The World - News from May 29, 1989

Soviet soldiers planned to massacre people during a pro-independence rally April 9 in the Georgian republic and used clubs to beat the injured and the elderly, an official report said. The report, issued by a Georgian commission that looked into the clash that left at least 20 dead, was circulated among deputies to the new Congress of People’s Deputies, which met in Moscow over the weekend. The report said soldiers “blocked crossings, surrounded citizens and beat them with clubs and shovels. They did not spare hunger strikers, girls, old women, doctors and Red Cross workers.”