San Francisco Frontiers - 'Campaign of terror': Georgia's escalating rights crackdown

The Black Sea nation has been rocked by daily mass protests since the Georgian Dream party claimed victory in October parliamentary elections rejected as falsified by the opposition, and then suspended EU accession talks with Brussels.

Activists say a campaign of intimidation, beatings and arrests -- sanctioned by the government -- has followed as the state cracks down on those who took to the streets.

"There is systemic torture happening in this country," said Paata Shamugia, a prominent poet and rights activist.

"Every day, we hear about masked men abducting someone and beating them to the point of mutilation," he added.

"Just yesterday, armed masked men attacked 17-year-olds. And today? By the end of the day, we will know who's next," he said in an interview this week.

In one such incident, an activist from the central city of Gori, Vakho Pitskhelauri, said that three masked men attacked him Sunday night, threw him into a car trunk, drove to a deserted place and brutally beat him.

"They threatened to kill me, to disfigure my face. I tried to cover my face, but they beat me all over. I am injured everywhere," the 32-year-old told AFP by telephone.

- 'No justice' -

"Clearly, the attack was staged by the government," Pitskhelauri said.

"They think they can intimidate us with this campaign of terror, but they are sadly mistaken, our protests will continue until the country is free from this regime."

The interior ministry said it had opened a probe into "group violence" against Pitskhelauri.

But he said "police are doing nothing to investigate, only trying to hush up the case".

Rights groups say young activists who took a leading role in the anti-government protests are being targeted.

Tbilisi was rocked by a wave of street rallies after Georgian Dream was declared the winner of October parliamentary elections and then said it was shelving EU accession talks with Brussels.

Georgia's top human rights official -- ombudsman Levan Ioseliani -- and Amnesty International accused police of torturing those arrested at the protests that saw tear gas and water cannons deployed against demonstrators.

In another recent incident, the pro-opposition Mtavari TV station reported that masked men beat a group of young people in central Tbilisi on Sunday night.

"Police officers stood by as if nothing had happened," an eyewitness said. "This is the country we live in -- police everywhere, but no justice anywhere."

Tbilisi's security forces have faced persistent accusations of deploying plainclothes agents to target and attack political opponents.

The attacks have intensified since December 7, when dozens of masked men severely beat journalists from the independent television station Pirveli, before raiding an opposition party office and beating up opposition leader Koba Khabazi.

Police officers stood by without intervening during the incident near the protest venue.

The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA), an influential rights watchdog, said "systemic and violent repressions against the civilians shall be assessed as the crime against humanity, which can provide grounds for applying to the International Criminal Court".

On Monday, Brussels suspended visa-free travel to the EU for Georgian diplomats and officials, citing the adoption of several repressive laws and the "violent repression by Georgian authorities against peaceful protesters, politicians, and independent media."

Last year, the United States and several European countries imposed sanctions on Georgian officials, pointing to the Tbilisi government's drift toward Russia and its violent crackdown on protesters and dissent following the disputed election.

B.Ramirez--SFF