The World - News from April 23, 1989
The Soviet armed forces newspaper Red Star said that an irritating chemical agent called cheremukha was used on nationalist demonstrators in Tbilisi, capital of Soviet Georgia. But it quoted an Interior Ministry official, Maj. Gen. Yu. Yefimov, as saying the substance consists mainly of chloroacetophenone and does not cause suffocation or poisoning. Red Star acknowledged a report that 61 people suffering poisoning symptoms were hospitalized in Georgia and that some were in “grave condition.” Soviet officials have previously said “tear gas” was used in Georgia but have given no further details. Georgian activists maintain that several of the 19 people killed when soldiers broke up the April 9 Tbilisi demonstration were victims of poison gas.
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