The U.S. Helsinki Commission has responded to the BBC investigative report concerning the use of World War I-era chemical weapons by the Georgian Dream government against peaceful demonstrators.
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The U.S. Helsinki Commission Chairman Senator Roger Wicker, Co-Chairman Congressman Joe Wilson, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and Congressman Steve Cohen call on the U.S. government and democratic allies to verify the information and impose appropriate sanctions on those responsible.
“Recent findings that Georgian Dream used a chemical weapon against peaceful protestors last year are deeply disturbing.
These chemical attacks left victims with burns and long-term health complications and are a violation of the human rights commitments that Georgian authorities are obliged to uphold.
Such behavior places Georgian Dream in league with corrupt rulers in Russia and China who fear their own people and will stop at nothing to maintain their grip on power.
We call on the U.S. government and our democratic allies to verify these reports and impose relevant sanctions on those responsible.
We continue to urge our colleagues in Congress to pass the MEGOBARI Act, bipartisan legislation that would provide the State Department with additional tools to support the Georgian people’s struggle for freedom,” it is said in the statement.
Helsinki Commission states that since protests began in October 2024, Georgian Dream has dragged the country further towards authoritarianism by cracking down on independent media, imprisoning dissenters, and deepening relationships with Russia and China.
“When Water Burns: The Fight for Georgia” - the BBC World Service released a journalistic investigation with this title on November 30. The journalists obtained evidence indicating that the Georgian Dream government mixed a prohibited chemical substance into water cannons used against its own citizens.
The BBC managed to obtain a copy of the inventory from the Special Tasks Department, dated December 2019. Journalists found that it listed two unnamed chemicals, named “Chemical liquid UN1710” and “Chemical powder UN3439,” along with instructions for mixing.
UN1710 stands for trichloroethylene (TCE). It allows other chemical compounds to dissolve in water. UN3439 was much harder to identify since, as the BBC explains, it is an umbrella code for a whole range of industrial chemicals, all of which are hazardous. The only one of these that the BBC found to have ever been used as a riot-control agent is bromobenzyl cyanide.
After reviewing the BBC's evidence—medical research, witness statements, interviews with whistleblowers, and human rights reports—a leading expert in toxicology and chemical weapons, Professor Christopher Holstege of the University of Virginia, concluded that the substance used was bromobenzyl cyanide, also known as “camite.”
“Camite” was first used as a chemical weapon by French forces in World War I and was soon withdrawn from use because of the long-lasting effects of exposure.
The Georgian Dream government denies the BBC's information and warns of legal action against the British broadcaster.
