where did it take. them back here's a look at the top stories we're covering for you today on our team greeks are massing up in front of the parliament building and they're angry with a vote that detailed plans to implement a second wave of radical a sturdy measures be a decision opens the doors for out those to receive crucial european bailout funds but also means higher taxes and fewer jobs for ordinary people. the u.k. braces itself for mass destruction as hundreds of thousands of public sector workers

repair for twenty four hours of industrial action well they're responding to a lot of changes to pay and pensions thousands of teachers civil servants and border full of fish officers say the plants need a more work or a reduced pension. moscow points to double standards of the u.n. over the organization's position on syria saying the crisis warrants a peaceful solution the foreign minister sergei lavrov says the security council should not be calling for action while ignoring what he describes as the civil war in yemen. a war world news in around thirty minutes but before that we look at how life in georgia has changed two decades after again independence from the soviet union that's up next on our team. april ninth one thousand nine hundred one george or achieved independence from the u.s.s.r. to know the four violence standoff with the rapidly disintegrating soviet empire.

we did get independence but it resulted in much blood in the struction. the civil war broke out in georgia he has to susie came sovereignty to this day the nation has been unable to overcome its aftermath the country's infrastructure is in ruins tens of thousands of people fled the country in the fall of the soviet union george was one of the wealthiest republics today one third of the population lives below the poverty line twenty years have passed the people here enjoy less freedom and they did during the soviet period. back in the one hundred eighty eight kids mellish billy was just a student he joined the mass from the strike outside government headquarters at that time the country was still cool to the georgian soviet socialist republic.

that hunger strike which lasted eight or nine days triggered a movement of liberation i often sat on the steps of my friends. the number of protesters good day by day somebody then a young historian lend his support to that cools. the independence was my watchword at that time i didn't miss a single public action all right. in a police station thousands of people gathered in tbilisi from an open ended rally outside government headquarters they wanted independence for the republican georgia . gamsakhurdia leader of a nationalist movement with the speaker who made the most extremist remarks in an intensely dramatic speech. in the early hours of april ninth the soviet government dispatched home of vehicles and soldiers against peaceful demonstrators

sixteen people died and hundreds were injured. say a mathematician and would be a magnet of georgia was lucky enough to evade even injury. we were in too much of a hurry we were trying to study history to help move it forward what happened then had to happen but of course the thought the georgian might become independent is ninety ninety one never crossed my mind back in the late ninety nine cents. the against the became the first president of a sovereign georgia in april one thousand nine hundred one after an election campaign where independence was the catchphrase. but it soon as he came to power he didn't expect that under that independence motto georgian autonomous regions or suffer says here would demand sovereignty into ethnic conflicts began georgia responded by sending troops to suffer says here. than a year later to a because. people were once neighbors became bitter enemies

thousands of refugees fled to georgia. as far as i know years ago this building was meant to be a hospital. but there is no hospital in it now this is a building is used as a shelter for refugee that's. thousands of the georgians who have left up since the early one nine hundred ninety s. still live in makeshift shelters they have lost everything homes jobs and even the hope to return to their home country georgians and cousins alike have gone through a lot of suffering such as the horrors of war and loss of loved ones and yet they don't blame one another for that conflict. i think it is nobility sions have told the people apart there was no amity between individuals my neighbor said to me what

am i supposed to do while my sons in law is in a pansy and that means my grandsons are peasants aren't they need another daughter is married to a georgian so her children are georgians do i need to tell my grandsons apart what am i supposed to do in the situation i've. been to fighting between georgia standing army and cause the insurgents caused thousands of lives on both sides. to more is not cause young woman four of her five sons died in the war the youngest was seventeen when he volunteered to fight his grave is close to his father's. governable move there i would do like to have the world war confined to the history books. i want nobody to ever arteries again i wanted to be forgotten altogether. tomorrow and a husband wanted the new house to have enough room for all the children and their

future families but now it's almost uninhabited one of the rooms houses a memorial museum to their family it features their son's medals they received and the letters they sent from the front line to more especially treasures objects made by her children i want in this is the root of a pine tree they made a heart out of it. you know. my second son enjoyed making such things here she died in the battle on the same day as my youngest son. many georgian opposition parties and england's viet gamsakhurdia former associates demonstrated their discontent with the rule georgian intellectuals sent numerous letters to the president asking him to come to his senses. responded by imposing censorship.

the ninety ninety one law even denied registration for all political parties it was indorsed by people who had served terms in soviet prisons and campaigned for georgia's freedom and independence. most people did what they themselves had been opposed to. they trained to become a mathematician in the early one nine hundred ninety s. he left university and went into business his elder brother viewed chose the career of an actor today he's very popular in georgia i his soul is in short films have an uncanny bearing on the country's present day situation.

