Torrential rain has left Sri Lanka and parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia under water
Flooding and landslides have killed at least 954 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia following tropical storms in recent days, with efforts under way to help thousands affected by the extreme weather.
Arriving in North Sumatra on Monday, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said the government’s priority was “how to immediately send the necessary aid”.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
“There are several isolated villages that, God willing, we can reach,” Prabowo said, adding that the government was deploying helicopters and aircraft to aid the relief effort.
Prabowo has come under increasing pressure to declare a national emergency in response to flooding and landslides that have killed at least 442 people, with hundreds more missing.
Unlike his Sri Lankan counterpart, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Prabowo has so far refrained from publicly calling for international assistance.
Indonesia’s government has sent two hospital ships and three warships carrying aid to some of the worst-hit areas, where many roads remain impassable.
In Sungai Nyalo village, about 100km (62 miles) from West Sumatra’s capital Padang, floodwaters had mostly receded on Sunday, leaving homes, vehicles and crops coated in thick grey mud.
“Most villagers chose to stay; they didn’t want to leave their houses behind,” Idris, 55, who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name, told the AFP news agency.
Rescue personnel walk past debris as they evacuate a sick villager to the nearest hospital in Bireuen, Aceh province, Indonesia, on November 29, 2025 [Amanda Jufrian/AFP]
Sri Lanka seeks aid
Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, the government has called for international aid and is using military helicopters to reach people stranded by flooding and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah.
At least 334 people have been killed, Sri Lanka’s disaster agency said on Sunday, with many more still missing.
A helicopter pilot “tragically lost his life” while making an emergency landing “during a mission to support flood-affected communities in Lunuwila,” north of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s Air Force said in a post on Facebook on Monday.
Officials said the extent of damage in the worst-affected central region was only just being revealed as relief workers cleared roads blocked by fallen trees and mudslides.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who declared a state of emergency to deal with the disaster, pledged to build back.
“We are facing the largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history,” Dissanayake said in an address to the nation.
“Certainly, we will build a better nation than what existed before.”
The government has rolled out relief measures, but there has been growing public criticism of the flood response, and two local officials have been suspended over their alleged failures, according to AFP.
Across the border in Malaysia, where heavy rains also inundated large stretches of land in Perlis state, two people were killed.
An aerial view shows a home surrounded by floodwaters in Kangar in northern Malaysia’s Perlis state on Friday, as severe flooding affected thousands of people in the region following days of heavy rain [Mohd Rasfan/AFP]
Year of deadly floods across Asia
This week’s floods and landslides are the latest extreme weather events to devastate Southeast Asian countries in recent weeks, including two typhoons that hit the Philippines within a week of each other last month, killing at least 242 people.
The flooding that hit Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia was also exacerbated by a rare tropical storm that dumped heavy rain on Sumatra Island in particular.
Climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of storms and producing more heavy rain events because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture.
A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.
Fitter and Faster Swim Camps is the proud sponsor of SwimSwam’s College Recruiting Channel and all commitment news. For many, swimming in college is a lifelong dream that is pursued with dedication and determination. Fitter and Faster is proud to honor these athletes and those who supported them on their journey.
Darren Nguyen has verbally committed to swim at Claremont McKenna College as a member of the class of 2030. He confirmed the decision in an email to SwimSwam, writing:
I am grateful to announce my verbal commitment to the admissions process at Claremont McKenna College! I want to thank my parents, brother, friends, and teammates for their unwavering support and being there through everything. I also want to thank all my coaches: Logan, Wade, Kristine, Justin, Jacinta, Nate, Sarah, Ron and Rich for shaping me into the swimmer and person I am today. Lastly, I want to thank Coach Charlie and Coach Tom for their belief in me and giving me this opportunity. SKO STAGS!
Nguyen hails from Irvine, California, where he attends Santa Margarita Catholic High School and trains year-round with Irvine Novaquatics. He’s a butterfly and freestyle specialist, strong across both fly distances and the 50-200 free, and also swims the 100 back during the high school season.
He recently switched to Irvine Novaquatics after training with Mission Viejo Nadadores for his entire career. He first made a name for himself in June 2024 when, alongside teammates Nolan Baker, Victoria Mori, and Gracyn Aquino, he set a new National Age Group (NAG) Record in the mixed 15-16 4×50 freestyle relay, swimming a time of 1:27.91 at a Mission Viejo Instrasquad meet.
