Hours after Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili rejected the opposition’s ultimatum to step down, opposition leaders threatened to seize systematic control of the country using civil disobedience.
Opposition leaders announced a blockade of streets in front of parliament, the presidential residence and the Georgian Public Broadcasting headquarters every day between 3 pm and 9 pm in Tbilisi.
Levan Gachechiladze, the former presidential candidate, told EurasiaNet that the opposition plans to extend these blockades throughout the capital and, eventually, to the rest of the country until Saakashvili resigns. 

At an afternoon briefing, National Security Council Secretary Eka Tkeshelashvili told reporters that the government “will not obstruct” protestors from closing the three roads, two of which are major thoroughfares.
“We will have to see for tomorrow how the situation develops,” Tkeshalashvili said, noting that the government’s official policy is to allow people to demonstrate. “We are counting on the wisdom of our public as well.” Uniformed police in the Georgian capital remain minimal, but alert.
Roughly 90 minutes into the blockade’s 6pm start on April 10, police had partly closed access to one of the blockaded roads, outside of Georgian Public Broadcasting. Yelling slogans, opposition supporters on foot and in cars were loosely grouped on the road outside the TV station, but did not extend much beyond the building.
Meeting with foreign journalists in his office, the Georgian president showed no sign of disquietude at the protests or the opposition’s demands. “I’ve been facing these ultimatums every other month for the past five years,” Saakashvili said, calling the demonstrations a “normal part of the Georgian political scenery.”
But while neither government nor opposition shows signs of acceding to the other side’s demands, Saakashvili and one opposition leader both are repeating calls for dialogue.
“The way forward is by sitting down together, by listening to one another,” Saakashvili said. He listed the election code, constitutional amendments to increase parliament’s powers and the direct election of “some” mayors and “local government officials” as topics up for discussion. (A separate English-language statement specified direct election of the mayor of Tbilisi, now selected by the city council).
“This offer is real. This is profound. This is substantial,” he continued, speaking in English. “And I’m sure that this will produce real results.”
Within a few hours, Irakli Alasania, the leader of a moderate opposition coalition, publicly invited Saakashvili to a discussion with opposition leaders.
“[I want] to personally meet with him, to explain what is the base for the demand for early presidential elections, and, hopefully, this will be the opportunity for us all to sit down and calling from the street – and him calling from the presidential residency,” Alasania, Georgia’s former United Nations ambassador, told journalists in a briefing room set up in a downtown Marriott Hotel.
National Security Council Secretary Tkeshelashvili told journalists after Alasania’s statement that while it is too early to comment on the offer. “Generally,” the government has never been “restrained” from “open dialogue” with the opposition, Tkeshelashvili insisted, adding that the government does remain in some form of contact with the opposition, although those contacts have diminished since the April 9 protest began.
Aside from Alasania, opposition leaders gave little public sign of being ready for discussion with Saakashvili. Earlier such offers – to discuss the economic crisis, national security and election reform — have also been rebuffed.
Former Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili told supporters in front of parliament that the only matter to discuss is Saakashvili’s resignation. Koba Davitashvili, leader of the People’s Party, also dismissed the offer, saying that Saakashvili “has nothing to do” with the economic crisis so there is no point in talking about it or other issues with him.
How long protestors will opt to see the blockade through remains open to conjecture. The number of rally participants outside parliament was noticeably less than on April 9, although the turnout was sufficient to close the street, Tbilisi’s central Rustaveli Avenue.
Stressing that there will be “enough” people to force Saakashvili to resign, former Parliament Speaker Nino Burjanadze told EurasiaNet that the opposition is not afraid to split up into three separate protests – one at each of the street barricades.
For now, if his reading material is any indication, the 41-year-old president looks set to wait the barricades out.
On his desk, alongside copies of Jane’s Defense Weekly, the Russian tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolyets and an iPod, lay “The Hole in the Flag,” a non-fiction account of Romania’s transformation after its violent 1989 revolution. “Georgian democracy showed its maturity yesterday,” he told reporters. Holding peaceful demonstrations without incident, he added, “was a major step forward.”

Editor’s Note: Molly Corso is a freelance reporter based in Tbilisi. Elizabeth Owen is EurasiaNet’s Caucasus news editor also based in Tbilisi.
Posted April 10, 2009 © Eurasianet 
http://www.eurasianet.org

On the kickoff day of what they pledge could be ongoing protests, organizers of Tbilisi’s April 9 opposition rally gave Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili 24 hours to resign over alleged misdeeds ranging from election fraud to the 2008 war with Russia.
Tens of thousands of protestors braved a sharp spring wind to hear the country’s major opposition leaders call for Saakashvili to “acknowledge the will of the people” and step down. The protest, situated in front of parliament on the city’s main Rustaveli Avenue, lasted several hours and stretched over a city block.

