Georgian riot police purchase new water cannons

Two days before the parliamentary elections, Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri has announced the purchase of several new water cannons for the riot police.

Gomelauri’s announcement came on Thursday at the opening ceremony of the new Special Tasks Department base in Krtsanisi, a suburb of Tbilisi. The department is responsible for the riot police deployed in protests in Georgia.

‘We bought new equipment […] We bought water cannons, machines bought by the previous government in 2006 or 2007 — they were outdated. We bought several pieces, and here are presented three units with different modifications’, Gomelauri told reporters.

Additional equipment, including lethal weapons, was also purchased, he said. 

Responding to a reporter’s question about when the ministry might use the newly acquired water cannons, Gomelauri said, ‘when it is necessary’.

The head of the controversial Special Tasks Department, Zviad ‘Khareba’ Kharazishvili has been implicated in misconduct during anti-government demonstrations earlier this year. He has been accused by a variety of opposition leaders of directly overseeing riot police as they detained and assaulted government critics present at the rallies.

Kharazishvili and his deputy, Mileri Lagazauri, were sanctioned by the US State Department last month. 

[Read more: Beatings, harassment, and no arrests: Georgian Government critics under attack] 

Gomelauri’s office announced on 4 October that he had ordered the formation of ‘territorial groups’ for election day. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, these ‘politically neutral’ task forces will be responsible for ensuring a ‘free, safe, and peaceful environment’ by ‘detecting and preventing violations’ throughout election day.

Gomelauri claimed on Wednesday that officers from the Special Tasks Department and other security police will be deployed at all polling stations because there are too many locations ‘and there are not enough criminal police and patrol [services]’.

The deployments will consist of a mix of police from different departments to complement officers from the Special Tasks Department and security police. 

Responding to concerns from NGOs and opposition politicians about the presence of police under Kharazishvili’s command at polling stations, Gomelauri claimed that local media ‘spread lies’.

[Read more: US sanctions four Georgian security officials and far-right extremists for ‘serious human rights abuses’]