Press Digest 14.11.2014
Two girls, Public Defender and the Didube Municipality
Burjanadze’s scandalous testimony – will Saakashvili be judged?
“Republicans and Free Democrats are likely to unite for the next parliamentary elections”
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Two girls, Public Defender and the Didube Municipality
"Confrontation and clashes having erupted between the Public Defender’s entourage and the Municipality of the Didube region are still unresolved. The Municipality blames the ombudsmen for disseminating misinformation to the public, while the Ministry under Nanuashvli claims that they have made every effort to discredit the human rights constitutional body. As per the ombudsmen, after the elections, a number of strangers have emerged in the municipality out of the blue and later they took different posts there. The Governor of the region of Didube hopes that Ucha Ninuashvili has simply been deluded and he is not purposefully trying to misrepresent the reality by misleading the public,” reports the Rezonansi gazette, in the article under the title “Two girls, Public Defender and the Didube Municipality.
“Confrontation was triggered by the move from the Public Defender’s Office to carefully examine the situation in different NGOs that have been reorganized in the wake of the elections. The Public Defender’s Office required detailed information regarding those officials who have been dismissed after the elections. As the released data has it, as many as 387 people were removed from their posts in October 2014. As the 10 November report by the Public Defender says, a number of former officials that have been forced out of the local self-government bodies stressed that they did not have the slightest desire to resign and were pushed to file letters of resignation as they were subjected to unceasing pressure from those at the helm of different organizations,” says the article.
“Representatives of the Public Defender have looked into the situation in the region of Didube after a citizen petitioned them to do so. Having looked over the relevant materials and obtaining detailed information, they found out that after the local self-government elections, some unknown inpiduals entered the Municipality of the Didube region every day and fulfilled some responsibilities there. However, after the heads of different pisions and departments of the municipality were forced to quit, these people took their posts. The flagrant practice of granting these posts to some unknown inpiduals is unacceptable as it violates the law,” says the statement. However, as the responding statement from the Didube Municipality reads, the facts given in the Public Defender’s mendacious report are far from the truth,” reads the paper.
"As for an inpidual who allegedly entered the Municipality every single day and followed some instructions from the governor in the social department, we think that they implicate Zurab Ugulava to be this man. However unfortunately, the Public Defender has forgotten to point out that Zurab Ugulava took on fulfilling his entrusted duties after a contract with him was finalized on September 2, 2014, and this once again strengthens the allegation as per which the Public Defender’s Office has not urged us to provide them with relevant information regarding this issue. Here we also want to underline that Zurab Ugulava has never had anything to do with the Social department. On 17 September, Tea Darkhvelidze was commissioned to take up the duties of interim governor and she has presided over the social department since then, while Zurab Ugulava took the post of deputy governor and he has been in charge of the pision of infrastructure,” says the statement which has allegedly infuriated the Public Defender, who released anther statement saying that on Nov. 17, the representatives of his office entered the Didube region Municipality, where they attempted to meet with an inpidual and namely Zurab Ugulava who was mentioned in the statement; their attempt has turned out fruitless though. The representatives of the Municipality allegedly told them that such a man has never served in the body,” writes the author of the article.
“I do call loudly to the City Hall officials as well as the Municipality of the region of Didube to hold back from issuing similar public statements in the future as statements like this can easily stain the reputation of the Human Right Constitutional body,” says the statement from the ombudsman. Governor of the Didube region, Irma Zavradashvili, has responded to the aforementioned statement from Public Defender Nanuashvili and has emphasized that she has never seen their representative in the Municipality. Moreover, the Public Defender’s Office has never urged them to give them any kind of information regarding this issue. As per her, around two months ago, two unknown girls entered the social department and asked the officials whether or not they knew Zurab Ugulava. As per Zavradashvli, the girls refused to specify which organizations they represented,” concludes the author of the article.
Burjanadze’s scandalous testimony – will Saakashvili be judged?
"More and more scandalous facts are being brought to light at my brother’s court trial underway in the Zugdidi Municipality Court. They have almost proven that in 2006, the Kodori Gorge was ceded after the Nationals stooped to betray their own country and people. They allegedly sold their country for a colossal amount of money. 2 days ago, Nino Burjanadze, as former Chairperson of the Parliament, gave testimony to the court regarding this case. Her questioning reportedly lasted for 3 hours, and she passed paramount information onto the judge and the attending audience. In those days, when these terrible events took place in the country, she held a very high post and, thus, she knows a great deal. With her testimony, she backed up the allegation saying that the situation in the gorge was deliberately provoked and the Georgian people betrayed in ominous 2006,” declares former political prisoner, Nora Kvitsiani, in her interview with the Akhali Taoba gazette.
