Protesters pour into Georgia’s capital

TBILISI, GEORGIA —  Thousands of opposition supporters from Georgia’s provinces poured into the capital late Wednesday to join the protests aimed at forcing President Mikheil Saakashvili to step down.

A convoy of about 600 cars, minibuses and buses loaded with opposition backers from western Georgia drove into Tbilisi in the evening, adding to 30,000 people already in front of parliament and along the city’s main thoroughfare.

A spokesman for the government estimated the crowd at 5,000 or fewer.

Opposition leaders have vowed to keep up the daily protests, which began April 9, until Saakashvili resigns. Some demonstrations have swelled to as many as 60,000 people.

“Saakashvili reminds me of an obstinate child who thinks that this country is his plaything. But he forgets that obstinate children are punished -- and this will happen very soon,” Levan Gachechiladze, one of the top opposition figures, told the crowd.

Protesters have begun setting up mock jail cells to dramatize their claim that the former Soviet republic has turned into a police state under Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer who came to power five years ago promising democratic reforms.

Saakashvili’s opponents accuse him of concentrating power in his own hands and mishandling last year’s war with neighboring Russia, which resulted in heavy damage and a loss of territory.

Police have not intervened in the protests.

The government says that as long as the protesters remain peaceful they will not be dispersed.