Georgia , Tbilisi, May 30 /Trend, N.Kirtskhalia/
Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze sharply criticized the government of Georgia for dispersing the rallies of the National Assembly in the night of May 26. "It was a punitive operation, but not an operation to release the territory to the Parliament of Georgia," the former president said in an interview with the weekly "Asaval-Dasavali".
Shevardnadze said some blame for the crackdown lays on oppositionists, who had to know "how the power is brutal that could go to everything". "I repeatedly warned them, but they did not listen, and the authorities arranged exemplary punishment for the whole people," he said.
The clashes between the opposition and law-enforcement agencies of Georgia in night May 26 killed two and wounded several people.
The former president said that in his time he resigned in order to avoid violence, "but today, President Mikhail Saakashvili did not abandon military parade, establishing carnage". "I do not accept the statement of the president that the action was "a masquerade of pro-Russian forces", it was the people, and such conduct with the people is shameful," he said.
"Of course, all what happened will soon be forgotten, and Saakashvili will once again be a democrat in the eyes of the West and the U.S., but dispersing the people because of the parade is inadmissible," said Shevardnadze.
The ex-president predicts that "the displeasure with the power will grow, since the protest feelings of the population are more, and sooner or later, people again will come out, and it will be such a number of people, which any special forces will not be able to disperse.