Nguyen’s best time of 50.00 in the 100 fly stems from his sophomore season, while his 1:51.32 in the 200 fly, 21.50 in the 50 free, 47.61 in the 100 free, 1:44.72 in the 200 free, and 51.73 in the 100 back were all set last season. Most of his bests were posted at the RAA Winter Championships in December, though his 200 free came at a local club meet in Oceanside in February.
He’s been a stalwart for Santa Margarita at the high school level, helping them win the CIF Southern Section Division I Championships in 2024 and 2025 and contributing to the team’s 2024 State title.
At the 2024 Section meet, Nguyen took 10th in the 100 fly with his personal best and 15th in the 100 back (52.32). He advanced to State in the 100 fly, where he took 29th (50.16).
Last season, he touched ninth in the 100 fly (50.26) and 14th in the 100 back (52.09) at Sections. He also swam the butterfly leg of the 200 medley relay, splitting 22.49 to help the team finish runner-up. He didn’t swim individually at State, but contributed a 22.53 fly split on the 14th-place 200 medley relay and jumped onto the 200 free relay, where he split 20.96 on the relay that finished 11th.
Claremont McKenna College is located in Claremont, California. The swim team is a co-op between Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd College, and Scripps College, which competes as a Division III program in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). The Stags finished first at this year’s SCIAC Championships, winning by 228 points.
On the team’s 2024-25 depth chart, Nguyen would have ranked first in the 200 fly, second in the 100 fly, third in the 100 back, eighth in the 50 free, 12th in the 100 free, and 13th in the 200 free. He could be an immediate consideration for the medley relays on either backstroke or butterfly if he has some time drops during his final high school season.
When he arrives on campus, Nguyen will have several training partners in his primary events. Current freshman Jayden Kadiman owns bests of 49.77 and 1:51.96 in the fly events, while fellow freshman Jack Beckman has been as quick as 51.37 in the 100 back. Sam Zhou, the only other publicized commit in the university’s recruiting class, owns best times of 49.42 in the 100 fly and 49.64 in the 100 back, giving Nguyen another strong training partner.
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to Recruits@swimswam.com.
About the Fitter and Faster Swim Tour
Fitter & Faster Swim Camps feature the most innovative teaching platforms for competitive swimmers of all levels. Camps are produced year-round throughout the USA and Canada. All camps are led by elite swimmers and coaches. Visit fitterandfaster.com to find or request a swim camp near you.
Russia has suffered a major setback after the launch of its Soyuz MS-28 mission ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) caused severe damage to the country’s only pad capable of handling crewed boosters.
Space launches have become so routine these days that they’re about as worthy of reporting as a transatlantic passenger plane taking off. However, sometimes mishaps happen and some of these can have major implications.
Launched on November 27, 2025, MS-28 was a routine mission to send Roscosmos cosmonauts Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Flight Engineer Sergei Mikaev, and NASA astronaut Flight Engineer Christopher Williams to the ISS aboard a Soyuz spacecraft launched atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket.
The launch was almost boringly routine except for what happened to the launch pad. Built in the early 1960s, Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome includes an essential piece of equipment used to prepare the rockets for launch. Called the 8U216 Maintenance Cabin, it’s a mobile metal platform designed to provide technicians with pre-launch access to the lower section of the rocket, including the first- and second-stage engines. When it has completed its job, the cabin is lowered into the blast deflection pit and slid sideways into a protective alcove sealed by a metal screen.
MS-28
Normally, with the cabin safely tucked away, the exhaust from the rocket shoots by it harmlessly, but on the latest launch the cabin either broke loose from its mooring or was never properly locked down. As a result, the one million pounds of thrust from the Soyuz pulled the 144-tonne cabin out and tossed it into the blast pit 20 m (66 ft) below, where it was catastrophically damaged.
That’s bad enough, but Site 31/6 is Russia’s only launch pad capable of handling manned launch missions to the ISS, and without the cabin, it is out of commission. How long this will last is unclear with Roscosmos saying, “All necessary spare components are available for repair, and the damage will be repaired shortly.” Meanwhile, other sources state that it could take as long as two years to complete the repairs.
