Opposition Vows to Stand Firm

The opposition leaders announced they would extend their ‘campaign of camps and cells’ to the State Chancellery from Wednesday, as President Saakashvili has again called for a dialogue “to help the people to get out from hardship.”

The State Chancellery, few hundred meters away from Parliament, houses the government’s administration and Prime Minister’s office.

Koba Davitashvili, leader of Party of People, told several thousand of people, which turned out outside the Parliament on April 15 for the seventh consecutive day, that the protesters would create “more discomfort to the authorities” and would camp outside the State Chancellery. Later, however, when the protesters gathered outside the government’s administration, opposition leaders announced that they themselves would not stay there permanently, but instead would leave there a mocked-up cell.

Irakli Melashvili of the National Forum told the rally that on April 16 the opposition leaders intended to announce “a plan, which will eventually put an end to the Saakashvili’s regime.”

“I do not want to speak about it in advance and I ask everybody to gather tomorrow again and show Saakashvili that we are not tired, that we will be united to achieve our final goal. Saakashvili should know one thing that there will be no changes in our demand,” Melashvili said. “We plan to mobilize more supporters. Since the authorities do not heed to our demands and this number of protesters is not enough for them, we plan to increase our numbers, to create more problems to these authorities.”

Gubaz Sanikidze from the same party told the protesters that this plan would be  “interesting, dynamic and of large-scale.”

“What we have been doing in recent days will gain more scales and not only in Tbilisi, but in rest of Georgia as well,” he added.

Earlier on April 15, Eka Beselia of Movement for United Georgia party said that from April 21, after the Orthodox Easter holidays, opposition leaders would launch campaign in the provincial regions to mobilize supporters there and to then bring them in the capital city.

Levan Gachechiladze, an individual opposition politician and one of the key figures during the rallies, told protesters outside the Parliament that “people should be coming” at the rally “like it is their job.”

“Standing here amounts to being in service of our motherland,” he added.

Nino Burjanadze, a former parliamentary speaker and leader of Democratic Movement-United Georgia, said the authorities would be responsible “if the situation gets tenser.”

Meanwhile, President Saakashvili, who visited Akhaltsikhe in Samtskhe-Javakheti region on April 15, called for the unity and said “nobody will be able to harm us if we stand together.”

“I understand very well that a great part of those people, who express their protest, do it because of extreme poverty; much more [than those rallying] are sitting at home and in even more hardship,” Saakashvili said. “I understand these people very well. Just these people need assistance most of all. I think that instead of fighting for their chairs, politicians should sit together and talk about how we should help our people to get out from hardship… All these chairs will be left behind if the life of our population does not improve… Our unity and calmness is the only way out. Nobody will be able to harm us if we stand together.”

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