BBC evidence shows toxic WW1 compounds sprayed on Georgian protesters

The BBC has gathered evidence that Georgian authorities used World War I-era chemical weapons to suppress anti-government protesters last year.

“You can feel (the water) burning,” one protester said of water cannons aimed at him and others on the streets of the capital, Tbilisi. It’s a feeling that can’t be dismissed immediately, he said.

Demonstrators opposing the Georgian government’s suspension of its bid to join the European Union also complained of other symptoms – shortness of breath, coughing and vomiting that lasted for weeks.

BBC World Service spoke to chemical weapons experts, Georgian riot police whistleblowers and doctors and found evidence that the French military used a type of agent called a “camite”.

Georgian authorities said our findings were “ridiculous” and that police had taken lawful action in response to “the unlawful actions of brutal criminals”.

During World War I, France deployed Camite against Germany. There are few records of its subsequent use, but it is believed to have been withdrawn from circulation sometime in the 1930s due to concerns about its long-term effects. CS gas (often called “tear gas”) is used as a replacement.

Konstantine Chakhunashvili was one of those who gathered outside the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi during the first week of protests that began on November 28, 2024. The ruling party announced it was suspending EU accession talks, angering demonstrators. The goal of joining the EU is enshrined in the Georgian constitution.

Georgia police took various anti-riot measures, including using high-pressure water cannons, pepper spray and CS gas.

Dr. Chakunashvili, a pediatrician who was among those sprayed by gunfire and who has participated in many of the demonstrations, said his skin felt like it was burning for days and would not go away. In fact, he said, “it gets worse when you try to wash it off.”

Dr. Chakunashvili wanted to know if others had suffered similar effects. He therefore took to social media to appeal to those who had also been affected by crowd control measures during the first week of demonstrations to fill out a survey. Nearly 350 people were contacted, and nearly half said they suffered one or more side effects for more than 30 days.

These long-term symptoms include headache, fatigue, cough, shortness of breath and vomiting.

His research has subsequently been peer-reviewed and has been accepted for publication in the international journal Toxicological Reports.

Dr. Chakhunashvili’s survey of 69 people who also underwent his examination found a “significantly higher incidence of abnormalities” in the heart’s electrical signals.

Dr. Chakunashvili’s report echoes the conclusion reached by local journalists, doctors and civil rights groups – that there must be chemicals in the water cannons. They called on the government to identify what was used, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is responsible for the police, refused.

Several senior whistleblowers associated with the Special Assignments Unit, the official name of Georgia’s riot police, helped the BBC determine the possible identity of the chemical.

Lasha Sheergelashvili, the former head of the department’s weapons division, believes this is why he was asked in 2009 to test compounds for use in water cannons.

He said the product’s effects were unlike anything he had experienced before. He found it difficult to breathe after standing in the sprayed area, and he and the 15-20 colleagues he tested with were unable to wash it off easily.

“We noticed that the effects did not wear off like (regular) tear gas did. Even if we washed our faces with water and then with a special solution of baking soda and water prepared in advance, we still couldn’t breathe freely.”

Mr. Sergeilashvili said that based on his test results, he recommended against using the chemical. But he said water cannon trucks were still carrying the substance and that this would continue until at least 2022, when he resigned and left the country.

He told the BBC from his new home in Ukraine that when watching footage from last year’s protests, he immediately suspected that demonstrators had been exposed to the same chemicals.

He added that colleagues with whom he is in touch and who are still employed have also told him this is the case.

The BBC spoke to another former senior police officer, who confirmed that the water cannon trucks loaded with Sergey Rushvili when he took office were the same as those deployed at the compound during the November-December 2024 protests.

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When Mr Sergeilashvili was asked whether the product he tested might just be CS gas – which can irritate the eyes, skin and respiratory system, but only temporarily – he said it appeared to be far more powerful than that.

“I can’t give an example or compare it to anything else,” he said, adding that it was “probably 10 times stronger than traditional riot control agents.”

“For example, if you spill this chemical on the ground, even if you wash it off with water, you won’t be able to leave it in that area for the next two to three days.”

Mr. Sergeilashvili did not know the name of the chemical he was asked to test.

But the BBC managed to obtain a copy of the Special Duties Unit’s December 2019 inventory.

We found it contained two unnamed chemicals. These are listed simply as “Chemical Liquid UN1710” and “Chemical Powder UN3439”, along with instructions on how to mix them.

We wanted to check if this inventory was genuine, so we showed it to another former senior police officer in the riot police who confirmed that it appeared to be genuine. He confirmed that the two unnamed chemicals were likely added to the water cannon.

Our next step is to figure out what these chemicals are.

UN1710 is easy to identify because it is the code for trichlorethylene (TCE), a solvent that allows other chemicals to dissolve in water. Then we have to figure out which chemical it helps dissolve.

UN3439 is harder to identify because it is an umbrella code for a range of industrial chemicals, all of which are hazardous.

The only one of these we found to have been used as a riot control agent was cyanide, also known as carmet, which was developed by the Allies for use in World War I.

We asked Professor Christopher Holsteiger, the world’s leading expert on toxicology and chemical weapons, to assess whether our evidence suggested that kamit may have been the agent used.

Based on Dr. Chakhunashvili’s findings, victim testimonies, riot police lists, and Mr. Sheergelashvili’s description of the chemical tests, Professor Holsteiger concluded that this was indeed the case.

“Based on the available evidence … clinical findings reported by exposed persons and other witnesses are consistent with cyanide.”

He ruled out the possibility that the symptoms were caused by more traditional crowd control measures, such as CS gas, which was also used by Georgia riot police last year.

“The persistence of clinical effects … is inconsistent with typical drugs used for crowd dispersal, such as CS,” he said.

“I have never seen kamit used in modern society. Kamit has an obvious irritant effect (and) a persistent irritant effect.”

He speculated that it was used because it acted as a powerful deterrent.

“It’s keeping people away for a long time. They can’t decontaminate (themselves). They have to go to the hospital. They have to leave the area. If that’s the case – that this chemical has been brought back – that’s actually very dangerous.”

Camite was briefly used as a riot control agent by US police after World War I, but was abandoned after safer options such as CS gas were invented.

Under international law, police forces can use chemicals as crowd control agents as long as they are considered proportionate and only have short-term effects.

Weapons experts consulted by the BBC said an outdated and more powerful riot control agent could be classified as a chemical weapon, given that safer, more traditional riot control agents are available to police.

Alice Edwards, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, said our findings were concerning. Ms Edwards has previously written to the Georgia government over allegations of police violence and torture during protests.

One issue she hopes to address is the lack of strict regulation of the use of chemicals in water cannons: “It really makes me view[the practice]as an experimental weapon. And people should never be subjected to experiments. It’s absolutely a breach of human rights law.”

She stressed that under international law any effects of riot control measures should be temporary and that the symptoms described “go beyond what is considered temporary and acceptable. Therefore, all such cases should be investigated, including within the context of torture or other ill-treatment.”

Georgia authorities called our findings “extremely frivolous” and “ridiculous.”

The statement said law enforcement acted “within the bounds of the law and the Constitution” when responding to “the unlawful conduct of brutal criminals.”

Protests on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue have shrunk in size but not in frequency since the government increased fines and jail terms.

almost every night for the past yearDemonstrators have called for the resignation of the government, which they accuse of rigging elections, siding with Russian interests and passing increasingly tough legislation targeting civil society.

The ruling Georgian Dream party denies that the government or the party’s honorary chairperson Vizina Ivanishvili are pro-Russian or pursue Russian interests. It told the BBC that legislative changes over the past year were in the best interests of the “public welfare”.