TBILISI. May 30 (Interfax) - Former Georgian foreign minister Salome Zourabichvili, who serves as coordinator of the expert panel for the UN Security Council's Iran Sanctions Committee, on Saturday called events in the capital Tbilisi early on Thursday in which police violently suppressed opposition protests a "tragedy" and an "insult to the nation."
"The smell of Soviet totalitarianism is returning to Georgia, which has manifested itself in the tragedy on Rustaveli Avenue," Zourabichvili said in a statement.
Georgia is experiencing "oppressive, disgraceful days," she said.
"It was an insult to the nation. It is not about mistakes on the part of [opposition leader Nino] Burjanadze or false ambitions or anyone's unintelligible policy or games that probably raise many questions," Zourabichvili said.
The protest action broken up by the police was taking place on Rustaveli Avenue and permission for it given by the mayor's office expired at midnight on Thursday.
The mayor's office suggested that the protesters move to another part of Tbilisi if they wished to continue their action but the action organizers refused. Following that riot police forcibly drove the protesters off Rustaveli Avenue, where an Independence Day military parade was to be held on Thursday.
The police used water cannon, teargas, truncheons and rubber bullets. Many people were injured, two, including a policeman, were killed, and dozens were arrested.