'Two dead' as Georgia protests dispersed

Officials in ex-Soviet Georgia said two people died after riot police ended five days of opposition protests aimed at ousting Western-backed President Mikheil Saakashvili early Thursday. A policeman and a former officer were hit by a car allegedly carrying a protest organiser that sped away after police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon to stop the rally, the interior ministry said. Riot squads moved in just after midnight to disperse around 300 activists armed with sticks who had vowed to thwart a showpiece military parade to mark Georgia's Independence Day on Thursday. "In total, 37 people were hospitalised, 28 protesters and nine policemen," interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili told AFP. Rights groups accused the police of using excessive force. "Even if the Tbilisi demonstration was unauthorised, nothing can justify the beating of largely peaceful demonstrators," Rachel Denber of Human Rights Watch said in a statement. But a government statement accused protesters of acting aggressively, "planning to violently resist the police" and intending to illegally occupy the main street outside parliament to prevent the annual Independence Day parade. Protest leader Nino Burjanadze, who has promised a "revolution", said there would be further demonstrations. "We will not stop. We will do everything to get rid of this government which hates its people," Burjanadze told AFP. Accusing Saakashvili of authoritarianism and failing to tackle widespread poverty, opposition supporters began round-the-clock protests on Saturday but their rallies failed to attract mass support and turnout remained low.