TBILISI, GEORGIA — Riot police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons Wednesday to break up demonstrations calling for the ouster of President Mikhail Saakashvili. The pro-Western leader declared a state of emergency and banned all news broadcasts except state-controlled television.
Saakashvili, a U.S. ally who has tried to integrate Georgia with the West, also expelled three Russian diplomats and accused Moscow of fomenting the protests, which began last week. He now faces the worst political crisis of his four years in office in this former Soviet republic, where a low-level tug of war between Russia and the West is being played out.
Tear gas enveloped parliament after riot police advanced toward the crowd, pushing people back with shields and beating some with truncheons. Demonstrators retreated down Tbilisi’s main avenue suffering from tear gas fired by police from the beds of pickup trucks.
Scattered fistfights broke out between uniformed police and protesters.
Several thousand opposition supporters rallied later in another section of Tbilisi, only to have the protest broken up again by riot police using water cannon and firing rubber bullets.
The clash was captured live on Georgian and Russian television, which showed protesters with bandannas and surgical masks pelting police with rocks from a bridge as the din of car horns and police sirens blared in the background.
More than 100 people were hospitalized, the Health Ministry said.
A Georgian television station regarded by the government as an opposition mouthpiece went off the air Wednesday night after riot police entered its headquarters.
Saakashvili later declared a state of emergency in the capital. The measure was then extended to the rest of the country.
Earlier Wednesday, announcing the emergency measure for the capital, Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said “an attempt to conduct a coup was made, and we had to react to that.”
