Ramaz Sakvarelidze: “You cannot watch without contempt how 200 demonstrators are beaten and overpowered by 2000 members of Special Forces”

Sopo Getsadze

Two weeks have passed since the events of May 26th, but the public still cannot forget the cruelty exercised by the riot police during the disruption of the demonstrators. The government is not going to apologize. Majority of experts including the political scientist Ramaz Sakvarelidze critically evaluate the recent developments. He talked to the video portal of Human Rights Center hridc.tv. Here is the full version of the interview.

- Mr. Ramaz, how do you assess the developments of 00:15 am of May 26th?

- There are different kinds of assessments. On the one hand, we heard the official position that the overthrow conspiracy was planned the goal of which was the state destabilization and the state suppressed it. The government does not talk about other aspects of these developments which is very unfortunate.

We are often criticizing Russia and in many aspects Russia really deserves criticism. But let’s recall what Yeltsin did when the police clashed with people as a result of which 3 people died. He publicly apologized. He apologized to the mothers of the victims and said that he is sorry that he could not protect their children.

Unfortunately, Georgian government has not done it yet. It is another matter whether their acts were right or wrong, but when the lives and health of people are sacrificed to some political act, you are at least morally obliged to apologize. The government not only refused to apologize, it did not even publish the lists of sufferers and the deceased. There is a big suspicion that the medical insurance departments were called on not to help those who suffered due to participation in the demonstrations. Talking about moral side of this gets harder when you see the depths of these developments. In this case, the government acts like it would act towards its enemy. This is what it did on that night and it is going to do the same in future.

Unfortunately, the opposition group who was also responsible on that night’s developments did not apologize either. Thus, both sides are being irresponsible.

- Let’s talk about the disruption of the demonstration. Is it possible to somehow justify the acts of government?

- Let’s say that overthrow conspiracy was really planned. Even during the military operation, when a person holds his hands up and surrenders, it is unlawful to attack them. The one who breaks this rule should be punished by law. We saw many people at that night who surrendered but the police still beat them. We saw children were beaten. We saw people lying on the ground and their legs being broken and etc. This kind of conduct cannot be justified even in case of war situation.

The only reason to why they did it is probably that they wanted to overpower the people. When Napoleon fought in Egypt he ordered to mount the heads of people. People who were with him were surprised as he had never demonstrated such cruelty before. He acted by simple European standards. Napoleon explained that he cannot overpower Egypt if he does not act according their rules. People get subordinated in Europe in a different way – if the government yields the key of the city, the population obeys the regime, agrees to capitulate and if you want to make people capitulate, you need to morally break them. You do not need violence in Europe. Napoleon used cruelty where he needed it. I think that the main goal of that night’s cruelty was to morally break the people so they would refuse to demonstrate in future. That is why they did not touch the leaders. They attacked the people - the main power of political processes. They intimidated this power and not the politicians. If they did it against the politician, that politician would have become a hero.

- What do you think, how successful were they at breaking people?

- The weekend developments showed that they could not manage it. On the contrary, it delivered an opposite response of protest.

- What do you think will happen in future?

- The developments may take various recourses. But one thing is definite – people will start to develop contempt towards the government. This will not just be fear of government. You can both respect and fear and loath and fear. This fear is caused by contempt. We went through this stage with the Communist government. For 60-70 years people carried this contempt and then when they had opportunity the contempt erupted and the communists disappeared. This kind of contempt starts living in people.

It is impossible to watch the beating of people without contempt. It impossible not to feel contempt when they tell you that a hand tied person climbed up to the roof of the store and was killed by the electric wire… It is impossible to watch how 2000 members of Special Forces attack the demonstrators with clubs, rubber bullets and tear gas and overcome them.

We defeated the communists before the Soviet Union was disrupted. It was the time when communists were sorry to say that they are communists, when they tried to gain the trust of intelligentsia but they refused to become the members of party. They refused to cooperate – this is when the Georgian society overcame communists. In this case as well, government’s violence will be overcome when they feel the real attitude of public and get embarrassed for what they did. It seems like they are not embarrassed now, but more the public develops the negative attitude towards them and more they see that they are unacceptable for public, they will start to feel shameful.

Let us recall that the villages used to send the criminal in exile in the past. When the Georgian government gets isolated from the public, it will feel it and isolation already means a big change.

The fact that government is ashamed was visible on May 26th parade when the government did not try to make the celebration too grand and did not oppose the protest. This was a retreat from the side of government caused by the feeling of shame. The government is ashamed of what it did.

- What can happen in the government?

- This depends on many different factors, including – international society. International society will realize that they become part of this contempt if they do not pressure government to change its anti-democratic recourse. People might start to develop anti-western attitude. The fact is that the West will become the partaker of this cruelty if it does not condemn it and closes its eyes to it. If the West cannot guess it, it will receive bloody dispute as a result. Look what is happening in African countries. The main motive of it is contempt.

And there is another possibility that the split takes place inside the leadership like it happened during Gamsakhurdia or Shevardnadze times. But it seems like the governing team is very strong. So it might not happen soon.