Georgia: News Briefs

The BBC reports that the United Nations has confirmed that a Russian jet was responsible for the downing of a Georgian drone over the breakaway region of Abkhazia. However, it also criticizes Tbilisi for sending drones into the area.

[…] a report by UN monitors based in Abkhazia, released on Monday, said radar records showed the plane had flown into Russian airspace after the attack, and with no “compelling evidence to the contrary, this leads to the conclusion that the aircraft belonged to the Russian air force”.

Russia’s defence ministry rejected the UN’s findings.

However, the report also criticised Georgia for operating reconnaissance flights over Abkhazia, which it said breached the terms of the ceasefire deal that ended the Abkhaz war of the early 1990s.

Meanwhile, in Tbilisi, the BBC reports that “tens of thousands” have taken to the streets to protest last week’s parliamentary election. The vote saw the ruling United National Movement Party of the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, win in a landslide victory.

Riot police did not intervene as protesters smashed through barricades and massed in front of parliament during independence day celebrations.

A BBC correspondent says the mood is angry but there have been no clashes.

The opposition says the elections - in which President Mikhail Saakashvili’s party won a landslide - were rigged.

“We want these elections to be cancelled and we want this parliament to be abolished,” said opposition leader Salome Zurabishvili.

“Otherwise we will stay here and we won’t allow this parliament to work.”