Evidence meticulously gathered and analyzed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) suggests that the governmental authorities of Georgia employed a World War One-era chemical warfare agent in an effort to suppress and quell anti-establishment demonstrators during the preceding year.
"You could discern the burning sensation produced by the liquid," recounted one of the protesters regarding the streams discharged by the water cannon directed against him and his fellow citizens on the thoroughfares of the capital city, Tbilisi. This sensation, he elaborated, was one that could not be immediately expunged through washing.
Individuals participating in the public demonstrations against the Georgian government's unilateral suspension of its bid for accession to the European Union have also reported experiencing a variety of other distressing physiological manifestations—including severe shortness of breath, persistent fits of coughing, and protracted episodes of vomiting which endured for a period of several weeks.
The BBC World Service has engaged in consultations with specialized experts in the field of chemical weaponry, former whistleblowers originating from Georgia's riot control constabulary, and practicing medical professionals. The collective evidentiary findings overwhelmingly point toward the probable utilization of a chemical agent that the French military designated by the term "camite."
The Georgian governmental authorities formally characterized the findings of our investigative endeavor as "fundamentally absurd" and maintained that the police personnel had acted entirely legitimately in response to the "illegal activities perpetrated by brutal criminals."
Camite was initially employed by the French armed forces in their military operations against the German Empire during the First World World. There is a paucity of documented information concerning its subsequent utilization, though it is generally believed to have been removed from circulation at some point during the 1930s due to growing concerns regarding its long-lasting and deleterious effects. The chemical compound CS gas—frequently referred to colloquially as "tear gas"—was adopted as its primary replacement.
Konstantine Chakhunashvili was one of the individuals who congregated outside the Parliament of Georgia in Tbilisi during the initial week of public dissent, which commenced on the twenty-eighth of November 2024. The demonstrators were profoundly incensed by the pronouncement from the ruling political faction that it was unilaterally pausing the accession negotiations with the European Union. The ultimate objective of achieving full EU membership is a constitutional requirement formally enshrined within the Georgian Constitution.
The official Georgian police responded to the situation using a diversified range of riot-control methodologies, encompassing the deployment of water cannon vehicles, pepper spray dispensing devices, and the aforementioned CS gas.
Dr. Chakhunashvili, a practicing pediatrician who was amongst those targeted by the cannon discharges and who has participated in numerous subsequent demonstrations, reported that his skin felt as though it was ablaze for multiple days, and that the distressing sensation could not be successfully washed away. In fact, he stated that the experience "was aggravated when attempting to cleanse the area."
Dr. Chakhunashvili undertook the initiative to ascertain whether other individuals had experienced similar adverse effects. Consequently, he utilized social media platforms to appeal for those also subjected to the crowd-control measures during the first week of demonstrations to complete an online questionnaire. Nearly 350 people responded to his appeal, and almost one-half of the respondents indicated that they had suffered one or more undesirable side-effects persisting for a period exceeding thirty days.
These protracted symptoms encompassed a spectrum of ailments, ranging from debilitating headaches, pervasive fatigue, persistent coughing, shortness of breath, and recurrent vomiting.
His subsequent study has since undergone formal peer review and has been accepted for imminent publication by Toxicology Reports, an internationally recognized scientific journal.
Sixty-nine of the individuals who participated in Dr. Chakhunashvili's survey were also physically examined by him, and they were found to exhibit a "significantly higher prevalence of abnormalities" in the measurement of electrical signals generated by the heart.
Dr. Chakhunashvili’s report essentially echoed the conclusion that local news journalists, medical practitioners, and civil rights advocacy organizations had independently reached—that the water cannon vehicles must have contained a chemical compound deliberately mixed into the water. These groups had previously appealed to the government to explicitly identify the substance that had been utilized, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs—the governmental body responsible for the police—refused to comply.
Several high-level whistleblowers with direct affiliation to the Special Tasks Department—the official designation for Georgia's riot control constabulary—provided crucial assistance to the BBC in determining the likely identity of this chemical agent.
A former director of weaponry at the department, Lasha Shergelashvili, maintains the belief that the substance utilized is the identical compound he was instructed to test for potential use in water cannon vehicles in the year 2009.
The resulting effects of that particular product, he asserts, were unlike anything he had encountered previously. He found that he experienced severe difficulty breathing after standing in close proximity to the area where the substance had been sprayed, and neither he nor the fifteen to twenty colleagues who participated in the testing could readily wash the compound off.
"We observed that the effect was not dissipating, as is typically the case with [conventional] tear gas. Even after we thoroughly cleansed our faces with water, and subsequently applied a specially prepared solution composed of baking soda and water, which had been prepared in advance, we still could not breathe freely."
Mr. Shergelashvili states that, as a direct consequence of his testing procedures, he formally recommended against the utilization of the chemical substance. However, he maintains that the water cannon vehicles were nonetheless loaded with the compound, and this operational status persisted at least until 2022, the year in which he resigned from his employment and departed the country.
Speaking from his new place of residence in Ukraine, he communicated to the BBC that upon viewing video documentation of the demonstrations last year, he instantly suspected that the protesters were being subjected to the identical chemical substance.
Colleagues with whom he has maintained contact, and who remain in their official positions, have also confirmed this suspicion to him, he appended.
Furthermore, the BBC conducted an interview with another former high-ranking police official who confirmed that the substance loaded into the water cannon vehicles during Mr. Shergelashvili's tenure was the same compound subsequently deployed during the protests of November–December 2024.
