indeed, big O unexpectedly started doing business with georgia last year. this was quite exceptional and sauseschritt was sent to tbilisi the represent the organisation at a big international conference dealing with corruption in a certain sector of society. sauseschritt had the impression that the current government has undertaken a lot of efforts to combat the bitter heritage of the past. he and also representatives of other io´s and ngo´s were fully convinced that the current government was on a good way of change towards democracy and rule of law. georgia and aserbajdschan were considered as stabilizing factors in the shaken caucasus region. we all knew that russia had little interest to let these countries slip away to the west, but we hoped that the rose revolution would bring a peaceful future to this country.

now it seems that all hopes are gone. lately, sauseschritt follows the news closely, and the most balanced interpretation of what is happening now in georgia can be read on the blog of onnik krikorian. the title: georgia, end of a fairy tale. let us hope it is not too late for sustainable conflict resolution.

today, berrygeo reports and provides photos on flickr:

(...) Georgian police unleashed tear gas and water cannon on protestors calling for the resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili. The clashes began at around 8 a.m. local time when police moved in to disperse around 100 protestors, including 47 hunger strikers, who had been camped outside the parliament building in the capital Tbilisi for the past six-days.

A further 3,000 had gathered in a show of support as demonstrators fled the gas, security forces in riot gear chased them through the streets beating them with batons. It is the first time the government had used force against the protestors, who accuse Saakashvilli of economic mismanagment, corruption and authoritarianism (...)



an overview on what happened last week is also provided by the russian newspaper kommersant. also moscow times reports.