“This is now the demonstration of the people’s will and they want to see change,” Irakli Alasania, leader of the moderate Alliance for Georgia coalition, told EurasiaNet after making an emotional speech to the crowd. “I believe after our address to the president . . . we will wait for the reaction. If the reaction will be adequate, of course, we would like to see things move out of this crisis so we can negotiate a solution.”
According to Alasania, Saakashvili has until 3 pm on April 10 to respond to the opposition’s demand or face continued protests. The former UN ambassador defined an “adequate” reaction as “acknowledgement” that the people demand the president’s resignation.
There was no immediate reaction from the government. Deputy Interior Minister Eka Zguladze stated that the government has already “initiated” dialogue with the opposition. There “will be more developments” in that direction, she told journalists.
Other opposition leaders, however, expressed no uncertainty about how events will unfold. Former Parliamentary Speaker Nino Burjanadze told EurasiaNet in the early afternoon on April 9 that the opposition has “no illusions” that their goals will be met in “an hour.”
The English-language version of the demands distributed to journalists by Alasania’s coalition condemns Saakashvili and his government for “terror and violence, menace and harassment, reckless and injustice . . . election fraud, [and] repression of freedom of expression.”
According to Salome Zourabichvili, a former minister of foreign affairs in the Saakashvili administration, “the people” themselves will decide how long protesters should stay on the streets to secure the president’s resignation.
“I am not managing anything; it is the people who will decide how long they will stay,” she told EurasiaNet. “There is no today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. There is as long as Saakashvili does not understand what is the will of the people, and doesn’t answer to the will of the people.”
The opposition claims there were “hundreds of thousands” of protesters at the rally; the government maintains there were between 20,000-25,000 people present. The mood at the protest and throughout Tbilisi remained calm, almost somnolent. April 9 is a public holiday to commemorate a brutal 1989 Soviet crackdown against protestors that led to the deaths of 20 people. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].
There were conflicting reports on whether or not people from outside of Tbilisi could travel to the capital for the rally. While the government and European observers maintain that there were no obstacles on roads to the capital, one mini-bus manager told EurasiaNet that drivers were obstructed from driving toward Tbilisi on the country’s only East-West highway.
In April 8 remarks to EurasiaNet, Deputy Interior Minister Zguladze had termed earlier such allegations “a blunt lie,” and stressed that police “will not be hampering traffic in any way.”
On the morning of April 9, government members and the president himself repeated that message of maintaining tolerance.
With Patriarch Ilia II officiating, Saakashvili, his wife, Sandra Roelofs, Parliamentary Speaker Davit Bakradze, Minister of Refugees and Accommodation Koba Subeliani and other senior governing National Movement members stood in front of parliament alongside opposition leaders Levan Gachechiladze and Eka Beselia at a commemoration to victims of the 1989 crackdown.
Later addressing television reporters, Saakashvili noted that, despite the differences between government and opposition, “we have one homeland” and that the two sides share the desire for “freedom and a united Georgia.”
Less than two years after the government used force to break up a peaceful protest, both opposition figures and the government are eager to show the international community that they eschew violence. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive]. International observers were invited to watch events unfold from the Interior Ministry’s “situation room” and the Public Defender’s office planned to place 100 uniformed monitors around the protest area.
There were no arrests and no violent incidents reported during the first few hours of the April 9 protest, according to Zguladze.
The early-morning show of unity, though, was sharply at odds with the ridicule leveled at the president in some protest placards. One banner to the side of the speaker’s podium declared, “Misha, don’t make us eat a tie!” a reference to a widely ridiculed film clip of the Georgian president chewing on his tie before a television interview.
Another showed Saakashvili hunched over on the ground as Russian planes flew overhead, emblazoned with the question “Is Misha cool?” (”Misha magaria?”), a dig at the president’s 2008 reelection campaign slogan.
Separating herself in protestors’ minds from such lampoons of Saakashvili proved delicate at times for Burjanadze, once a close confidante. As whistles greeted her turn at the microphone, she apologized to the crowd for having waited to part ways with the Saakashvili government. “I ask you for forgiveness,” she said.
Flanked by her teenage son and husband, Burjanadze led a crowd of a few hundred supporters who walked from Tbilisi State University to parliament. The former Rose Revolution leader, surrounded by a security detail that kept media at bay, stopped periodically to tell supporters to straighten their banners or to walk more slowly.
But which way the public will swing in this tug-of-war remains unknown. One young rally participant, Irma Khololidze, asserted that “Misha needs to go . . . he has destroyed everything.”
But a middle-aged man took a more pragmatic approach: “We have electricity. We have gas,” he said. “At this moment, compared with what we had in the past, Saakashvili is a normal president.”

