Monitoring Desk
TBILISI: Protesters in the small former Soviet state of Georgia threw stones and petrol bombs at police Tuesday night after the parliament gave its initial backing to a draft law on “foreign agents,” which according to critics represents an authoritarian shift.
Police in the center of the capital Tbilisi used water cannons and tear gas to disperse thousands of demonstrators, who fear the draft law could harm the South Caucasus country’s hopes of European Union membership.
A law backed by the ruling Georgian Dream party would require any organization receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from overseas to be registered as “foreign agents” and face substantial fines.
Critics have said that it is reminiscent of a 2012 law in Russia that has since been used to crack down on the dissent.
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who wants to veto the law if it crosses her desk, said she was on the protesters’ side.
“You represent free Georgia, a Georgia which sees its future in the West and won’t let anyone take this future away,” she said in an address recorded in the United States (US), where she is on an official visit.
She said, “Nobody needs this law … everyone who has voted for this law has violated the constitution,” and Parliament, though, can override her veto.
Protesters threw stones on police
Protesters angrily remonstrated with police with riot shields, who then used water cannons and tear gas. At least three petrol bombs, and stones, were thrown at the police.
Citizens suffering from the effects of tear gas were being treated on the steps outside the parliament.
“I came here because I know that my state belongs to Europe, but my government doesn’t understand it”, said thirty-year-old protestor Demetre Shanshiashvili.
“We’re here to protect our country because we do not want to be part of Russia again”, he said, referring to the almost two centuries Georgia spent as part of the Soviet Union and Russian Empire.
