GAMSAKHURDIA SUPPORTERS HOLD RALLIES IN TBILISI AND KUTAISI CALLING FOR HIS RE-INSTATEMENT AS PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA.

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Thousands of unarmed backers of Georgia's ousted President Zviad Gamsakhurdia marched towards the government-held city of Kutaisi on Friday (January 17) in what protesters claimed was a new strategy of non-violent opposition.
Pro-Gamsakhurdia witnesses and rally organisers said troops, sent by Georgia's new ruling Military Council, fired at the crowd dispersing it and wounding three people.
Rally organisers did not say what the protesters, who were halted by roadblocks just outside the town, intended to do, but they portrayed the demonstration as the beginning of their non-violent struggle to restore the popularly elected Gamsakhurdia to office.
The Western Georgian city of Kutaisi lies just 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Zugdidi, where Gamsakhurdia returned home on Thursday after more than a week in exile in Armenia.
On Saturday thousands of pro-Gamsakhurdia demonstrators rallied in the centre of the capital, Tbilisi, while others continued a hunger strike inside the railway station in support of a call for his re-instatement. The hunger strike began two days ago with sixteen people taking part, and today four more joined them.

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