The incident is ironic because it reverses the situation in 2011 when the American Space Shuttle was retired, leaving the Russian Soyuz as the only means of reaching the ISS until the SpaceX Crewed Dragon became operational. Now, Russia is out of business and the US has the launch monopoly. At the very least, this highlights the need for redundancy if a human orbital presence is to remain permanent.
The abrupt cancellations of several Japanese music events in Shanghai – one of them midway through a song – have sparked criticism among fans, with some calling the moves “rude” and “extreme”.
Maki Otsuki was halfway through the theme of hit anime One Piece on Friday when the lights and music went off, after which she was rushed off stage by two crew members.
On Saturday, pop star Ayumi Hamasaki performed to an empty 14,000-seat stadium after organisers axed her concert in Shanghai, citing “force majeure”.
Takaichi, known to be a vocal critic of China and its activities in the region, suggested last month that Tokyo could take military action if Beijing attacked Taiwan.
Beijing views self-governed Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to “reunite” with it.
Both sides have since lodged protests against each other, and the rift has also affected daily living in both countries.
Otsuki’s management attributed the interruption of her performance on Friday to “unavoidable circumstances”.
“Other than the performance being cancelled, there were no particular problems, and the local staff were very kind and helpful,” it wrote in a separate statement on Monday, in which it declined interviews on the matter.
Her performance was part of a three-day music festival in Shanghai, for which subsequent events were also called off after “comprehensively taking into consideration various factors”, according to Japan’s Kyodo News.
The BBC has reached out to Japanese entertainment company Bandai Namco, who is one of the organisers of the festival.
Some of Otsuki’s fans have made a meme comparing the shutting down of her performance with the shocking removal of China’s former leader Hu Jintao during a Communist Party meeting in October 2022. The meme went viral on social media, over the weekend, with some saying Ms Otsuki was given “the Hu Jintao treatment”.
On social media, some accused the Chinese authorities of taking away its own people’s freedom to enjoy culture, in its attempts to sanction Japan. “What’s the point of turning the spearhead toward its own citizens?” read an X post written in Japanese.
“Don’t you care about the audience – they are after all Chinese, right?” wrote a user on China’s X-like platform Weibo.
George Glass, the United States’ ambassador to Japan, joined the conversation online. “It’s truly regrettable that there are people who can’t feel the power of music,” he wrote in an X post which also included a link to Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’.
“Maki-san, Don’t Stop Believin’—keep holding on to your convictions!” he wrote.
However the incident also fanned nationalist sentiments on Chinese social media, with some asking why the event was allowed in the first place given the diplomatic row.
“How could the event have gone on at a time when the whole nation is angry with Japan?” a Weibo user wrote.
Hamasaki, who was in Shanghai as part of her Asia tour, said she was suddenly asked on Friday to cancel her concert.
The pop icon went ahead to perform to 14,000 empty seats as part of her appreciation for the “people in the company, the Chinese staff, and the large Japanese family that fought through this tour” she wrote on Instagram.
“I still strongly believe that entertainment should be a bridge that connects people, and I want to be on the side of creating that bridge,” she wrote.
Two weeks ago, Chinese state media announced that the releases of at least two popular Japanese anime films will be postponed amid the diplomatic row.
Here are the key events from day 1,376 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 1 Dec 20251 Dec 2025
Share
Here’s where things stand on Monday, December 1.
Fighting
The number of casualties from a Russian attack on Ukraine’s Kyiv on Sunday rose to one person killed and 18 wounded, according to regional Governor Mykola Kalashnyk.
In southern Kherson, at least two people were killed, and seven others were wounded in more Russian attacks, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.
In the Donetsk region, at least two people were killed, and five were injured in Russian attacks on Saturday, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin.
In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack killed two men in the Belgorod region, the region’s operational headquarters said in a post on Telegram.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that Russian forces shot down 309 drones over the Donbas region, using the “Donbas Dome electronic warfare system” over the past week, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.
Peace talks
Officials from the United States and Ukraine hailed “productive” talks on a deal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine following a meeting in the US state of Florida on Sunday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed optimism, while also saying the negotiations remain difficult. “We continue to be realistic about how difficult this is, but optimistic, particularly given the fact that as we’ve made progress,” he said.