Editor’s Note: Molly Corso is a freelance reporter in Tbilisi. Temo Bardzimashvili is a freelance photographer in Tbilisi. EurasiaNet’s Caucasus News Editor Elizabeth Owen added reporting to this story. Story c

ourtesy of Molly Corso. Reprinted from Eurasianet.org.

Fourteen years ago, a nine-year-old Elizbar, pictured below, came to the Dzegvi Orphanage from a well-known street gang, which had lived on the streets of Tbilisi stealing and using drugs. The darkness of the days he had left behind did not, even then, overshadow his love for animals. Today, he is a veterinary student, turning his passion into a profession, and his dreams into reality.

Elizbar’s life to date, like that of so many other children at the Dzegvi Orphanage (and like David and Alona pictured below), has been shaped by the love and respect given to them by Mother Mariam and the young volunteers who lived and taught the children at Dzegvi and Bediani. These vulnerable battered street children were given a sense of belonging, were given an education and learned by example how to give back to a community, which had shunned them. One of Mother Mariam’s strongest desires was that the children be educated so that they could reintegrate into society and become self-sufficient.

Over the years, AFG has provided financial support for the education of all the children living at the Dzegvi Orphanage and Bediani Village. Over a dozen former street children were already attending university in 2006, when an anonymous charitable foundation approached AFG to offer assistance with the students’ tuition and living expenses. In July 2007, the Dzegvi/Bediani Bursary Fund was established, through which the foundation assistance has been channeled to provide for the education of Dzegvi and Bediani children enrolled at college or university. Today, students are studying art, education, dentistry, language, agriculture, veterinary medicine, business and law.

The former street children of Dzegvi and Bediani have overcome incredible odds on their way to having successful, fulfilled lives. It is your generosity, which has made this a reality for them. Please continue to help them achieve their goals. You can donate to the Dzegvi/Bediani Bursary Fund online, or send us a donation to:

American Friends of Georgia, Inc.
P.O. Box 1200
Truro, MA 02666

(more…)

Written by Lena Kiladze, edited by Elizabeth Sidamon-Eristoff

The conflict that occurred in August of 2008 came as a shock to Georgia. It resulted in many wounded people and nearly 60,000 refugees who came from the conflict region of Shida Kartli which is the old name for South Ossetia. Many of these refugees are now staying in Tbilisi, many of them in abandoned hospitals and public buildings. Some of these refugees were staying in schools and kindergardens, and had to relocate to Gori and neighboring villages when the schools began in September. In one area in Tbilisi (Isani), 1200 refugees have been living in a former Georgian-Russian military hospital for almost three months. Only in late October, with the help of the Red Cross, was water being supplied to these buildings. These refugees get some help from the state, but it is inadequate at best. According to official information, they receive only 1kg of pasta, 300ml of sunflower oil, 0.2 kg of sugar, and 0.5 kg of beans every ten days. The refugees are unable to cook this food due to lack of kitchen facilities. Although they receive occasional donations of clothing and food, the refugees are still struggling every day.

There is another center located in the former Institute of Plants n the Bagebi area of Tbilisi where 120 IDP’s from Kekhvi, Eredvi and Dzarcemi- villages of Didi Liakhvi Valley in South Ossetia who have no place to go).

From its foundation, American Friends of Georgia has tried to lessen the struggles of people in Georgia, and with help from the Transfiguration Church, two projects, a sewing workshop and a kindergarten, have been started to help the IDP’s.

The first project is a sewing workshop for the refugee women. It is located in one of the empty halls of the Institute of Plants, where ten women are paid to provide warm blankets to the refugees. The seamstresses make nearly 30 blankets per day, and a manager of the workshop, Eliko Pavliashvili reported that, “All the women work with enthusiasm, because money is a good motivation, and at the same time it is like therapy for us”. The women are paid according to the number of blankets they make, and are very thankful for the opportunity to make money and provide assistance at the same time. Ms. Pavliashvili also mentioned to me how severe the living conditions of the refugees are. She told me that she has been wearing the same dress and jacket she arrived in in August, and that to meet the winter conditions she has only been provided with a pair of flip-flops. Nunu Kakhniashvili, a 68 year old IDP from Kekhvi mentioned how she cries almost every day and the workshop is the only place where she can forget about her own house which she no longer has and have a little hope.

The second project is the establishment of a kindergarten for the three to six year children of the refugees. The kindergarten is on the grounds of the former hospital in the Isani Center and serves as a refuge for 40 children. At the kindergarten, the children are provided with toys, healthy food, and experienced teachers. The kindergarten is a place where they can express themselves, and speak about their hopes and fears for the future. One of the children, David, who is a 6-year-old boy from the village Khsuisi, wants to become an architect.

(Another foundation –Elizabeth Gast’s foundation is participating in the organization of kindergarden.

