Georgian police clashed with opposition activists in the capital Monday, arresting dozens and beating demonstrators, along with several journalists.
The clash was the latest violence to hit Georgia, as the opposition presses its more than 2-month-old campaign to force President Mikhail Saakashvili from office.
An Associated Press photographer saw truncheon-armed masked officers beating demonstrators who had gathered near the police headquarters. Several activists were severely beaten, along with several TV journalists and camera crews who said they had their tapes and video cameras confiscated.
Deputy Interior Minister Eka Zguladze said the 39 protesters that were arrested had resisted police who tried to arrest several men accused of assaulting lawmakers in an earlier incident. They also were blocking a public street, she said.
I'm sorry, but that attempt to arrest accused attackers won't cut it in the battle for public opinion as an excuse to go Iranian on the civilian protesters. The Georgian officials have to contain the protests and wait for public opinion to clearly turn against the protesters for disrupting daily life. And even then clearing the protest encampments must be done with kid gloves to avoid provoking sympathy for the protesters.
Violence against the protesters will only be acceptable to the Georgian public if the protesters clearly cross the line into extra-legal measures to bring down the government.
If the Georgians think that they can suppress demonstrations with violence and still get American support, they're kidding themselves. Their rather large commitment of troops to Iraq prior to last year's war with Russia will count for nothing with our president.
Who do they think they are, an enemy with nuclear ambitions that continues to kill our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan?