Rubio added that the talks would continue later in the week, when US envoy Steve Witkoff travels to Russia. “There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously, there’s another party involved here [Russia] that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week, when Mr Witkoff travels to Moscow,” he said.
Ukraine’s new chief negotiator, National Security Council secretary Rustem Umerov, said Washington had been “super supportive” during the discussions. The “US is hearing us, US is supporting us, US is walking beside us”, he said.
Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergiy Kyslytsya, who was also participating, also praised the US, saying that “it’s been a good start of the ongoing meeting” and that Rubio showed “great leadership”.
Diplomacy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he thanked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a call on Sunday. “Ursula is paying close attention to the need to strengthen our resilience amid Russia’s constant strikes on our infrastructure and the energy sector,” he said on X.
German Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius said that Berlin needs to be prepared for shifting alliances as “we don’t know which alliances we can still rely on in the future and how long they will last”.
In remarks at the German parliament, he said: “The geopolitical chessboard is changing rapidly – its patterns, its arrangement. Alliances are shifting faster than would have been conceivable before.”
Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan expressed Turkiye’s support for peace efforts between Russia and Ukraine during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, in Tehran on Sunday, according to Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency.
Weapons
Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal announced in a post on X that Ukraine and Norway will jointly produce Ukrainian drones, after he signed an agreement with his Norwegian counterpart, Tore O Sandvik.
Regional Security
Lithuania’s Vilnius airport said on Sunday it had temporarily halted operations due to suspected balloons in its airspace, the latest in a series of flight disruptions across Europe, some of which have been linked to Russian drone activity.
“These incidents, which occurred within Turkiye’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Black Sea, have posed serious risks to the safety of navigation, life, property, and the environment in the region,” Keceli said in a statement on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the coming week could see President Donald Trump nominate a successor to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and a special election in Tennessee could further narrow the GOP’s House majority.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones industrial average fell 48 points on Sunday, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures were down 0.13%, and Nasdaq futures slipped 0.12%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose 1.3 basis points to 4.032%. The U.S. dollar was down 0.04% against the euro and down 0.15% against the yen.
Gold rose 0.1% to $4,259.50 per ounce. U.S. oil futures climbed 1.55% to $59.46 a barrel, and bitcoin dipped 0.39% to $90,450.
On Saturday, market veteran Ed Yardeni pointed out in a note that the S&P 500 had crossed back above its 50-day moving average, and backed his view for the broad market index to hit 7,000 by year’s end, surpassing the record high of 6,920.
“The S&P 500 would need to rise by just 2.2% to reach 7,000,” he added. “That could happen this coming week, in our view.”
Considering the S&P 500 jumped nearly 4% in a trading week shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday, a 2.2% gain isn’t much of a stretch.
The market’s rebound was fueled by hopes that another rate cut later this month is still on the table, after some hawkish policymakers previously hinted at a wait-and-see stance.
But Trump could further stoke more dovish views if he reveals who is choice will be to take over as Fed chair when Powell’s term expires in May.
“I know who I’m going to pick as Fed chair. I will announce it soon,” Trump told reporters on Sunday.
He declined to confirm if Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, will be the one. But odds on prediction markets have soared in his favor, with Kalshi showing a 66% probability that Hassett will be nominated.
That’s added to expectations of more easing at the Fed’s Dec. 9-10 meeting, and CME’s FedWatch tool shows investors see 87% odds for a quarter-point cut.
Meanwhile, voters will decide on Tuesday who will fill a vacancy in a deep-red Tennessee congressional district. Republican Matt Van Epps and Democrat Aftyn Behn are in a tight race, according to some polls, despite Trump winning the district in a landslide last year.
Lots of money and several national figures are converging on the race. A win by Behn would further narrow the GOP’s already-slim majority and make affordability a higher priority in Congress.
After Democrats made stunning gains during off-year elections on the issue, another win could add urgency to efforts to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies to prevent insurance premiums from spiking next year.
Protesters against the Georgian government have complained of long-lasting symptoms after being sprayed by water cannon
Georgia’s authorities used a World War One-era chemical weapon to quell anti-government protesters last year, evidence gathered by the BBC suggests.
