When Water Burns: BBC Eye investigation into Georgia protests

When Water Burns: BBC Eye investigates potential use of World War One chemical against anti-government demonstrators in Georgia

An investigation by the BBC World Service’s award-winning BBC Eye Investigations team has uncovered evidence suggesting that during protests in Tbilisi last year, the Georgian government used water cannons laced with a chemical weapon against its own citizens. In the documentary When Water Burns – The Fight for Georgia, the BBC Eye finds that anti-government demonstrators are likely to have been targeted with “camite”, a chemical agent first used during World War One.

Talking to BBC Eye, the protesters describe the effect of the water cannons used against them as a burning sensation. One protester, who says he suffered from skin irritation on his face for “at least a month”, shared a photograph showing his skin peeling. He said the water “didn’t only get you wet, it also burned your skin”.

The documentary reveals the results of a medical study shared exclusively with the BBC. Having interviewed nearly 350 protesters exposed to riot-control agents and water cannons, the study by Dr Konstantine Chakhunashvili – a doctor and anti-government protester who was among those sprayed by the cannons – showed that nearly half suffered longer-term effects (beyond 30 days) such as a cough, shortness of breath, and skin irritation. In some cases, changes were observed in the lungs and heart.

BBC Eye speaks with high-level whistleblowers from inside the Georgian riot police, who helped determine the likely identity of the chemical agents used in water cannons – information which the Georgian government has so far refused to reveal. A key part of the evidence is a classified inventory from the Special Tasks Department – the main riot-police force in Georgia – that lists two chemicals and gives instructions on how to mix them. The chemicals are not regular tear gas.

A former Head of Weaponry at the riot police tells the BBC he was asked to test a mixture of two chemicals in the water cannons whilst in post. Describing the gas as 10 times stronger than regular tear gas, he says it made it difficult to breathe and caused some of his colleagues to vomit.

After reviewing the BBC’s evidence – the medical study, witness statements, whistleblower interviews and human-rights reports – world-leading expert in toxicology and chemical weapons, Professor Christopher Holstege, at the University of Virginia, believes the gas could be camite. First used as a chemical weapon by French forces at the end of World War One, camite is an obsolete riot-control agent that was dropped due to the persistence of its impact. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Dr Alice Jill Edwards, says that, based on the BBC’s evidence, this could be classed an “experimental weapon”, and its use would be in violation of human-rights law.

Georgia’s ruling party, the Georgian Dream, described the allegation that unknown chemicals had been added to the water cannons as “deeply frivolous” and “absurd”. The party said that the country’s law enforcement had acted “within the bounds of the law and constitution” when responding to the “illegal actions of brutal criminals”.

When Water Burns – The Fight for Georgia is available in the UK on BBC iPlayer. It will also be part of the 1 December edition of the BBC Two current-affairs programme, Global Eye, which presents forensic journalism from BBC Eye and features reports from the BBC World Service’s global teams.  

International audiences can watch the documentary on the BBC World Service YouTube channel.

Read the story on the BBC News website – via bbc.co.uk in the UK; and internationally – on BBC.com, BBC Studios global digital news platform.