04 June 2008, 17:49
Subari: after elections, situation with human rights in Georgia is poor
After the parliamentary elections, Georgia faces a miserable situation in the sphere of human rights, which surely demands estimation, the National Defender of Georgia (Ombudsman) Sozar Subari has stated in today's press conference.
"These days, 12 persons were beaten, a woman among them. Yesterday, I visited the victims and saw with my own eyes that they had been severely beaten only because they are opponents to the current Georgian rulers. We'll remain blind if we consider these executions as mere crimes," the Ombudsman said.
According to Mr Subari, the overall objective of targeted beating the people, who are critical towards the authorities, is not so much to punish them, but, mainly, to intimidate the population of Georgia.
"I repeat what I've already said not once: violations of human rights by the authorities have now become systemic and a rule of a life of those in power. The country has poor situation with the freedom of speech. With one-two exceptions, Georgia has actually no free electronic mass media," the Ombudsman has added.
Sozar Subari has emphasized that beating people and the freedom of speech are interconnected, since in the countries with no freedom of speech a person remains one-to-one against the state machinery. In such conditions, the only aim of attacking people is to intimidate the society, for the authorities to have dumb subordinates, the Ombudsman believes.
Author: Edita Badasian, CK correspondent