When Mr. Shergelashvili was queried as to whether the product he tested could have been merely CS gas—which causes irritation to the eyes, skin, and respiratory system, but only on a temporary basis—he affirmed that it appeared to be significantly more potent than that common agent.
"I am unable to cite a comparable example or draw a parallel with anything [else]," he expressed, adding that it was "probably ten times" stronger than the more conventional riot-control agents.
"For instance, if you inadvertently spill this chemical compound onto the ground surface, you will be unable to remain within that localized area for the ensuing two to three days, even if you attempt to wash it off with water."
Mr. Shergelashvili does not know the actual chemical designation of the product he was instructed to test.
However, the BBC successfully obtained a copy of the official inventory belonging to the Special Tasks Department, dated December 2019.
We ascertained that the inventory contained entries for two distinct, unnamed chemical substances. These were merely cataloged as "Chemical liquid UN1710" and "Chemical powder UN3439," accompanied by specific directives detailing the procedures for their correct admixture.
To verify the authenticity of this inventory document, we presented it to another former high-ranking police officer from the riot control unit, who confirmed that it appeared to be genuine. He identified the two unspecified chemicals as the substances most likely to have been added to the water cannon's reservoir.
Our subsequent investigative step was to accurately determine the nature of these chemicals.
The identification of UN1710 was relatively straightforward, as this code designates trichloroethylene (TCE), a common solvent utilized to enable other chemicals to effectively dissolve in water. We were then required to ascertain the specific chemical it was designed to help dissolve.
The identification of UN3439 proved to be considerably more challenging because it functions as an umbrella code encompassing an entire category of industrial chemical compounds, all of which are classified as hazardous.
The only substance within this classification that we found to have ever been historically utilized as a riot-control agent is bromobenzyl cyanide, which is also recognized by the name camite, originally developed by the Allied powers for application during World War One.
We formally requested Professor Christopher Holstege, a globally recognized expert in toxicology and chemical weaponry, to evaluate whether our accumulated evidence suggested that camite was the most probable agent deployed. Based on the findings derived from Dr. Chakhunashvili's comprehensive study, the detailed testimony provided by the victims, the official inventory document from the riot police, and Mr. Shergelashvili's narrative detailing the chemical tests, Professor Holstege holds the conviction that this is indeed the case.
"Based upon the entirety of the readily available evidence… the reported clinical observations conveyed by both those exposed and by additional witnesses are consistent with the established effects of bromobenzyl cyanide."
He decisively ruled out the likelihood that the observed symptoms were caused by the more conventional crowd control measures, such as CS gas, which was also concurrently deployed by Georgia's riot police last year.
"The persistence and durability of the clinical effects… are not consistent with the typical agents employed for the dispersal of crowds, such as CS," he stated.
"I have personally never encountered the utilization of camite in contemporary society. Camite is notably irritating [and] its irritation is long-lasting and persistent."
He speculated that the chemical would have been utilized because it would serve as an extremely powerful deterrent.
"It would effectively keep individuals away for a considerable duration. They would be unable to decontaminate themselves. They would be compelled to seek medical attention at the hospital. They would be forced to abandon the area. If that assumption is indeed accurate—that this chemical compound has been reintroduced into use—that fact is genuinely exceedingly perilous."
Camite was briefly utilized as a riot control agent by American police forces in the period immediately following World War One, but its use was subsequently abandoned after the invention of demonstrably safer alternatives, such as CS gas.
Under established international legal standards, police forces are permitted to utilize chemical substances as crowd-control agents, provided that they are deemed proportionate and possess only short-term effects.
Given the readily available existence of safer and more conventional riot-control agents for police use, an obsolete and considerably more potent agent could potentially be classified as a chemical weapon, according to the weapons experts consulted by the BBC.
Our investigative findings were deemed highly concerning by Alice Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. Ms. Edwards has previously corresponded with the Georgian government regarding allegations of police brutality and torture during the public demonstrations. The prevailing lack of stringent regulation concerning the use of chemicals in water cannon is an issue she desires to see comprehensively addressed: "It directly leads me to consider [this practice] as an experimental weapon. And civilian populations should never be subjected to experimentation. This constitutes an absolute violation of international human rights law."
She emphasized that any effect produced by a riot control measure must be transitory under international law, and that the documented symptoms "exceed what would be deemed temporary and acceptable." She concluded that "all of those instances should be thoroughly investigated, including under the authoritative rubric of torture or other forms of ill-treatment."
The Georgian governmental authorities characterized our investigative findings as "profoundly frivolous" and "absurd."
They maintained that law enforcement personnel had acted "within the established limitations of the law and constitution" when responding to the "illegal actions of brutal criminals."
The demonstrations occurring on Tbilisi's Rustaveli Avenue have diminished in scale since the government implemented increased punitive fines and extended jail terms, but they have not decreased in frequency.
Almost every evening for the duration of the past year, demonstrators have issued demands for the resignation of a government they accuse of manipulating electoral processes, exhibiting a bias toward Russian interests, and enacting increasingly oppressive and draconian legislation against civil society organizations.
The ruling Georgian Dream political party denied that the government or the party's honorary chairman, Bidzina Ivanishvili, are either pro-Russian or actively pursuing Russian interests. It informed the BBC that the legislative amendments enacted over the past year served the paramount interests of "public welfare."
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