Georgian President Kills Two Birds with One Shot
// Mikhail Saakashvili declares war on foreign and domestic enemies
Irakly Okruashvili, Georgia’s former defense minister and President Mikhail Saakashvili’s most dangerous opponent, was arrested in Tbilisi on Thursday. He was detained a few hours after the Georgian leader delivered his speech to the UN General Assembly, accusing Russian peacekeepers of training saboteurs in the breakaway region of Abkhazia. The Georgian president called on Russians to pull out from the conflict zone. Mikhail Saakashvili has thus struck a blow on two enemies – those inside and outside the country.
The Georgian president spoke twenty minutes at the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly, mainly focusing on relations with Russia. Mr. Saakashvili accused Moscow of “supporting separatist regimes” and “training militants in Abkhazia”. Mikhail Saakashvili delivered a convincing speech with arguments for his accusations as he mentioned clashes in the Tkvarcheli Mountains on September 20 when two Russian officers were killed and seven Abkhazian border guards were arrested.
“I would like to ask what a Russian lieutenant colonel was doing in Georgian forests?” Mr. Saakashvili asked. “Was he there to organize and operate a group of armed insurgents in a terrorist mission?” The incident in Tkvarcheli has clearly shown “what kind of role Russia peacekeepers play in Abkhazia”, the Georgian leader said.
“I will give just one example of the role of Russian peacekeepers in conflict zones,” the Georgian president added. “Two thousand Georgians have died in conflict regions since they [Russian peacekeeper] were deployed in Georgia. Most residents in Abkhazia and South Ossetia still cannot enjoy the achievements of the Rose Revolution. Children in Ossetia grow up hearing gunfire. Many are homeless. They are the victims of immoral policies which include ethnic purges. But we will not rest until we achieve justice.”
Mikhail Saakashvili said that all recent incidents in conflict zones have direct bearing with policies of Russia which “supports and arms separatists”. In an effort to substantiate his words the Georgian president cited reports that “Russian citizens are building a large military base on the territory of the Dzhavsky district of South Ossetia, in central Georgia”.
Mr. Saakashvili also referred to “Russia’s numerous provocations Russia, ranging from missile strikes to the economic embargo”. But “Georgia reacted to them as a peaceful country which respects international law,” he said.
The Georgian leader called for a change in the format of the UN-sponsored Georgian-Abkhazian talks and the replacement of Russian peacekeepers by international forces.
Two days earlier, the idea was supported by foreign ministers from GUAM countries Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, guests of the UN General Assembly session. The political directors said that “there is an evident need to replace the Russian peacekeeping contingent by combined forces of the GUAM’s civil police”. The diplomats said that they were going to take steps to “draft a special resolution and promote a broader international support” for peacekeeping in the conflict zones.
Meanwhile, Russian diplomats on Thursday lashed back at President Saakashvili’s abrasive speech as they blamed Georgia for gunning down Russian experts who were training Abkhazian border guards. “They [the Russians] were attacked by Georgian military men during an ordinary training session,” Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said after close-door Security Council consultations. “Two Russian instructors, who quite naturally had military background, were injured and later killed by stabbing and a shot in the head. We have testimony and even names of the perpetrators. It clearly exemplifies the political course of Georgian authorities. They create as many tensions as they can.”
Russia’s foreign policy chief Sergey Lavrov was even blunter. “This is a violent murder,” he said in an interview with the Georgian Rustavi 2 TV channel. “This is the murder of people who laid down arms following a demand of Georgian special forces and were virtually executed. We are indignant by the fact that Georgia knew how it happened and how the murders were committed but commented the incident with a warning that Georgian special forces will be doing the same things again.”
After finishing off the foreign enemy, the Georgian president decided to get rid of a domestic one. Georgian press reported late Thursday night that the country’s former defense minister Irakly Okruashvili, who had recently come up with accusations against the Georgian president, had been arrested in his office in Tbilisi. Mr. Okruashvili said that the Georgian leader “contracted” him to kill Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili and was also linked to the death of Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania as well as numerous corruption scandals.
At 8 pm, Moscow time, Georgian police rounded up the office of the For the United Georgia movement which Mr. Okruashvili had recently set up. Police stormed the former minister’s office and announced charges against him. There still have been no reports on the nature of the charges. Television journalists were in the office when the police stormed in, but the police prohibited filming and even seized all previous footage citing the secret of investigation. Mr. Okruashvili was taken to a detention center. “A criminal case has been opened against Okruashvili, and we will soon provide full information about it,” the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office told Kommersant. The country’s Foreign Ministry was also unable to explain what charges the former minister is facing.
Several allies of Irakly Okruashvili were arrested in the past few days on corruption charges. Mr. Okruashvili, who has spent a lot of time in state service, may also be charged with corruption. In any case, there are no other reasons for the arrest. Despite the obvious link between the arrest and his recent denunciations targeted on the Georgian president, no one can lock up Mr. Okruashvili for slander as an article on persecution for slander was taken out from the Georgian criminal code last year. However, Mr. Okruashvili may be accused of parricide as his denunciatory speech, presented shortly before the Georgian president’s tough anti-Russian report at the UN, caused suspicion within Georgian political circles that he may be playing on Moscow’s side. Unofficial sources in Georgia say that there will always be a charge for Irakly Okruashvili as it is the only way that President Saakashvili can defeat his strongest and most dangerous rival.
In the meantime, tensions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia are mounting. The suburbs of Tskhinvali were under fire from machine guns and grenade dischargers for two hours late Wednesday night. Two residents of South Ossetia were lightly injured and a resident of North Ossetia, Marina Doguzova, who was visiting her relatives in Tskhinvali, was taken to the resuscitation unit with spine splinter injuries. Several city blocks were completely destroyed.
South Ossetia’s President Eduard Kokoity ordered his forces late Wednesday night to bring military hardware close to the Georgian border “to suppress Georgian fire points”. Abkhazian leader Sergey Bagapsh gave the same order to his units. The announcements could be an opening to a war as a treaty between Georgia, Ossetia and Russia bans any hardware and additional units in the 12-km security zone. Authorities in South Ossetia and Abkhazia reported on Thursday, however, that armored vehicles and additional troops had not been sent to the security zone but had only moved closer to it.
Olga Allenova, Moscow, and Vladimir Novikov, Tbilisi
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 28, 2007
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