Georgia: Background
In November 2003 a popular uprising following fraudulent parliamentary elections, which became known as the Rose Revolution, ended in the bloodless ouster of the government of President Eduard Shevardnadze.
Mikheil Saakashvili, leader of the Rose Revolution, was elected president in January 2004 with 96 percent of the vote. He was enormously popular at home and in the West, but faced significant challenges. Conflict in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia remained frozen, leaving some
220,000-247,000 people internally displaced in Georgia, organized crime had laid waste to the economy,
widespread corruption paralyzed state institutions, and
unemployment and
poor economic conditions drove a large portion of the population to seek employment abroad.
President Saakashvili launched a series of institutional reformsmost notably to overhaul the famously corrupt police and judiciaryand prioritized fighting organized crime. He successfully reasserted control over Adjara, a region of Georgia that had refused to cooperate with the central government.
Parliamentary elections in March 2004 gave Saakahsvilis ruling National Movement party an overwhelming majority in Parliament, and its decisive victory in October 2006 local elections further strengthened the presidents mandate.
In December 2006 the Georgian Parliament
amended the constitution to
extend the term of the current Parliament and allow for simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections at the end of 2008. Parliamentary elections were initially scheduled for April 2008, and a presidential election for early 2009. In doing so, the government sought to de-link Georgias election cycle from two external events that it said risked destabilizing the political environment: the March 2008 presidential election in Russia and the impending determination of a final status for Kosovo.
Opposition parties opposed the amendments, claiming that the schedule gave an unfair advantage to the National Movement party.
Georgias political
opposition has been weak and fragmented. Some analysts have observed that Saakashvili alienated the opposition and others by
constantly rebutting criticism and using his supporters
majority in Parliament to dominate politics and
reject constructive dialogue and social consensus on reforms.
While it is beyond the scope of this report to enumerate all of the oppositions criticisms of Saakahsvilis government, it is worth noting that the
resignation and then arrest of former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili, who had been one of Saakashvilis closest associates, served to galvanize it. Okruashvili was arrested on September 27, 2007, two days after making public statements accusing Saakashvili of corruption and claiming that the latter had instructed him to kill
Badri Patarkatsishvili, founder and part-owner of Imedi television.
Crossing the Line: Georgia's Violent Dispersal of Protestors and Raid on Imedi Television
Crossing the Line: Georgia's Violent Dispersal of Protestors and Raid on Imedi Television: Summary
A few excerpts:
The Opposition Demonstrations
Shortly after Irakli Okruashvilis arrest, 10 opposition parties and movements established the United National Council to coordinate their activities. The council initially issued four main demands to the government, the most important of which was to restore parliamentary elections to their original scheduled date of April 2008.
Other demands included the creation of new local election commissions with representatives from political parties; changing the current majoritarian electoral system; and the release of political prisoners. The opposition also accused Saakashvili of corruption and the use of the police and the judiciary for political purposes.
Crossing the Line: Georgia's Violent Dispersal of Protestors and Raid on Imedi Television: Summary
(read the entire 2 MB report)
"...................Georgia under President Mikheil Saakashvili has been hailed by Western governments as an example of a successful transition to democracy in the former Soviet Union. However, the fragility of Georgias commitment to human rights and the rule of law was revealed on November 7, 2007, when government forces used violent and excessive force to disperse a series of largely peaceful demonstrations in the capital, Tbilisi. In the course of breaking up the demonstrations law enforcement officers hastily resorted to the use of teargas and rubber bullets. Police and other law enforcement personnel, many of them masked, pursued fleeing demonstrators of all ages, kicking and punching them and striking them with truncheons, wooden poles, and other objects.
Heavily armed special troops raided the private television station Imedi, threatening and ejecting the staff and damaging or destroying much of the stations equipment. Outside the studios, Imedi staff and their supporters found themselves set upon by riot police again using teargas and rubber bullets and pursuing those who fled. Extensive photographic and video evidence captured that day by journalists and others illustrates these incidents........."
"...............At approximately 8:45 p.m., after all demonstrators at Rike had been dispersed, hundreds of special forces troops armed with machine guns and other weapons entered the Imedi television studios, and forced journalists and other staff members to lie on the floor with their hands behind their heads, deliberately intimidating them by pointing guns to their heads and with aggressive language. The government troops forced Imedi off the air, after anchors managed to describe the raid to viewers in the final minutes of broadcasting. Journalists and other staff were forced to leave the studios and troops damaged or destroyed much of the stations equipment. Imedi was founded by Badri Patarkatsishvili, an exiled Georgian businessman, and is partly owned by Rupert Murdochs News Corporation...."
