogue.
This time, the diplomats again spoke about the balance of approaches and the necessity of mutual understanding, while the oppositionists expressed their indignation. "If someone thinks he will manage to bring the country back to Soviet Union or to re-establish dictatorship, hiding behind the democratic front, then, he is very much mistaken and he will end up in a bad way", - Nino Burjanadze, leader of the Democratic Movement - United Georgia stated after the meeting, as Civil.ge reports.
Victor Dolidze, member of Alliance for Georgia and member of Alasania's team said that the diplomatic missions' representatives "expressed their surprise" as to a number of provisions in the legislative amendments including the extension of the term of imprisonment for administrative offence from 30 to 90 days.
According to leader of the Way of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili, besides the planned legislative amendments, the opposition also raised the issue of arresting the opposition's activists. The People's Defender Sozar Subari, who was also present at the meeting, said that the legislative changes initiated by the United National Movement are "a step backwards, they are a step to the past".
After the meeting with the opposition, the German Ambassador to Georgia Patricia Flor that the issue of amendments should be treated carefully in order to maintain the balance between the fundamental rights and non-admission of blocking the parliament and other state buildings. She also underlined that the diplomats recommended engaging the Venice Commission, which is the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters, in the process of evaluating the submitted amendments.
Thus, the international organizations still have to rack their brains upon the national specifics of the Georgian democracy and the opposition's staged actions. For instance, according to Novosti-Georgia, supporters of the non-parliament opposition are going to meet the US Vice President Jozeph Biden, who is expected to arrive in Tbilisi in the second half of July, dressed in white. According to the initiators' idea, the white clothes are going to symbolize the chastity of intentions of those who have been striving for Mikhail Saakashvili's resignation since April, 9. However, the time and the venue of this action associated with Biden's arrival are not yet defined.
By the way, in his time, George Bush was met with the Georgian singing, dancing and wine. During the meetings in support of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who later became the first president of Georgia and gained a sad reputation for his nationalistic slogan Georgia for the Georgians, men put on black bandages and women wore black tights at the meetings.
Now, here are the unpredictable turns of the history. The protesters' clothes change, while their slogans remain the same. Those people that are dressed in white today are demanding "democracy, freedom and independence" just like those dressed in black did twenty years ago.
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