Through projects such as the sewing workshop and the kindergarten, American Friends of Georgia is working to provide hope and a better future for the refugees living in Georgia. The refugees are very optimistic, and despite their harsh conditions, continue to have hope for the future. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Eteri Andjaparidze, a member of AFG’s Advisory Board, is a distinguished international prize winning pianist. Winner of the Montreal and Tchaikovsky international music competitions and named People’s Artist by her native Republic of Georgia. Eteri is currently Associate Professor of Piano and head of the Keyboard Department at the DePaul University School of Music in Chicago, Illinois. The AmerKlavier Studio, which Eteri founded, and the Alioni Choir, Chicago’s new Georgian folk singing ensemble, will perform for the benefit of war victims in Georgia.

Belden Stratford Salon Musicale
Saturday, November 15, 2008 3:00 pm
The Belden Stratford, 2300 N. Lincold Park West, Chicago

AmerKlavier Studio and Alioni Choir
Directed by Eteri Andjaparidze and Clayton Parr
Perform Piano and Choral Music in a Concert-Benefit for the Georgian War Relief Fund

Giorgobistve

Donations are greatly appreciated by American Friends of Georgia, a public charity supported by people from all over the world to provide humanitarian assistance to the country of Georgia.

All donations are tax deductible and accepted at the performance in cash and or checks payable to: American Friends of Georgia, War Relief Fund

You may also contribute by sending your check or credit card information to American Friends of Georgia, Inc. P.O. Box 1200, Truro, MA 02666

Or by using the secure on-line system at https:www.afgeorgia.org

“What you give away is yours. What you keep is lost forever.”
Form the 12th century Georgian epic poem, The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli

[caption id="attachment_116" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="IDP children enjoy marionette show"][/caption]AFG sponsored the performance which took place on October 19, 2008. It was arranged by Lena Kiladze, Executive Director/AFG Georgia. The story was written by Tamara, her assistant. The “Club of Puppet Makers” with their whimsical marionettes and humorous stories are a partner in AFG’s Art Rehabilitation Project for Vulnerable Children:

For most people, the theatre is a relaxing place where people can go to enjoy themselves. But for the 30 children and their parents, all refugees of South Ossetia, who I met today, the theatre meant much more.

When I entered the place where they were staying, I immediately noticed their excitement for the theatre production, “Mooo,” that we were about to see. It was early in the morning, but everyone was ready and waiting for the bus outside. The children asked me at least every minute when the bus would arrive, and when it finally appeared they all rushed towards it, eager for our trip to begin.

The play took place at the puppet theatre in Rustaveli Cellar. The children all had a lot of fun during the play, and the halls were filled with their laughter and entertaining comments and questions. When the play ended they were allowed to enter behind the scenes to see the puppets and to be introduced to the actors. Ann, a 5 year girl from the village Tamarasheni, refused to go backstage because she was so afraid of the wolf puppet!

After the play, the children shared their impressions about the trip. For many of them, it was their first visit to the theatre. Beka, an eight year-old boy from village Kurti, liked the scenes with soldiers and tanks. His little sister Nini was impressed by the cow puppet that had sung and danced ballet. Many of them favored the older man who had been telling the story.

The children and their parents were full of positive emotions; their eyes were shining and they were all smiling. For them, this trip to the Rustaveli Theatre was a chance to escape reality, even if it was only for a few hours.

October 10th, Marusya and Lena delivering “Happy meals” for 100 IDP children at kindergarden on Vasha Pshavela avenue.

What is the reality of IDP existence for young people?

We invite you to the launch of an international photo exhibition showing the daily experiences of young people in Georgian IDP centres. Through a child’s eyes is the culmination of an innovative project to provide children and young people in collective with cameras to show how they really live, since their displacement in the recent conflict, not only challenging our understandings of their reality but also revealing incredible natural talent.

 

 

The exhibition, which will be held jointly in Columbia University New York, Tbilisi, Brussels, Warsaw, Berlin & Coventry is aimed at raising awareness across the world of the plight of young IDPs whilst also providing a medium through which they can express their own feelings and show their potential for recovery. Each exhibition will also aim to raise funds for positive ventures aimed at social & financial rehabilitation of IDP communities, right here in Georgia.

The organisers will present their action ‘A Day in A Life’ at a reception and guests can join in a ‘charity auction’ and entertainment provided by Tbilisi DJ Tano will go on late into the evening.

Entrance by donation – all proceeds will go to help IDP youth directly.

With the kind support of the Harriman Institute, NY, the global initiative Coordinated Action for Georgia, along with local organisations CHCA & Mkurnali.

http://www.newart.org.ge

http://www.harrimaninstitute.org

We’re still trying to get the hang of blogging here at the AFG offices….  We’re a bit slow in picking it up, but hope to gain speed soon.  Meanwhile, here is an informative report from the UN on displaced persons.

Office of the UN Resident / Humanitarian Coordinator
Situation Report No. 31 on the Situation in Georgia

20081016-georgia-sit-rep-31