San
Francisco - Los Angeles - Las Vegas - San Diego - Reno - Lake Tahoe
- Salt Lake city - Washington Seattle |
| |
|
Georgia protesters move to oust
president
TBILISI: Georgian
opposition leaders said on Monday they would move daily
street protests to President Mikheil Saakashvili's
office as they fought to maintain momentum in a campaign
to force his resignation.
Some 20,000 people demonstrated on Monday outside
parliament in the former Soviet republic, the fifth day
of their protest.
The opposition leaders said they would keep up
continuous protests until Saakashvili quit over his
record on democracy and last year's disastrous war with
Russia.
"That way he will hear our voices much more
loudly," said Kakha Kukava, one of more than a
dozen opposition leaders taking part in the campaign.
Turnout dipped over the weekend and there were signs
that some opposition leaders were looking to hold talks
with the president on finding a way out of the
stand-off.
Some 60,000 people rallied at the start of the campaign
on Thursday, followed by 20,000 on Friday, blocking
Tbilisi's central avenue and the main roads running past
the president's office and the public broadcaster.
Critics accuse Saakashvili, who came to power on the
back of the 2003 Rose Revolution, of monopolising power
and exerting pressure on the judiciary and the media.
Last year's war, when Russia crushed a Georgian assault
on breakaway South Ossetia, has emboldened opponents who
say the 41-year-old leader has made too many mistakes to
remain in power until 2013.
But analysts doubt the opposition can remain united or
muster the numbers over a sustained period to force him
out. Despite the defection of some senior allies and
repeated cabinet reshuffles since the war, Saakashvili's
position appears to remain strong.
|
| | | |