TBILISI. May 23 (Interfax) - The international community closely follows the developments in Tbilisi and in Georgia in general, leading figure in the opposition Popular Assembly Nino Burjanadze has said.
She said at a rally outside of Public TV in Tbilisi that international organizations and the diplomatic corps are alarmed by the use of force against participants in the protests.
She said she is in constant contact with the diplomatic corps and representatives of international organizations.
Earlier reports said that the situation at the protest action outside of the Georgian Public TV office in Tbilisi had badly worsened. There was a fight involving several dozen people.
Burjanadze, one of the organizers of the protest, told journalists that plainclothes police had attacked protesters carrying pipes similar to those used by the opposition activists.
"The authorities continue their provocations but they are getting what they deserve," she said. She did not rule out that the special police may intensify their actions against the protesters.
In the morning the Georgian Interior Ministry issued a statement saying that a group of drunken participants in the protest action outside of the Public TV office in Tbilisi had attacked three police officers sitting in a police vehicle.
The police officers required medical assistance. Several participants in the protest were detained, the ministry reports.
It added that 11 protesters were detained in Batumi on Saturday for throwing stones and other objects at the building of Ajarian TV and breaking windows.
Burjanadze told the press that hundreds of opposition activists had been arrested in the past two days in several Georgian cities.