TBILISI (AFP) - More than 10,000 opponents of President Mikheil Saakashvili rallied in Tbilisi on Friday in the first major show of discontent since Georgia's crushing defeat in an August war with Russia.
Organizers vowed the rally, held on the anniversary of a crackdown on anti-government demonstrators last year, would be the first of many to demand Saakashvili's resignation and early elections.
"We are starting a new wave of protests. Our main demand is free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections next spring," opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze told reporters at the start of the rally.
Many protesters wore white scarves and armbands as they waved opposition flags in front of the Georgian parliament building, using the color and symbols of anti-government protests that were violently dispersed last year.
Many accused Saakashvili of mishandling the war, which saw Russian forces pour into the country to repel a Georgian military attempt to retake the separatist region of South Ossetia.
"In August the authorities returned us to the Middle Ages. Saakashvili opened Georgia's gates to the barbarians," opposition leader Giorgi Khaindrava told the crowd.
"This government must be changed. What happened in August is the government's fault. They helped Russia," said protester David Kirvalidze, 49.
One banner read "Stop Russia, Stop Misha," reflecting the protesters' opposition to both Russia and Saakashvili, who has the nickname Misha.
After demonstrating for several hours in front of parliament, protesters marched to the presidential administration building before dispersing peacefully.
Turnout was far lower than at protests last year that drew tens of thousands to the streets for days until riot police used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.
Saakashvili subsequently imposed a state of emergency and called a snap presidential election. He won the January poll in a single round of voting and his United National Movement swept parliamentary elections a few months later.
Though Saakashvili has been lauded in the West for democratic and economic reforms, simmering discontent has increased since the August war, in which some opponents judge him to have acted rashly in the face of an unbeatable enemy.
Opponents have also accused Saakashvili of persecuting opposition activists, limiting media freedom and ignoring the poor in his drive to implement economic reforms.
On the eve of Friday's rally, a coalition of opposition parties distributed a pamphlet laying out plans for a series of rallies and other actions designed to pressure the government into calling early elections by next spring.
If the government has not called elections by April 9, the anniversary of a 1989 Soviet crackdown on protesters that left 20 dead, the opposition will begin a "round-the-clock permanent" protest rally, it said.
Divided and lacking a charismatic leader, however, Georgia's opposition has repeatedly failed to mount a serious challenge since Saakashvili swept to power in 2003 after the peaceful protests of the Rose Revolution.
Neither the leading opposition group in parliament, the Christian Democrats, nor former parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze, a former Saakashvili ally who has turned into one of his chief opponents, attended the rally.
Russia's military routed Georgian forces in the war, occupied swathes of the country and bombed targets across Georgia. Under a European Union-brokered ceasefire, Russian forces later withdrew to South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia.
Doubts were raised Friday about Georgia's claim that it carried out a precision attack on South Ossetia in response to heavy shelling of Georgian villages by rebel forces.
The New York Times reported that Georgian forces had attacked the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire.
The report also said the monitors had been unable to verify claims that Georgian villages were under heavy bombardment before the attack.
