On January 3rd police broke up a sit-in at the memorial in the centre of the capital, Tbilisi, to Georgian soldiers killed in the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The demonstrators were mainly veterans of the armed conflicts in the breakaway provinces, and had been staging a hunger strike at the memorial since December 27th in protest against social hardships and the "undignified" attitude shown towards them by the authorities. Eleven demonstrators were arrested and later fined Lari400 (around US$230).

Opposition and advocacy groups strongly condemned what they claimed was a heavy-handed intervention by the police, who allegedly punched peaceful protesters. The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA) issued a statement claiming that police's use of excessive force constituted an illegal violation of the constitutionally guaranteed right of assembly. The police action also provoked a response by the US ambassador, John Bass, who claimed that he was disturbed by the reports of police violence and stated that such violence does not have a place in democratic societies. In a statement on January 4th, the Georgian public defender, Giorgi Tugushi, who was elected to the post with the support of lawmakers from the UNM, also criticised the police action as illegal. However, in a televised phone-in session on January 25th, Mr Saakashvili dismissed the criticism, claiming that the protesters had been urinating on the memorial.