“In Court, Burjanadze pointed out that even she was against Emzar Kvitsiani then. “In those days, I passed harsh judgment on Mr. Kvitsiani due to the fact that he grabbed arms and refused to obey the government. However, if we take a closer look at his decision, it seems logical,” stated Nino Burjanadze. She also remembered the Security Council session of July, 2006, when they decided to align troops near the Kodori Gorge. Emzar Kvitsiani was still in Tbilisi then. Why or for what reason this terrible decision was made? Only two men can answer this important question today, and these two people are Mikheil Saakashvili and Irakli Okriashvili, who fled their native land and are now hiding from our court. As for Nino Burjanadze, she appeared in court and gave testimony there for three hours as soon as she was summoned. If we believe them, they deployed troops in the gorge to seize ammunition there; if this allegation ring true, then they should have sent police officials to the gorge as the military is not given such instructions as a rule,” stresses Nora Kvitsiani.
“Certainly, the inhabitants of the gorge were armed to teeth; otherwise, how could we have managed to safeguard our safety and fend some belligerent powers off?! Even in fall 2004, by the order of the then Defense Minister, Gia Baramidze, they distributed arms in large quantities to the residents of the gorge. Baramidze held a congress and pledged he would help us. However, after a couple of weeks, he was replaced by Irakli Okruashvili, by whose order, the organization “hunter” ceased to exist, and in the wake of this, the entire gorge became some kind of illegal “entity” with illegal arms. I repeatedly submitted reports regarding this issue to the central government, without any kind of tangible result though. However, as we have recently figured out, the cause of those terrible repercussions was a special operation by Saakashvili, who is said to have announced at the Security Council Session that he needed time to regain control of the Kodori Gorge,” maintains Emzar Kvitsiani’s sister.
“Who assumed control on this gorge? And from whom did they plan to free the gorge? -- These are the questions Saakashvili is obliged to answer under any circumstances. He was very well aware of the fact that the gorge belonged to Georgia. He knew perfectly well that we, the locals, purchased food and other household items thanks to financial aid from the President’s fund. In the words of Nino Burjanadze, deploying troops in the gorge was the President’s arbitrary decision since discussions in terms of this issue were not held in the legislative body. Burjanadze is said to have advised the ex-President to discuss this issue with Emzar Kvirsiani; however, Saakashvili refused to take this step. Burjanadze’s testimony corroborated an allegation as per which my brother “proclaimed the war with” the Government by refusing to obey it after the former authorities deployed troops in the gorge. Although the then top official categorically refused that military unites had entered the gorge; according to them, only SWAT members and police officials were sent there. I have repeatedly focused your attention on the agreement of 1994, which banned the government from amassing military units along the borders of the gorge. Emzar also used to say that if they had taken this step, we would have lost the gorge. Precisely against this he fought so vigorously,” concludes Ms. Kvitsiani.
To the question if she believes that the ex-President will be judged, the respondent answers:
“I do believe this. He perpetrated a number of unspeakable offences and he as well as his accomplices will be strictly punished one day. These people are still dissipating money that they have taken from the Kodori Gorge on their high living and precisely these people are now going to stage a rally as if they have something against alienating Abkhazia. I want to warn our IDPs as well as all Georgians that if they join the rally by mendacious Nationals, they will stoop to commit high treason!”
“Republicans and Free Democrats are likely to unite for the next parliamentary elections”
"A presumable new power balance in the chief legislative body of the country is supposed to be the most acute issue in the short as well as in long-term perspective. Personally to me, the speech by the parliament chairperson at Alasania’s congress conveyed many important messages. As a result of the recently whipped up scandal, the demarche of the Republicans has fallen into oblivion. In these words, I implicate the letter from the “Republican Party” released before Alasania’s dismissal,” announces political expert, Soso Tsintsadze, in his interview with the Rezonansi gazette.
“When it comes to intellectual and political resources of our legislative body, the first party we can remember is precisely the Republicans. Take into consideration that at a congress, any of the leaders of this party can enjoy the status of a VIP guest. In order to express their solidarity to the former Defense Minister, they could have easily commissioned Berdzenishvili, Khaindrava or Khmaladze to take the floor and deliver the speech there. But no, they refused to do this. Instead of taking this step, the Republicans chose the Chairman of the Parliament to make a speech at the congress. Even the fact that the leaders of the two parties openly define each other as like-minders with identical values and ideologies is a truly unprecedented occurrence in the history of Georgia’s policy,” maintains Mr. Tsintsadze.
To the question whether or not these two parties are expected to merge into one, the experts responds:
“It’s not of crucial significance whether snap elections will be conducted in the country, today we can tell that these two parties are expected to unite for the next parliamentary elections and, obviously, this will be a really serious occurrence forming a new power balance in our political scene. And today, when the coalition is still some chaotic mix of voices and when other parties are so hapless and miserable that they are even inapt to cross a 2-3 percent election threshold, a really well-organized, promising and powerhouse party with their charismatic up-and-coming leaders is expected to join the opposition.”
“It is true that today the representatives of our government are also actively talking regarding some new constructive left-wing party that would be the “Free Democrats;” however, it is also a fact that they will never prove able to form a classic powerful opposition party. Not to mention, they have graced the formed Defense Minister with such disgraceful epithets on the international stage that the Georgian politicians are not expected to live down this humiliation for a long time,” concludes the political expert.
