**Protesters Beaten by Police in Georgia**
Zurab Japaridze, a leader of the “Akhali” party, spoke out against the police treatment of protesters. He said that the government had not warned them about any rules being broken for two days and nights.
The police suddenly used force to break up the protest on Monday morning. Many people were hurt, including one person who was taken to hospital in an ambulance. It took 15 minutes for help to arrive.
Japaridze said that this kind of behavior is not what the protesters want when they say they don’t want Russia to control Georgia. He said that Russia’s own police, known as “Omon”, act in a similar way.
The protesters were doing the same thing they had been doing for two days and nights without any problems. Japaridze thinks that this kind of police action is typical of how Russia treats its citizens.