|
|
|
|
|
|
29.09.07
|
A Political Martyr?
|
|
|
By Shaun Walker
|
Is Irakli Okruashvili Telling the Truth or Getting Even?
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili addressed the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday and chose a familiar theme: berating Russia for meddling in the frozen conflict zones of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But back home in Georgia, a political scandal was breaking that is threatening to cause the biggest political upheaval in the country since the 2003 Rose Revolution that brought Saakashvili to power.
Protests broke out in Tbilisi on Friday after a televised interview featuring startling allegations by Irakli Okruashvili, the 33-year old former defense minister and Saakashvili associate. In a live broadcast Tuesday night, Okruashvili laid out a whole barrage of accusations involving some of the most controversial and murky episodes in Georgia since Saakashvili came to power. According to Okruashvili, former Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania did not die in the apartment where he was found, but was moved there from another location after he was already dead; Georgian-backed South Ossetian leader Dmitry Sanakoyev had $1.5 million of gambling debts paid off by the Georgian government in response for becoming their man in the breakaway state; and, in his most dramatic statement, Okruashvili claimed that Saakashvili asked him to carry out a Rafik Hariri-style assassination of oligarch Badri Patarkatsishvili. Patarkatsishvili, who has been living in London for the last few months, is a long-time associate of Russian exile Boris Berezovsky and owns the television station where Okruashvili made the allegations. He also took over full ownership of Russia’s Kommersant newspaper from Berezovsky before selling it last fall to Alisher Usmanov. He was quoted from London as saying he could now walk around without bodyguards since no one would dare touch him.
On Thursday evening, Okruashvili was arrested at the offices of the new political party he has set up on charges of fraud and money laundering. Whether or not these charges are true, the timing is highly suspicious. From one angle, it looks like a Mikhail Khodorkovsky-style swoop – he might be guilty, but nobody arrested him before he started making political statements. Another theory, which analysts in Tbilisi say is reinforced by a recording of a phone conversation that took place recently between Okruashvili and an associate that has since been made public, is that Okruashvili knew the arrest was coming and thus decided that his best course of action was to make the allegations, allowing the arrest to make him look like a political martyr.
If that was indeed his intention, the plan has worked so far, with thousands of people taking to the streets on Friday to protest. “Get united and fight for your rights,” said a message from Okruashvili that was read out to the crowds. “Fight to get rid of this tyrant, but through legal means.”
But Okruashvili can hardly be seen as the frontman for a new democratic political movement in Georgia. When serving as defense minister, he was one of President Saakashvili’s closest political allies, representing the hawkish element in the Georgian government that favored solving the “frozen conflicts” in Abkhazia, and especially South Ossetia, by force.
Okruashvili, a native of South Ossetia, famously declared that he was planning to ring in 2007 in Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway state - a remark that forced other members of the cabinet to deny that Tbilisi was planning a military offensive against Tskhinvali. On a 2006 visit to Tskhinvali, separatist South Ossetian deputy prime minister Boris Chochiev claimed to have intelligence that Saakashvili had been told by the White House to “calm Okruashvili down.” When the more compromise-inclined Georgi Khaindrava was ousted as the minister for conflict resolution in July 2006, many saw it as the final victory for the Okruashvili camp and proof that his hawkish instincts had prevailed in the internal government struggle. That same month, Okruashvili led the operation to take control of the Kodori Gorge, and set up the “Abkhaz government in exile” right on the doorstep of the Abkhaz de facto authorities.
But then in September last year, Okruashvili was transferred to the Economic Ministry. A week later, he left the government altogether and went into opposition. For a year, he has remained marginal and relatively quiet, but chose this week as the time to launch his attacks on the Saakashvili government.
Certainly, the opposition was quick to seize on the remarks. Georgi Khaindrava, now a political activist, despite being considered Okruashvili’s arch-enemy when they were both in government, told local wires that it was now clear that Saakashvili was a “terrorist, not a president.” But opposition leaders were quick to say that what united them was anger against the regime, and not support for Okruashvili.
“The protests were triggered by Okruashvili's allegations,” said Magdalena Frichova, Caucasus project director at the International Crisis Group in Tbilisi. “But we should be clear that the people protesting, especially the opposition, were protesting against some of the government's policies rather than endorsing Okruashvili.”
Okruashvili’s remarks reignited debate over several contentious issues that have arisen since the Rose Revolution in Georgia. One such issue was the death of former Prime Minister Zhvania in February 2005, which has long been the subject of many conspiracy theories. Zhvania’s body was found in a Tbilisi apartment where he had reportedly died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Okruashvili stopped short of saying that Zhvania was murdered, but his assertion that Zhvania was brought to the apartment already dead reinforce the statements of Zhvania’s relatives, who have long claimed that the prime minister was killed and then brought to the apartment. “Okruashvili possesses lots of information, and when such a person says the same [as the family], this is very important,” said Zhvania’s brother Goga on Imedi television Wednesday. “But it will be even more important if concrete evidence is produced.”
Giga Bokeria, an influential lawmaker from the ruling party whom Okruashvili named as the only person other than Saakashvili who wields real power in Georgia, denounced the allegations as “hysterical and groundless slander” at a news conference he convened after Okruashvili's claims were made. “It was pitiful to see how degraded Okruashvili, who was a member of our team, was,” Bokeria said. “And I am really sorry that he has turned his back on the values and principles that we have been fighting for.”
“To make himself popular, he has played the macho guy, as always,” said Alex Rondeli of the Georgian Foundation for International and Strategic Studies. “We Georgians love to perform; to entertain.” But, said Rondeli, it is likely that the protests will slowly fade. “However, there’s no question that this is a serious signal to the Saakashvili government. They must be milder with the opposition.”
“Saakashvili is a very popular politician and politically in the driver's seat,” agreed Frichova of the International Crisis Group. The chances are that he’ll win next year’s presidential elections. But in a country that has never seen a democratic handover of power, Okruashvili has laid some pretty serious allegations on the table. Just how the Saakashvili administration responds could well be decisive in determining if the events of this week were a small ripple of discontent or the start of a popular revolution. |
| The source |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The virtual community for English-speaking expats and Russians