i had no desire to get involved in the war in a cause or i'm such a war we're brothers we're killing brothers so i decided to stay away from georgia for a time there were. those who were displeased with the first president gathered to openly demand his resignation the nine hundred ninety two standoff between protesters and the regime erupted into street fighting involving artillery and tanks. gamsakhurdia had to flee the country. and was shevardnadze with georgia's second president the experience political heavyweights had backed michel goodrich of spellers story. soon after he took office he lifted the ban on opposition political parties and allowed independent media when i did it after i went into business in nine hundred ninety three i launched a project called restore me to over ten years i turned

a small studio in the provincial town of the star me into a leading national broadcaster. the first study to t.v. channel rushed out of the country's new leaders including president eduard shevardnadze and was focused on runaway corruption. the corruption in the economic sphere was enormous officer would not say came to power but on the other hand businessman learns new skills in tune with modern times and a real market economy took shape true there was pervasive corruption from top to bottom where there was also freedom of speech and individual liberty that sort of caught my eye that we have now to exist then. independent t.v. channels were starving to became a so-called platform for the opposition and had great political weight and president shevardnadze who declared freedom of speech as a principle made no attempt to sway the channels editorial policy. the worst of the

two t.v. channel and other georgian media pave the way for radical political transformations in november two thousand and three sora bloodless coup in georgia dubbed the ruse revolution we hail such as really a young and ambitious person came to power. and was it was when i tended my resignation of my own free will to prevent bloodshed when they burst into the house of parliament i went out into the street to meet my followers then you would a coming from me is the law for the army no down the army was a defeated them then me off to the lot thus i make no distinction between the two sons all of them and georgian citizens. mikhail saakashvili had promised to beat corruption and lead the nation for prosperity however it was the press that was the first victim of his law and order.

from. i think. it. was. but i was just thinking about my future before the foreign companies came i dreamed

of owning a can cutting factory. but we have less garbage now. that some businesses who come here make fun of me. regular garbage boy i'm not bad like people think. i'm a good person that it's just the people don't see me. but i feel it was time people like me. that one. that i feel people will start to appreciate us. as soon as really took power he attempted to take control of the editorial policy of the country's leading independent t.v.

channel. to its owner is really realize that his window of opportunity was quite narrow. or your forty's ambition to take control of the channel it goes back to two thousand and four where the new system of government simply week we thought. we need to build a viable state first and then take care of the rest of us because as it turned out the regime's aim was to take control of the channels i think the blame for what i did because i gave away your study to i didn't want to rock the boat. as about the same time george's media was going out of its way to report on mikhail saakashvili police reforms on face value the changes look quite impressive petty crime had been stamped out people now felt more secure on the streets of the towns of the us traffic patrols that stopped taking bribes. it just gets through the

country's traffic police are totally free from corruption but you can get your license within a day after pain right through official channels instead of flying in somebody's sockets. for many years. with speaker of the country's parliament and one of mikhail saakashvili his closest associates in two thousand and eight she resigned from the post of parliamentary speaker and founded an opposition party where you there is a very serious problem by its corruption in the elite it has grown even larger compared to what it was like in the last years of shevardnadze is through when everybody was talking about corruption in georgia's government. there began college there was always an opposition moderates to sack us really as the owner of a major medical insurance company he knows all too well the meaning of so called elite corruption so i assume the circus really in his inner circle came to power

they set about collecting taxes and so-called dirty money was that they sent very many people to prison there were businessmen as well as former officials among them people realize they had better pay out as much as they were expected to pay they saw their. property they ceded their shares in businesses to members of saakashvili is party to the prosecutor's office and the interior ministry kept a close eye on the deals this man of. ten top discontent on erupted into a mass rally in november two thousand and seven according to various estimates fifty to one hundred thousand opposition supporters came to the house a problem and in tbilisi. for several days they kept around the truck vigil on nov seventh police violently dispersed the peaceful rally hundreds of demonstrators were injured please check us. police beat up people lying on the grounds of

patterns. the only remaining independent t.v. channel showed these events in tbilisi to a nationwide audience it was like shut down while it was on the air with regular news bulletin. the meaning of the making of some sort of by closing the channel the government is violating the constitution this means that this is a dictatorship regime ots misdemeanors english well here they are coming into the studio i want to say thank you i hear shouts in the control room as you know which i hope our employees will be injured here our guests. of. the independent journalist of the time coma he day became popular in georgia in the mid one nine hundred ninety s. he enjoys asking unpleasant questions no matter who is in power he says now in hiding in switzerland his latest piece of investigative journalism concerns the armed conflict between georgia and south a city in two thousand and eight. for me i live no

journalist who would not have wanted to get a scandal to get the facts before it was all the state media summed up my work there is high treason paul the self-proclaimed republic of south setia hasn't been under georgia's direct rule since ninety ninety two we really repeated many times the republic had to return to georgia and he promised to settle the situation through diplomacy. with us from we don't need a war and their pals in a setting people don't need one either there is a force that wants the defeat of the georgian up has an assyrian people i promise they won't let it happen. but in the early hours or just the altering repeatedly showed symbol from georgian territory in the morning troops were sent into the republic. it was the start of