“You could feel [the water] burning,” one of the protesters said of water cannon turned on him and others on the streets of the capital Tbilisi. A sensation, he said, which could not immediately be washed off.
Demonstrators against the Georgian government’s suspension of its European Union accession bid have complained of other symptoms too – shortness of breath, coughing, and vomiting that lasted for weeks.
Gela Khasaia
One of the protesters, Gela Khasaia, says his skin burned after being sprayed with the cannon
The BBC World Service has spoken to chemical weapons experts, whistleblowers from Georgia’s riot police, and doctors, and found the evidence points to the use of an agent that the French military named “camite”.
The Georgian authorities said our investigation findings were “absurd” and the police had acted legally in response to the “illegal actions of brutal criminals”.
Camite was deployed by France against Germany during World War One. There is little documentation of its subsequent use, but it is believed to have been taken out of circulation at some point in the 1930s, because of concerns about its long-lasting effects. CS gas – often referred to as “tear gas” – was used as a replacement.
Konstantine Chakhunashvili was one of those who gathered outside Georgia’s parliament in Tbilisi during the first week of protests – which began on 28 November 2024. Demonstrators were incensed by the ruling party’s announcement that it was pausing EU accession talks. The goal of EU membership is enshrined in Georgia’s constitution.
Dr Konstantine Chakhunashvili ran a study on protesters’ symptoms after he himself suffered ill-effects from the water cannon
Georgia’s police responded with a variety of riot-control measures including the use of water cannon, pepper spray and CS gas.
Dr Chakhunashvili, a paediatrician who was among those sprayed by the cannons, and who has taken part in many of the demonstrations, said his skin felt like it was burning for days, and the sensation couldn’t be washed away. In fact, he said, “it was worse when trying to wash it off”.
Dr Chakhunashvili wanted to find out if others had suffered similar effects. So he appealed, via social media, for those also targeted by crowd control measures during the first week of the demonstrations to fill out a survey. Nearly 350 people got in touch, and almost half said they had suffered one or more side-effects for more than 30 days.
These long-term symptoms ranged from headaches, to fatigue, coughs, shortness of breath and vomiting.
His study has since been peer reviewed and has been accepted for publication by Toxicology Reports, an international journal.
Sixty-nine of those surveyed by Dr Chakhunashvili were also examined by him and found to have “significantly higher prevalence of abnormalities” in the electrical signals in the heart.
Dr Chakhunashvili’s report echoed the conclusion that local journalists, doctors, and civil rights organisations had come to – that the water cannon must have been laced with a chemical. They had called on the government to identify what had been used, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs – responsible for the police – refused.
Several high-level whistleblowers connected to the Special Tasks Department – the official name of Georgia’s riot police – helped the BBC determine this chemical’s likely identity.
A former head of weaponry at the department, Lasha Shergelashvili, believes it is the same compound he was asked to test for use in water cannon in 2009.
Lasha Shergelashvili
Lasha Shergelashvili used to be in charge of weaponry for Georgia’s riot police
The effects of that product, he says, were unlike anything he had previously experienced. He found it difficult to breathe after standing close to where it had been sprayed, and he and the 15-20 colleagues who tested it with him could not easily wash it off.
“We noticed that the effect was not wearing off, as is the case for [regular] tear gas. Even after we washed our faces with water, and then with a special solution of baking soda and water, which was prepared in advance, we still couldn’t breathe freely.”
Mr Shergelashvili says that as a result of his tests, he recommended against the chemical’s use. But he says the water cannon vehicles were nevertheless loaded with it – and that this remained the case at least up until 2022, when he quit his job and left the country.
Speaking from his new home in Ukraine, he tells the BBC that when watching footage of the protests last year, he immediately suspected that demonstrators were being subjected to the same chemical.
Colleagues he has remained in touch with, and who are still in post, have also told him this is the case, he adds.
And the BBC spoke to another former high-level police officer who confirmed that whatever was loaded into the water cannon vehicles when Mr Shergelashvili was in position was the same compound deployed in the protests of November-December 2024.
Viewers in the UK can see more on Global Eye at 19:00, 1 December on BBC Two
When Mr Shergelashvili was asked if the product he tested could have just been CS gas – which irritates the eyes, skin and respiratory system, but only temporarily – he said it appeared to be far stronger than that.
