Adjusting his tie, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, right, went onto the UN podium to once again accuse Russia of aggression before the global community.
Photo: AP
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UN General Assembly Called up for Caucasian War
// U.S., French and Iranian Presidents disputed over Russia
Tuesday, the 63rd Session of the UN General Assembly started in New York, with the war in the Caucasus being in the spotlight. On the first day of its work U.S. and Georgian Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Saakashvili spoke on the issue blaming Russia for its aggressive conduct and violating the UN Charter. Only Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dared endorse Moscow’s line stating that the responsibility for the war rests with NATO.
President’s farewell
The current session is special for U.S. President George Bush – he addressed the UN General Assembly for the last time (at least in the capacity of the White House chief). His farewell speech was brief but terse. “He deliberately asked his speechwriters to make up a brief address because he actually does not like to visit the General Assembly’s sessions. The President considers those meetings to be rather pointless,” a source of Kommersant with the White House said.
Mr Bush’s speech focused on the cause he devoted his two presidential terms to – war on terror and advance of democracy in the whole world. According to George Bush, the U.S. has succeeded much under his leadership. “Polling stations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Liberia, the Orange revolution in Ukraine and the rose revolution in Georgia, the cedar revolution in Lebanon and the tulips revolution in Kyrgyzstan,” the U.S. President enumerated his victories. “We saw everywhere that people made a steadfast choice and demanded freedom.”
However, the U.S. President believes there are still regimes impeding the triumph of democracy. “Extremists kill innocent people to change the fundamental principles of international order,” he said with irritation. Traditionally, George Bush referred to Iran and Syria as extremists’ accomplices. But this time Russia was included in the list of those breaking the world peace for the first time. “According to the UN Charter, all nations, big and small, have equal rights,” the U.S. President stated. “Russia’s invasion of Georgia is violation of these words.” So, George Bush used the UN podium to accuse Russia of breaking the world order for the first time. In the end he said that the U.S. and its allies will keep supporting Georgia’s territorial integrity and democracy.
The audience was silent. Only twice the silence was disturbed by the people entering the hall as George Bush spoke. The first one was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who immediately started discussing something with his colleagues appearing scornful of the U.S. President’s address as he turned his thumb down. The other troublemaker was the next speaker’s spouse, French first lady Carla Bruni. When the former model entered the hall, the majority of the listeners turned away from George Bush watching her till she took her seat.
Old and New Europe
To French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who took the floor after George Bush, the current session is highly important. Chairing the EU, Mr Sarkozy spoke on behalf of Europe, not only France. He tried his best to underscore the difference of the European approach of settling crises from the position delivered by the previous speaker. Nicolas Sarkozy paid much attention to the war in the Caucasus, where he played quite a role. “Europe wants to give example of bringing peace. That is how it acted in Georgia,” he stated.
Nicolas Sarkozy disagreed with the assessment of Russia’s actions Mr Bush gave. “Europe wants to tell Russia that we want to have close links with it, we need a common future. Why shouldn’t we establish a common economic space, which would include both Europe and Russia?” Mr Sarkozy said. The French President was emollient criticizing Moscow for using force in Georgia and its recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He didn’t say a word about the European Union’s support of Tbilisi.
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus’ address was in sharp contrast to his French counterpart’s speech. He attempted to expose “the revisionism in the Kremlin towers”. First he lashed out at the UN for being a passive observer “when universal values and international law are jeopardized”. In the view of Valdas Adamkus, this was of case during the war in the Caucasus. “Perhaps we could not react because one of the parties is the UN security Council permanent member,” the Lithuanian President claimed. Mr Adamkus accused Russia of failing to recognize the occupation of the Baltic states and Ukraine’s Holodomor, ceasing to supply oil via the Druzhba pipeline and to supply gas to Ukraine and Belarus, and finally he called on the UN to address the challenges to the European energy security.
Both friend and foe
After it Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the floor. As usual, he censured the West (the U.S. in the first place), which “possess nuclear weapons and build up their arsenals contesting other states’ right to use the peaceful atom”. He mentioned the war in the Caucasus as well. “The life, property and rights of the peoples of Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia fell victim to plots and provocations of NATO and several other western states, military alliances and Zionist’s secret plans,” he claimed.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was one of the last leaders to take the floor on that day. It was his first overseas visit after the war (earlier he explained his unwillingness to leave the country by the fact that Russia might shoot his jet down). The entire address of the Georgian president was devoted to exposing Russia’s aggression. Mikhail Saakashvili, referring to Human Rights Watch, tried to convince the audience that 44 people died in South Ossetia, not 2,000. “It was just a pretext the invader used,” he said. Besides, Mr Saakashvili accused Russia of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia and South Ossetia “for 16 years”.
“The invasion of my country broke its internationally recognized borders. The recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia put into question the territorial integrity of my country,” Mr Saakashvili said angrily. Then he urged the General Assembly “not to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia whatever” to defend the principles of international law. Mikhail Saakashvili required an independent international investigation of the August developments promising to cooperate with investigation agencies giving them all data he has. Finally, Mr Saakashvili demanded that the format of the peacekeeping and monitoring missions in the zones of the Georgia-Abkhaz and Georgia-South Ossetian conflicts should be changed. He also opposed deploying Russia’s military bases on those territories.
Mr Saakashvili even threatened with another rose revolution in response to the Russian aggression. “We were attacked because we are a successful democracy. Now we are going to make our country even stronger,” he stated. According to him, Tbilisi is working on a program to democratize the state. It suggests extending the parliament’s authority, strengthening the judicial system’s independence, encouraging pluralism and measures to protect property.
Russia’s response will follow this week during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s address.
Six powers’ meeting on Iran called off
Yesterday a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Russia, the U.S., China, France, Britain and Germany was reported called off. The meeting was to focus on imposing sanctions against Iran in connection with Teheran’s nuclear ambitions. “The meeting at the Foreign Ministers’ level won’t be held,” White House Spokesman Sean McCormack confessed. According to him, the American party agrees with its Russian counterparts in that it is not the right time to hold such a meeting at the level of Foreign Office Chiefs. Experts presume that the meeting of the six powers – those of the UN security Council and Germany – was canceled because of the friction the participants had when discussing the situation in the Caucasus. A high-ranking U.S. official later said in his interview with CNN that the meeting was called off because of Russia’s position. According to him, the U.S. regarded the 63rd Session of the UN General Assembly quite a chance to thrash out the issue and tried to create the basic conditions to conduct negotiations. But “the message Russians send is that they don’t think that time has come to discuss Iran”.
Alexander Gabuev; Dmitry Sidorov, Washington
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 25, 2008
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