a military operation described by saakashvili of the introduction of constitutional order in the territory south of setia. i was woken up by a lot of noise everything was for. that shaking women outside was screaming and crying it was as if all of us had landed in hell after of all canuck irruption everybody stayed awake throughout the night the noise never died down not even for a second. color man who. lives in an old house on the outskirts of the village of kalak cooler fifteen kilometers from the border with south of thirty or he's not interested in politics and doesn't know the first thing about international relations but artists from around the world folk to his home to display their works one of the projects was called liquid art it was to have been implemented jointly with russian artists

in late september two thousand and eight. the georgian word for this place is more around here it isn't places like this that georgians traditionally make wine masters or different nationalities are going to contribute to georgian traditions they will get in the press grapes with their feet just as it was done in the old days a year later we were going to jointly made product line brand called liquid aunt. in the spring of two thousand and eight karen began building a pavilion for the exhibition he was still constructing it in august when another war broke out between south of setia and georgia. i went on building the pavilion during the war fighting was going on right behind the mountain fifteen kilometers from here i sort of fascism heard the bombings i also saw helicopters up in the air this.

hostilities came to an end nine days later when russia sent troops into the south for thirty years to separate the warring parties georgia subsequently broke off diplomatic relations with russia. when investing come a he was working on a film about the georgian city and conflict he made arrangements for an interview with the european human rights campaign is to be held in geneva shortly before he was due to go the journalist received a tip off that he had better stay in switzerland. all sorts of problems cropped out after my return from senegal because i won't talk about them because my words may get in the way of the investigation. i can only tell you that i received open

threats and heard something so accumulating that i contradicted. no comma he'd say lives in a swiss hostel for political refugees friends keeping abreast of events by for. a hearing going to switzerland or the going to tell me that's right in october by that time he must complete all formalities concerning immigration chances are i myself will return home by then that there is a regime change. or did you say regime change yes why not that's a possibility. although we hope so. and so somebody have been friends ever since they went to school together when parliament appointed ceasar to the post. he gave his friend a job in his office when his first term of office came to an end the noid him a second term and now the journalist is in hiding in a foreign country the ex is unemployed would be

a while if i praise the authorities i would have been elected president in term they would even have changed the law to let me for ten terms. in the last presidential election. was officially the runner up his party's headquarters supplied the zero s. c.e. commission with evidence documenting scores of irregularities some of them made public in the commission's conclusions but the final report ultimately described the election as valid. view he gets up to let's say as a famous georgian musician in protest against the second really regime he decided to barricaded himself in a television studio made up to look like a prison cell for several months he stayed in the room with four t.v.

cameras tracking his every move just. today children means prison all of georgia as a present georgian people made a mistake by electing what i call an illegitimate person. politician sportsman and artist all visit his cell to support the musician. heads the leading opposition party the visit his brother three times during his self-imposed imprisonment. how are you so so what are you i get loads of letters to pass a full of them already the guy's a nuts they may just saying time to make. you his one man prison show again of the eleven pm and last until morning the following day the whole country would discuss what had been said during the night after two months of self confinement the only catch a lot they took time out for

a public appearance at the b.c. stadium levy a cage in the midst of the show was a strikingly symbolic act the people who would fill the stadium and jason robards turned he'll be a good church allowed to show into was mounted to a protest rally. on april ninth two thousand and nine leaders of all opposition parties as their followers to take to the streets in tbilisi. just felt get out second street get out saakashvili get around gets out rufino it all position has never said saakashvili is our president we call him a take factor rather than does your president. today the former participants in the rallies for georgia's independence have united into a party. come up with our aim is to create a party that is without parallel and georgian history it should be

a party based on genuine national values shared by most people in our country. the leader of the new party is live and. a former magnus in the wine industry he has the support of. really the architect of the country's leading television company and george's last ambassador to russia the party's third leader is a historian who has won the nation's affection as an honest woman. one for the georgia rule is in recent years have been so different the would be hard put to say which of them is fully to blame for the present day situation there are no independent courts of law democratic institutions are not allowed to develop and the country's people are intimidated in the autumn of two thousand and eight a group of friends met in old warehouses turned into studios in moscow they were autists who are keen to participate in an international project that was to take place in the home of color malcolm to say. this is

a remarkably exquisite european style project and i think we need to make slight changes to emphasize a note of sorrow in it merry making is out of place after what happened when you don't do that at a funeral a funeral still goes on or. the russian artists didn't visit their georgian friends in either two thousand and eight or later they have decided against going to georgia for the trying to be for they do look awful in politics they believe that in their beautiful country of long traditions funerals will give way to weddings and the street protests will be else to buy projects concerts and theater festivals. hungry for the fulsome we've got a first hand the biggest issues get

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