Parliament of Georgia not to investigate dispersal of May 26 rally

Today, the sitting of the Bureau of the Georgian Parliament dismissed the idea to set up an ad hoc parliamentary commission for inquiry into the dispersal of the opposition's rally in Tbilisi in Rustaveli Avenue on May 26.

The inquiry issue was raised by Georgiy Tsagareishvili, an MP from the Party "For United Georgia - Free Democrats".

"For us it is very important to establish the guilt of all the forces that led to carnage in Rustaveli Avenue," Georgiy Tsagareishvili told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

However, other MPs did not support the initiative of Free Democrats. Givi Targamadze, an MP from the parliamentary majority, said that the inquiry is already held by the police; and there is no need to set up a commission. In his view, the proposal of an ad-hoc commission is just a speculation attempt of the Free Democrats.

Another majority MP - Georgiy Gabashvili - said that the dispersal of the rally on May 26 was inevitable. "The people (the protesters, - note of the "Caucasian Knot") were consciously using violence - even in cooperation with certain groups from other countries," Mr Gabashvili said at the sitting of the Bureau.

In their turn, Christian Democrats argued that the Parliament would not be able to set up a group capable to hold an independent and objective inquiry. Instead, they decided to support the proposal of the non-parliamentary party "New Right-Wingers" to set up an independent inquiry group of rights defenders at the Office of the Ombudsman Georgiy Tugushi.

However, according to Tsagareishvili, the commission under the Ombudsman will not cope with a full-fledged inquiry.

"The legislation doesn't empower the Ombudsman to investigate and bring charges. His Regulations assume only examination of procedures, monitoring of actions of investigatory bodies and detention formalities, and drafting recommendations with subsequent delivery of them to the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Prosecutor's Office. Thus, under the legislation, only the Parliament may form such a commission, which, on the one hand, is independent from the government, and on the other hand has powers to interrogate suspects and initiate criminal cases," said Giorgi Tsagareishvili.