Accusations Against Saakashvili
// Betrayed by former colleague
Ex-Minister of Defense Irakli Okhruashvili made a scandalous return to Georgian politics while presenting an opposition party “For a United Georgia.” The former colleague of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili accused the latter of corruption and planning murder, implying that the head of state was involved in the death of the Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. The compromising announcements, made the day before the president’s speech at the UN may play to Moscow’s favor. Saakashvili had planned on criticizing the Kremlin for its support of the regimes in Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia.
Ex-Defense Minister of Georgia Irakli Okhruashvili, who was dismissed by Saakashvili last November, ruled the airwaves yesterday in Georgia. A day earlier the colleague who had fallen from grace announced a new opposition party “For a United Georgia” and made a series of telling blows to the head of state. The Imedi channel talk show Open Air Tuesday night broadcast Okhruashvili, who accused the president of planning bloody crimes, corruption and betrayal of Georgia’s national interests.
For starters the ex-minster said that the head of state had personally told him to eliminate the famous Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, one of the owners of the Georgian media holding Imedi. “He gave me a concrete plan to eliminate him. I didn’t answer yes or no and asked for time to think. If I had carried out the task they would have taken me away the very next day,” the oppositionist said. The businessman was saved by the fact that Okhruashvili reported the information to the Americans, after which “Saakashvili didn’t mention it again.”
In his next passage the politician hinted that the president’s weapons may be behind the death of Zurab Zhvania, one of the organizers of the Rose Revolution of February 2005. Officially he died of carbon monoxide poisoning. However, Okhruashvili claimed to have previously unknown details of the prime minister’s death. “I have information that his body was moved to his apartment from a different location after his death.”
The ex-minister asserted that there is a “well-organized group of people who carry out the president’s jobs.” Okhruashvili credits this group with the violence against the oppositionist Deputy Valery Gelashvili who was assaulted, allegedly by elite officers by orders of the Minister of the Interior Vano Merabishvili. In the process the ex-minister accused the head of state of corruption, saying that the latter has billions of dollars, controlled through figureheads of large businesses ranging from Rustavi-2 to the railroad industry.
Okhruashvili also accused the president of betraying the interests of Georgia. As prime minister in 2006 Okhruashvili was praised for his promise to celebrate the 2007 New Year in the capital of Southern Ossetia, Tskhinvali. During the night broadcast on Imedi he spoke on the forces that kept him from fulfilling that promise. “There was a plan to return Tskhinvali without heavy losses. The plan was set for spring 2006. Everything was decided between three or four people: the president, myself, the minister of the interior and the prosecutor general Zurab Adeishvili,” Okhruashvili said. He left the government knowing that the plan would never be realized. Okhruashvili ended the broadcast by revealing some of the weaknesses of the president who faltered in his speech last year before the UN in demanding that Russian peacekeepers withdraw from conflict zones in Georgia. “The text of his speech had him (Saakashvili) denouncing the agreement allowing for the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Georgia. But at the last minute he decided against it.”
Its worth noting that Okhruashvili made the announcement when Saakashvili was in New York to take part in the UN General Assembly. The president didn’t comment on the attack by his former colleague. The president’s press service also kept quiet. “I don’t know what’s going on with Okhruashvili. He’s probably gone mad,” laconically answered Natalya Partskhaladze the assistant head of the press service.
Representatives of the president’s party, United National Movement, zealously defended Saakashvili. The leader of the parliamentary majority, Giga Bokeria, called the sensational announcement by the ex-prime minister the beginning of a “mud-slinging war.” “No need to take it seriously. This has all crossed the line. What you heard is only worth pity. It’s the complete degradation of a person. I regret that Okhruashvili has started his war,” Bokeria said. In his opinion the “anti-corruption campaign against representatives of his clan” is what put Okhruashvili over the edge. Over the past weeks three members of the ex-minister’s circle have been accused of corruption and were detained.
Georgian State Minister on Reforms Coordination Kakha Bendukidze also refuted the accusations, calling them “laughable.” In his words “no one in the country” has $1 billion. He also called the claims about Zhvania’s death absurd. “I’m sure that it was a tragic accident and that no on killed Zurab Zhvania.”
However, one of the main characters in Okhruashvili’s version kept quiet yesterday. His Tbilisi office said that the businessman is currently out of the country and it’s not certain when he will be back. Partskhaladze neither confirmed nor denied the statements.
But whether the statements are true or not they have already made waves. Outside the office of the new party “For a United Georgia” there was a line of people wishing to join the struggle against the governing regime. About 500 people filled out applications. This may be a good start to a political career for Okhruashvili, considering that parliamentary elections in Georgia are a year away.
Okhruashvili’s recent activity may very well have an international resonance as well. The ex-minister may have counted on that. When Okhruashvili made his night appearance in Georgia it was day in New York where Saakashvili was, meaning that they knew of the ex-minister’s speech.
President Saakashvili planned on sharply criticizing Moscow (a speech that was to be given after this paper went to press), mainly for its peacekeeping activities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. That didn’t promise anything good for Moscow after last week’s announcement that a group of saboteurs had been neutralized in the Kodorsk Valley in Abkhazia. Two Russian officers died during the incident, which allows Tbilisi accuse Russia of direct support of the Abkhazian authorities. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tried to meet with his Georgian counterpart Gela Bezhuashvili before Saakashvili’s address but was denied. After Okhruashvili accusations Saakashvili talk in New York will loose some of its effectiveness. What’s more, Moscow will be able to answer along the lines of “you’re no better.”
Russia has already said that the international community should pay attention to the accusation made by Okhruashvili. Constantine Kosachev, head of the Duma’s foreign affairs committee, has said that the accusations should be discussed in international circles, including the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The head of the Federation Council’s foreign affairs committee and leader of Russia’s PACE delegation Mikhail Margelov agrees. “The fact that Okhruashvili mentioned people well-known in Europe and the US might give his statements resonance,” the senator said. “Zhviania is known in PACE and Washington. One can guess that there will be a statement from the US State Department and discussion in PACE. The PACE presidential committee will meet on Sunday and I think that the chairman, Rene van der Linden, will address this issue.”
Okhruashvili will likely be used by Moscow as a one-time trump in the struggle with Saakashvili. In any case, sources in the Kremlin yesterday confirmed that they are not going to be putting any bets on the ex-defense minister for the 2008 parliamentary elections in Georgia. When he was in power Okhruashvili was a strong opponent of Russia. “Saakashvili set up the playing field for Okhruashvili himself by practically destroying the central opposition. But that had the opposite effect. What’s going on now is a fight between Hitler and Goebbels. We’re not going to support either one of them,” the Kremlin source said.
Vladimir Solovyov; Vladimir Novikov, Tbilisi
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 27, 2007
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