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Thousands rally to
mark Georgia protests
TBILISI: Thousands of protesters
rallied in the Georgian capital on Sat-
urday as opposition leaders pressed
for a meeting with President Mikheil
Saakashvili after a month of demon-
strations demanding his ouster.
In a show of strength on the one-
month anniversary of the start of
protests, about 20,000 opposition sup-
porters gathered outside parliament in
central Tbilisi, calling for the president
to resign by chanting “Misha Go!”
The protest came after the govern-
ment and opposition leaders on Friday
failed to make any progress in resolv-
ing the political stand-off during their
first talks since protests began.
“The whole nation is standing
here after 30 days so that the self-
proclaimed president recognises that
there is a crisis in this country, that
there is a very serious crisis,” opposi-
tion leader Salome Zurabishvili told
the crowd.
Clashes this week between police
and protesters and a brief bloodless
military mutiny raised fears of in-
stability in Georgia, a former Soviet
republic which is currently hosting
controversial Nato military exercises
that have infuriated neighbouring
Russia.
Opposition leaders called for an ur-
gent meeting with Saakashvili, whom
they accuse of mishandling last year’s
war with Russia and of becoming
increasingly autocratic since coming
to power in the peaceful 2003 Rose
Revolution.
“If we do not receive a response
today and this meeting does not hap-
pen in the nearest day or two it simply
means that the president does not re-
ally want dialogue,” opposition leader
Nino Burjanadze told journalists.
Other opposition leaders were less
categorical.
“It should happen in the nearest
time, I do not think we should create
artificial barriers by giving ultima-
tums,” said former UN envoy Irakli
Alasania, who is considered a voice of
moderation in the opposition.
“We are ready to listen to the gov-
ernment and present our positions
and arguments,” he said.
The European Union on Saturday
hailed the start of talks as an impor-
tant step forward despite the failure to
reach any agreement.
“It was a very, very positive devel-
opment that this meeting was held
yesterday and it is important that it be
followed up,” the EU’s envoy to the
South Caucasus, Peter Semneby, told
journalists before a meeting with op-
position leaders.
The number of protesters has
steadily dwindled since a peak of
some 60,000 during the first days of
demonstrations but Saturday’s rally
attracted the largest numbers in re-
cent days.
The rally ended after several hours
but a few dozen protesters remained
late Saturday in mock jail cells the
opposition has set up outside parlia-
ment, blocking traffic in the centre of
the capital.
Opposition leaders offered to hold
talks on Thursday following the
clashes. They insisted they were still
demanding Saakashvili’s resignation
but said they were ready to listen to
any ideas the president has for bring-
ing the country out of political crisis.
Officials said the clashes broke out
after opposition supporters tried to
storm a main police station and police
used truncheons to repel protesters
trying to climb a fence around the
building. The opposition said police
had attacked protesters and fired rub-
ber bullets, which officials denied.
Police said nobody was seriously
injured. – AFP
Pakistanis flee offensive,
Swat valley curfew eased
Children from KOTA
Buner, Lower (Pakistan): Pakistan’s
Dir and Swat military ordered people out of
region line up parts of the Swat valley yes-
to receive ice terday, temporarily relaxing
at a refugee a curfew to enable civilians to
camp. flee an intensifying offensive
against Taliban militants.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan
hopes to stop a growing
Taliban insurgency with its
offensive in the former tourist
valley 130km from Islama-
bad after US criticism that
the government was failing
to act against the militants.
Nearly 200 militants have
been killed in the fighting in
recent days, according to the
military. The figure could not
be independently confirmed.
Hundreds of thousands of
people have left Swat in the
Brown’s party hits new
low amid expenses row
LONDON: British Prime Min-
ister Gordon Brown’s Labour
party has slumped to its lowest
level of support since opinion
polls began after revelations
over MPs expenses and embar-
rassing political climbdowns, a
poll showed yesterday.
The opinion poll carried out
by BPIX for The Mail on Sunday
newspaper coincided with an-
other which painted almost as
bleak a picture for Brown, who
faces a parliamentary election
due by mid-2010.
The results of the BPIX poll
were the worst for Labour since
1943. Carried out on Thursday
and Friday, it gave Labour 23%
with the opposition Conserva-
tives on 45% – enough to give
them a landslide victory if
repeated at an election.
