TBILISI. May 23 (Interfax) - An estimated 5,000 opposition activists and supporters gathered for a rally in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, on Saturday where opposition leaders planned to announce a plan of action against the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Five-times world chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili, one of organizers of the meeting, held on Liberty Square, said in a speech during it that an irreconcilable fight was being launched against the removal of "the Saakashvili regime."
"We have no right to be passive witnesses of the destruction of our country by the regime of Saakashvili, who is killing our faith, our traditions. It is Saakashvili who is to blame for the dismemberment of Georgia, and he must be called to account for this," she said.
She promised that a plan of action against the Saakashvili government would be announced at the rally shortly. "We are not going to just stand around and protest on the square," she said.
An earlier report said a 2,000-strong opposition rally was underway in the city of Batumi.
Earlier the press center of the opposition organization People's Assembly told Interfax that police stopped a convoy of vehicles carrying opposition activists in western Georgia on Friday evening and confiscated a special truck on which a rostrum and loudspeakers were mounted.
On Saturday morning, police stopped a convoy of vans near the village of Marneuli and seized driving licenses from their drivers, it said.
In the town of Telavi, policemen impounded over 20 vans and cars belonging to opposition activists, it said.
"The authorities are doing whatever they can to disrupt demonstrations in Tbilisi and Batumi, but this won't work anyway," the press center said.
Givi Targamadze, the head of the parliamentary defense and security committee, told journalists that the opposition is entitled to hold demonstrations, but "everything should be in line with the law."