Georgian president to meet opposition amid ongoing protests

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze will hold a private meeting later on Tuesday, Gachechiladze told protestors.

TBILISI, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and opposition leader Levan Gachechiladze will hold a private meeting later on Tuesday, Gachechiladze told protestors.

The opposition has been holding round-the-clock protests since April 9 demanding the president resign over his failure to carry out democratic reforms and over last August's disastrous war with Russia.

"This meeting is essential. It would have been easy to turn it down, but I have to know what he wants. Our main demand, that Saakashvili resign, will not change," he said.

The meeting is scheduled for 21:00 Moscow time [17:00 GMT] in the president's Shavnabada residence outside Tbilisi. The presidential press service has yet to comment on the report.

Other opposition leaders are pessimistic over the talks, which have no set agenda. The last negotiations between the president and four opposition leaders, held on May 11, ended without results.

"These talks are private and I don't believe they will produce any outcome," said Eka Beselia, a leader of the Movement for United Georgia. She added that the talks have not been authorized by other members of the opposition.

On Tuesday, opposition activists formed a human chain around the Interior Ministry, the prosecutor's office and the ministry of natural resources, calling for an end to political repression, the release of political prisoners and the sacking of the country's interior minister, Vano Merabishvili.

Representatives of youth opposition movements staged a mock trial of Saakashvili's effigy, and sentenced him to the "ash heap of history."

Protestors also launched into the sky a helium-filled paper dummy in the shape of a double-headed dragon, representing the president and interior minister.

"This is what is going on in our country. Georgia is controlled by a double-headed dragon, the tandem of Saakashvili and Merabishvili. We released this dragon so that it could never come back," an opposition member said.