“I cannot name an example or compare it with anything [else],” he said, adding it was “probably 10 times” stronger than more conventional riot-control agents.
“For example, if you spill this chemical on the ground, you won’t be able to stay in that area for the next two to three days, even if you wash it off with water.”
Mr Shergelashvili does not know the name of the chemical he was asked to test.
But the BBC managed to obtain a copy of the inventory of the Special Tasks Department, dated December 2019.
We discovered it contained two unnamed chemicals. These were simply listed as “Chemical liquid UN1710” and “Chemical powder UN3439”, along with instructions for how they should be mixed.
We wanted to check whether this inventory was authentic, so we showed it to another former high-ranking police officer from the riot police who confirmed it seemed genuine. He identified the two unnamed chemicals as those likely to have been added into the water cannon.
Our next step was to work out what these chemicals were.
UN1710 was easy to identify as this is the code for trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent that enables other chemicals to dissolve in water. We then had to work out which chemical it was helping to dissolve.
UN3439 was much harder to identify because it is an umbrella code for a whole range of industrial chemicals, all of which are hazardous.
The only one of these we found to have ever been used as a riot-control agent is bromobenzyl cyanide, also known as camite, developed by the Allies for use in World War One.
We asked Prof Christopher Holstege, a world leading toxicology and chemical weapons expert, to assess whether our evidence pointed to camite being the likely agent used.
Shutterstock
Huge crowds outside Georgia’s parliament in November last year
Based on the results of Dr Chakhunashvili’s study, victim testimony, the riot police inventory, and Mr Shergelashvili’s account of the chemical tests, Prof Holstege believes that this is the case.
“Based on the available evidence… the clinical findings reported by both those exposed and by other witnesses are consistent with bromobenzyl cyanide.”
He ruled out the likelihood of the symptoms being caused by more conventional crowd control measures, such as CS gas, which was also being deployed by Georgia’s riot police last year.
“The persistence of the clinical effects… is not consistent with the typical agents used for crowd dispersal, such as CS,” he said.
“I’ve never seen camite being utilised in modern society. Camite is markedly irritating [and] persistent with its irritation.”
He speculated it would have been used because it would act as a strong deterrent.
“It would keep people away for a long time. They couldn’t decontaminate [themselves]. They would have to go to the hospital. They would have to leave the area. If that is indeed the case – that this chemical has been brought back – that is actually exceedingly dangerous.”
Camite was briefly used as a riot control agent by the American police post-World War One, but was abandoned after safer options such as CS gas were invented.
Under international law, police forces are allowed to use chemicals as crowd-control agents as long as they are considered proportionate and have only short-term effects.
Given there are safer and more conventional riot-control agents available to police, an obsolete and more potent agent could be classed as a chemical weapon, according to weapons experts consulted by the BBC.
Our findings were concerning, said UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Edwards. Ms Edwards has previously written to Georgia’s government regarding allegations of police violence and torture during the protests.
The UN’s Alice Edwards: “Populations should never be subjected to experiments”
The lack of strict regulation around the use of chemicals in water cannon is a problem she would like addressed: “It does lead me to consider [this practice] as an experimental weapon. And populations should never be subjected to experiments. This is absolutely in violation of human rights law.”
She stressed that any effect of a riot control measure should be temporary under international law, and that the symptoms described “are beyond what would be considered temporary and acceptable. So all of those cases should be investigated, including under the rubric of torture or other ill-treatment”.
Georgia’s authorities described our findings as “deeply frivolous” and “absurd”.
It said that law enforcement had acted “within the bounds of the law and constitution” when responding to the “illegal actions of brutal criminals”.
The protests on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue have dwindled in their size since the government increased fines and jail terms, but not in their frequency.
Almost every night for the past year, demonstrators have called for the resignation of a government they accuse of rigging elections, siding with Russian interests, and passing increasingly draconian legislation against civil society.
The ruling Georgian Dream party denied the government or the party’s honorary chairman, Bidzina Ivanishvili, are either pro-Russian or pursuing Russian interests. It told the BBC that legislative changes over the past year served the best interests of “public welfare”.
A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.
