Georgia opposition denounces govt for blasting Kutaisi memorial

Leaders and activists of Kutaisi city branches of opposition parties gathered in front of the townhall and called actions by authorities as inadmissible.

They called on the country's president "not to limit himself to dismissing Governor of the Imereti Territory (Kutaisi is the territorial administration centre) Mikhail Chogovadze, but to call to responsibility executives of territorial agencies of law enforcement bodies who were duty-bound to ensure security of people".

Representatives of the opposition said that "a mass peaceful protest demonstration will be held in Kutaisi on December 21 against inadmissible actions by authorities on dismantling and blasting the memorial". It will be attended by leaders of the main opposition parties who will come from Tbilisi to Kutaisi (distance 230 kilometres).

Georgian chief prosecutor Murtaz Zodelava said on Saturday that "as a result of dismantling one of parts of the memorial, made by a private company on an order of the Kutaisi municipality, two people were killed. The tragedy took place over the fact that the company did not fully observe security norms while dismantling the memorial".

According to data from various sources, reinforced concrete fragments of the memorial dropped on a woman and her eight-year-old daughter who stood 300 metres away from the memorial.

The leaders of two Georgian major opposition parties called on authorities "not to erect a parliament building in Kutaisi at the place of the dismantled memorial Martial Glory", where two people were killed in the blast as a result of violation of safety norms.

The leaders of the party Christian Democratic Movement visited Kutaisi on Sunday at the place of the dismantled memorial and expressed condolences to the kith and kin of the deceased. They said at meetings with representatives of the city public that they "call on authorities to review the earlier decision on erecting a parliament building at the place of the memorial, but to take a decision on erecting there an orthodox church in memory of victims of the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945, as well as of the two killed by concrete fragments of the exploded memorial".

David Gamkrelidze, the leader of the New Rightists Party and former presidential candidate at the elections on January 5, 2008, made a call to build a church at the place of the exploded memorial. He called "a sacrilege" an idea of erecting a parliament building at the place of the tragedy.

Leader of the For Just Georgia Party Zurab Nogaideli expressed an opinion on Saturday that "there was enough space to erect a parliament building and that there was no need for dismantling the memorial".

/Trend News/