BBC World Service said evidence pointed to bromobenzyl cyanide, known as camite, a substance used by the French army in WWI and later withdrawn over concerns about long-term effects.
The agent was allegedly mixed into water fired at demonstrators outside Georgia’s parliament on Nov. 28, 2024, during protests against the government’s decision to suspend talks on European Union membership. Police also used pepper spray and tear gas.
Protesters reported burning skin, breathing difficulties, coughing and vomiting lasting for weeks. Pediatrician and protester Konstantin Chakhunashvili surveyed nearly 350 people; almost half said they had symptoms for more than 30 days. His peer-reviewed study, accepted by the journal Toxicology Reports, also found a higher rate of heart abnormalities in 69 examined individuals.
Former anti-terror police armaments chief Lasha Shergelashvili told the BBC the symptoms matched those he experienced when testing an unnamed compound for water cannon use in 2009. He said the substance was “much stronger” than standard tear gas, could not be easily washed off and remained irritant on the ground for days.
An internal 2019 document seen by the BBC recorded the Special Tasks Department’s use of two unnamed chemicals labeled “liquid chemicals UN1710” and “powder chemicals UN3439.” UN1710 corresponds to trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent that can disperse other substances in water.
Christopher Holstege, a leading toxicology and chemical weapons expert quoted by the BBC, said the reported symptoms were consistent with camite and that the prolonged effects ruled out conventional agents such as CS gas. He called the possible renewed use of camite “exceptionally dangerous.”
U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Alice Edwards voiced concern over what she called experimental use of chemicals in water cannons and said it could amount to a human rights violation, urging a thorough investigation.
Georgian authorities dismissed the BBC’s findings as “absurd” and “deeply unserious,” insisting security forces acted lawfully against what they described as the “illegal actions of violent criminals.”
(jh)
Source: PAP, BBC