18:00, 11 April 2009

Georgian opposition cancels protest actions on Palm Sunday

Today in Georgia, leaders of the opposition held a meeting and decided to suspend their protest actions for tomorrow, April 12, the Palm Sunday. However, protest rallies will resume on Monday, April 13.

"Tomorrow, there will be no actions in Tbilisi," said Salome Zurabishvili, leader of the Party "Georgia's Way". "Tomorrow is the Palm Sunday, and we want people to celebrate this sacred holiday in churches and with their families." She has emphasized that since Monday the actions will resume with a new momentum.

Today, the number of protesters in Rustaveli Square of Tbilisi is much less than on April 9 and 10, no more than five thousand, as the "Interfax" writes. Besides, it is drizzling today in Tbilisi, and this also tells on the strength of the crowd.

"The authorities hope that we'll get tired and the protest wave actions will decline. They target to this end," Irakliy Batiashvili, one of opposition leaders, said to the journalists. According to his story, "their hopes will fail, as what we hold in Tbilisi is not just a rally but a process of general civil disobedience, as the "GHN" Agency reports.