Sally Bakradze on the long-term effects of exposure to the chemical agent used by GD during last December’s crackdowns:
“Photos were taken in April–May.
Symptoms began in March, came back every 10 days, each time worse: swelling, burning, itching around the eyes.
The peak was May 18. It started burning, itching. I rushed home and in 30 minutes my face looked 30 years older. I thought I’d lose my mind.
I saw dermatologists, ophthalmologists, allergists, neurologists — no one could explain it. Final diagnosis: keratitis, but the cause couldn’t be identified. One doctor noted that keratitis can be triggered by chemically contaminated water.
Only Dr. Telia suspected a delayed reaction to a substance that had entered my system. Neither he nor I considered that tear gas and water cannon exposure could show up 2 months later.
I was exhausted. I kept thinking: how could this happen when all my tests were clean, I take care of my health, my immunity is strong?
Let them summon me. I have nothing to hide.
Just tell me — what was I poisoned with?”
#theCamiteCase
Dozens of Georgians have begun sharing testimonies about last year’s crackdowns — here is one from Mariam Japaridze, posted on Facebook:
“The BBC report hit me incredibly hard emotionally.
This is me in December last year.
Two weeks after the crackdowns my eyes were still swollen and red.
My skin burned on the outside, and inside — my airways, stomach, and mouth lining — everything felt scorched. My gums bled and hurt.
I couldn’t sleep for two months: I had asthma attacks so severe that nothing helped. Closing my eyes caused unbearable pain.
Once, when I tried to get out of bed, I collapsed. My mother barely managed to revive me. And yet that evening I was back at the protest.
Despite everything, people like me — poisoned, burned, beaten — kept going out every single day, and we are still fighting for our country.
My health still carries the marks of that chemical exposure. Even a year later, I’m dealing with the consequences.
I always knew — felt it with my whole body — that they were making us breathe something horrible.
For a year we only knew it, without proof. Now we have proof.
This is me, one of thousands. And this is one of the crimes the Georgian Dream regime committed against unarmed people.
Justice must be served, and we must finish what we started — to the very end.”
📷 Mariam Japaridze