.....The raid on and closure of Imedi television was a violation of Georgias commitments to guaranteeing freedom of expression. The legal basis for the decision to raid and close Imedi has been seriously called into question, and there is evidence to suggest that the legal basis was established after-the-fact and backdated. The governments allegation that a single broadcast by Imedi posed an urgent threat to public security is also questionable and deserves further scrutiny. ................"
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"....It has also been held up as an example of a successful transition to democracy in the former Soviet Union region. As a result, the US and EU have refrained from criticizing Saakashvili in public and from engaging in robust discussion of the countrys human rights problems. They have relied on the Georgian governments repeatedly-stated good intentions and promises of reform, ignoring warning signs that the government was not only failing to live up to the principles of the rule of law and human rights it espoused during the Rose Revolution, but taking many serious steps to undermine these principles. Among them has been the dangerous mix of a quick resort to use of force by law enforcement agents, the willingness at the highest levels of government to condone these actions, often publicly, and a failure to ensure accountability for abuses committed by law enforcement agents....."
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U.S. Navy Ships Head to Georgia
Civil.Ge | U.S. Navy Ships Head to Georgia
USS McFaul (DDG 74). Photo: U.S. Department of Defense
Two U.S. Navy ships, including a guided missile destroyer
USS McFaul, and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter are getting underway to transport humanitarian assistance supplies to Georgia, U.S. European Command (EUCOM) said on August 21.
It said USS McFaul (DDG 74) departed from Souda Bay, Crete, on Wednesday and the cutter
Dallas (WHEC 716) will depart later this week.
McFaul and Dallas are scheduled to transit into the Black Sea and arrive in Georgia within a week, according to the U.S. European Command.
The announcement comes after it was reported that Turkey gave its go-ahead to sail through its straits into the Black Sea.
The ships will transport thousands of blankets, hygiene items, baby food and infant supplies to save lives and alleviate human suffering, U.S. European Command said.
The Associated Press reported quoting unnamed U.S. official in Turkey that
USS Mount Whitney would be among those three vessels expected to arrive in Georgia.
Anatoly Nogovitsin, deputy chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, said at a news conference in Moscow on August 21, that the Russias Black Sea fleet continued providing security regime for maritime in the eastern part of the Black Sea.
There is no need to further reinforce it [the fleet], he added.
Meanwhile, a team of U.S. European Command, led by Army
Brig. Gen. John Miller, is already in Tbilisi to assess the current humanitarian situation and make recommendations on continued humanitarian support to senior military leadership.
The EUCOM team will conduct a deliberate and focused assessment, encompassing variables such as transportation, infrastructure, manpower and many other life support considerations, the U.S. European Command said.
And on August 21, the head of the U.S. European Command, Gen. John Craddock, who is also NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, also arrived in Tbilisi."
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Here's a little trick, boys and girls - whenever you see the word "Georgians" replace it with "Nazis"
Saakashvili: We Need to Strengthen Defense System
Civil.Ge | Saakashvili: We Need to Strengthen Defense System
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 21 Aug.'08 / 21:05
The commander of the U.S. European Command, Gen. John Craddock (right) and U.S. Army Brig. Gen. John Miller in Tbilisi on August 21. Photo: InterPressNews
President Saakashvili said on August 21, that Georgia was needed help in developing our economy, rebuilding infrastructure and strengthening our defense capacity and security structures.
You know that a group of [U.S.] senators visited Georgia yesterday. They are ready to allocate great funds for strengthening the defense systems of Georgia. We, together with the U.S. command and NATO, are now working over identifying in which direction this strengthening should take place, he said.
Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham visited Tbilisi on August 20 and held talks with the Georgian leadership.
[We] would like to see the United States provide assistance to the Georgian military self-defense equipment that will help them defend and deter against Russian aggression in the future, he said in Tbilisi.
We asked them [the Georgian authorities] what security needs they had, and they were quite specific and quite defined, he added.
The Georgian officials say anti-aircraft and anti-tank systems were top priority.
President Saakashvili also said on August 21:
Georgia needs much more resources, much more assistance. We will become ten fold, hundred fold stronger as a result of this occupation and we will continue our development.
Saakashvili was speaking after meeting with the commander of the U.S. European Command, Gen. John Craddock, who is also NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe and Henrietta Holsman Fore, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
We will have to help them rebuild because they are a partner in the war on terror, Gen. Craddock said.
"Let no one have doubts that all my forces, all my financial resources until the last tetri [Georgian monetary unit] will be used to free Georgia of this fascist regime," Giorgi Lomsadze, Georgia Grapples with Restricted News Coverage, EurasiaNet, November 8, 2007,
EurasiaNet Civil Society - Georgia Grapples with Restricted News Coverage
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