The Liberal Democrats had
a 17% share. The paper said its
latest poll made grim reading
for Brown, as the share of the
vote was lower than when
Michael Foot led the party in
the 1980s.
past week and in all
about 500,000 are
expected to get out.
They join 555,000
people displaced
earlier from Swat
and other areas
because of fighting
since August.
“We have ordered
the civilian popula-
tion in four districts
to vacate the areas,”
said Nasir Khan, a
military spokesman in
the region. “They have
seven hours to leave
because we have to
strike militant hideouts
there,” he said.
The army went on
a full-scale offensive
on Thursday after the
government ordered
troops to flush out mili-
tants from the Taliban
stronghold.
Fighting had picked
up in previous days,
triggering a civilian
exodus but concern has
been growing about the
fate of those still trapped
and unable to move because
of the curfew.
The lifting of the curfew
for seven hours yesterday
triggered a new flood, al-
though residents said trans-
port was hard to come by as
the military was not letting
vehicles into the valley.
“Everybody wants to
get out of this hell,” Zubair
Khan, a resident of Mingora,
the valley’s main town, said
by telephone.
“Some are driving out
while many are just on foot.
They don’t know where
they’re heading but staying
here just means death.”
Helicopters and warplanes
targeted militant hideouts in
Mingora and other areas in
The paper said the survey
also showed that, for the first
time, a majority of voters – 52%
– believe Brown should stand
down. The dire predictions were
reinforced by a YouGov poll for
the Sunday Times which put
Labour’s support at 27% – 16
points behind the Conserva-
tives and 7 points down on last
month.
In a separate analysis for the
paper, the election experts Colin
Railings and Michael Thrasher
predict Labour was heading for
a heavy defeat in next month’s
local elections. “Brown set for
election wipeout” the paper’s
front-page headline read.
Labour faces local and
European elections on June
4 and a bad performance is
likely to fuel speculation about
whether Brown should lead the
party into the parliamentary
election.
Brown’s centre-left govern-
ment has been weakened by
a deluge of negative headlines
in the last month. The row over
| MONDAY MAY 11 2009
Swat yesterday, the military’s
Nasir Khan said, adding he
had no information about
casualties.
“It’s a tough battle. They’re
operating in small groups.
They don’t fight a pitched
battle but we’re closing in on
them, squeezing them and
have cut their supply lines,”
he said. Nasir Khan said
vehicles had been stopped
coming in to the valley be-
cause the military feared the
militants might try to send
in reinforcements. Vehicle
operators were demanding
ever higher fares to take
people out, residents said.
“There are few vehicles
and drivers are asking higher
fares,” said teacher Moham-
mad Shahnawaz said. “How
can I take my kids, wife and
old mother to a safer place?
Nobody thinks of humanity,
money is their religion.”
Many of the displaced
stay with relatives or friends
or rent places to stay, but
aid agencies and officials
fear if the situation is pro-
tracted they will join tens of
thousands in camps, further
straining resources.
The World Vision aid
group said conditions in
camps were “intolerable” de-
spite the coordinated efforts
of the Pakistani authorities
and aid agencies.
“We may not be able to
meet the most basic needs
of the refugees as quickly as
they are arriving in the camps
if it continues at this pace,”
Jeff Hall, a deputy director
for World Vision, said in a
statement. Separately, secu-
rity forces killed 24 Taliban
insurgents in a clash in the
Mohmand region on the
Afghan border on Saturday
night after militants attacked a
paramilitary camp. – Reuters
MPs expenses has been politi-
cally damaging when voters are
tightening their belts.
Issues dogging Labour also
include scurrilous e-mails sent
by one of Gordon Brown’s staff
and an embarrassing Commons
defeat on the right of former
Nepalese Gurkha soldiers to
settle in Britain.
Joanna Lumley, a popular
television actress, has led a
high-profile campaign on behalf
of the Gurkhas, leaving the im-
pression that she is controlling
the agenda on the issue.
On Friday, the right-leaning
Daily Telegraph began publish-
ing a series of leaks about
Labour MPs’ expense claims
that has tarnished the reputa-
tions of both cabinet and junior
ministers. The revelations over
expenses continued to trickle
out on Saturday with the paper
offering more details on claims
for thousands of pounds spent
on second homes and personal
security, to women’s clothes,
nappies and comics. – Reuters