VAZIANI, Georgia (AP) - Troops from 15 nations practiced breaking up demonstrations Tuesday as part of NATO exercises being held in Georgia under the aegis of the alliance's Partnership for Peace program.
Under a glaring sun in temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), the troops at Georgia's Vaziani base, about 20 kilometers east of the capital Tbilisi, quieted a crowd of local residents pretending to be anti-NATO demonstrators. Using truncheons and shields, they created a corridor through the crowd, which was blocking the road leading to the base.
In the next event shown to journalists Tuesday, the troops calmed a staged riot by villagers armed with sticks and bottles.
The exercises, dubbed Cooperative Best Effort 2002, opened June 17 and continue through Friday. The Vaziani base, headquarters of the elite 11th Army Brigade, was vacated by Russian troops in June 2001. It has been renovated with Turkish funding, and it is being brought up to NATO standards.
The troops involved are from Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Greece, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, Britain, Hungary, Bulgaria, the United States, Turkey and Ukraine.
The Partnership for Peace program allows ex-Soviet nonmember countries like Georgia to participate in NATO-run exercises.