Roses in the Ruins

In the frontline village of Ergneti, red and white roses bloom next to the smoke-blackened shells of what were once people's homes.

Nearby, at a fortified checkpoint, Georgian interior ministry forces stand almost face to face with their Russian and South Ossetian enemies.

The opposing sides' flags have been raised just metres from each other; a symbolic reminder of a political stand-off which remains highly volatile more than ten months after last year's war.

Apart from birdsong, the only sound comes from the engines of armoured vehicles and the bomb-shredded metal roofs of houses creaking gently in the summer breeze.

"At night it's terrible, because you can hear all the burnt metal rattling in the wind," says a Georgian farmer who was sitting next to the ruins of his home.

Like tens of thousands of others, Jemal Doijashvili and his family (pictured above) fled during the war, but later returned to live in the only undamaged room in their shell-scarred house.

They have no water, no electricity and no work, but Jemal offered green plums from his orchard as he took refuge from the midday heat beneath the shattered remnants of an ornate staircase.

Read the rest of my report for Al Jazeera on the fears raised by the impending departure of international monitoring missions from Georgia's conflict zones here.

'IKEA' Comes to Abkhazia

After the row over the opening of a Benetton fashion store in the disputed region of Abkhazia, which caused Georgian Benetton outlets to go on strike in protest, an EUobserver.com blogger reports that improvised IKEA, Mango and Zara shops are trading in the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi. They aren't official outlets, but use pirated logos to give the impression that they might be (see Nicu Popescu's photo). Wily businessmen, it seems, are finding a way around the trade embargo to ensure that Abkhazia gets its share of affordable but hard-to-assemble shelving units.

Temperature Rises, Anger Boils Over

There have been worrying signs in recent days that anti-government protests in Tbilisi - now in their third consecutive month - have the potential to descend into civil unrest. Protesters have been blocking several streets in the Georgian capital around the clock with imitation prison cells, which are intended to highlight the alleged authoritarianism of President Mikheil Saakashvili. Parliament has been under non-stop blockade, and when MPs held a session there on Friday for the first time since April, they were confronted and chased by protesters throwing eggs and stones.

Today there were further clashes; the first came when a group of men started demolishing the cells outside the state chancellory (see photo). The men said they were local residents frustrated with the constant obstruction, but the protesters claimed they were provocateurs working for the authorities.

The second clash, outside police headquarters, was more serious. Eyewitnesses said that policemen, some wearing black ski masks and others in plain clothes, charged a group of protesters and attacked them with batons. I saw one photo-journalist who had been seriously beaten; other reporters were also assaulted and their cameras seized, and almost 40 people were arrested. The interior ministry insisted that the officers simply wanted “to unblock the entrance to the police station and restore traffic movement”, although the deputy minister did apologise for the beating of the journalists.

The police HQ was also the scene of violence last month when a Georgian pop star who has become an opposition icon led a late-night march on the building, then tried to scale the gates to free some detained activists. Police responded by using batons and firing plastic projectiles at the demonstrators.

The authorities have offered concessions to resolve this lengthy political dispute, but the opposition leaders have rejected them. What they want is Saakashvili’s resignation. But the president has refused to step down or hold early elections, and so with numbers attending the protest rallies falling, frustration has started to set in and tempers have become strained in the summer heat. Up to now, the authorities have not cracked down hard on the protests, as they did in November 2007. They want to prove that Georgia is a democratic country where dissent is tolerated. But their resolve may be tested as daily demonstrations continue here in Tbilisi, with no end in sight.

Pop Star Lampoons 'Happy Nation' of Georgia

“Is there a nation as happy as ours?”

Sometimes it takes a supreme pop satirist to sum up a twisted situation in a suitably surreal way. Now, the past two gruelling months of confrontation between opposition and government in Georgia have been encapsulated in a hilarious pop video by singer Anri Jokhadze.

Taking as its theme a phrase from nineteenth-century Georgian poet-hero Ilia Chavchavadze, the Happy Nation video lampoons President Mikheil Saakashvili, his opponents, and various other Georgian celebrities, as well as satirising well-known Georgian pop-propaganda videos.

Anyone who’s familiar with the drama that’s been playing itself out on the streets in Tbilisi in recent weeks should take time out to watch. The final frames – if you get the references – are truly tragic-comic.

The Rise and Rise of 'Saint Gia'

Some notes on the controversial pop star who's become the hero of the Georgian opposition this year, from my column in The Moscow Times. Photograph from Civil Georgia.

More than seven weeks of non-stop opposition protests in Georgia may not have achieved their desired goal – the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili – but they have turned one man into a political phenomenon: pop star Giorgi Gachechiladze.

For many opposition supporters, Gachechiladze is a patriotic icon and a valiant crusader for justice. Since January, the star - best known by his stage name Utsnobi (‘The Unknown’) - has confined himself to a purpose-built ‘prison cell’ in a television studio, from which he broadcasts an anti-government reality-TV show. His example inspired the opposition to blockade streets outside parliament and the presidential palace in Tbilisi with hundreds of imitation ‘cells’.

Utsnobi’s arrival at a showpiece rally at the national football stadium last week invoked mass delirium and a display of devotion which no Georgian politician could hope to inspire right now (see photo). Tens of thousands of people rose to cheer as the singer, dressed in gleaming white, was borne aloft on a lap of honour around the arena. Tears flowed as he doffed his trademark urchin’s cap to his delirious admirers. The fiery speeches of the opposition leaders who followed him to the podium seemed tepid in comparison.

After the rally, one phone-in caller to his TV show was ecstatic: “You are not Gia, you are Saint Giorgi!” she gushed, insisting that the star had been sent by God to save the nation. Another prominent activist declared: “America had Martin Luther King, Georgia has Gia Gachechiladze.”

Utsnobi’s brother, opposition politician Levan Gachechiladze, ran against Mikheil Saakashvili in presidential elections last year. Both have a populist, streetwise style and a taste for intemperate rhetoric. When I interviewed Utsnobi in his ‘cell’ a few weeks ago, he compared Saakashvili to Adolf Hitler, undermining his grievances with hyperbole. Last month, he led an angry crowd on a late-night march to police headquarters in Tbilisi in an attempt to release three young activists who had been detained for allegedly assaulting journalists and were then allegedly assaulted in custody themselves.

The march ended in violence after the pop star scaled the gates to confront cops who were chanting “Misha! Misha!” - Saakashvili’s nickname - as they swung their batons. Critics condemned his behaviour as reckless, but for his followers, it was just another reason to sanctify him.