Critics accuse police of using increasingly violent tactics to disperse the rallies with more than 100 people treated for injuries.
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00:00Mass protests across Georgia against the government decision to suspend negotiations on joining
00:07the European Union have entered a second week. Police have cracked down on protesters with
00:13increasing force using water cannons and tear gas to try to break up the nightly rallies.
00:19More than 300 protesters have been detained and over 100 people have been treated for
00:24injuries.
00:25We fight for our freedom and this is a main like a fight for us. If we are not going to
00:30be the part of the European Union and if we are not going to be free from the Russian
00:37like you know the oppression, then I don't think that we are going to be in this world.
00:42The ruling Georgian dream retained control of parliament in the disputed 26th of October
00:47election, a vote widely seen as a referendum on Georgia's EU aspirations. The opposition
00:53accused the governing party of rigging the vote with the help of neighboring Russia to
00:57keep the Moscow friendly Georgia dream party in power. But the protests against the election
01:03became angrier and spread beyond Tbilisi after the decision last Thursday to put EU accession
01:08talks on hold until at least 2028. That was in response to a European Parliament resolution
01:14that criticized the elections as neither free nor fair. The EU granted Georgia candidate
01:20country status in 2023. But Brussels put that process on hold earlier this year after
01:26the passage of a controversial foreign influence law widely seen as a blow to democratic freedoms.