Even if he is a democrat it doesn’t mean he can’t make a
Posted in General on 23. Jul, 2010
“Even if he is a democrat, it doesn’t mean he can’t make a mistake,” she said “Sometimes his image in the West is an obstacle for us. It’s been very hard to prove he can be wrong.”That Mr Shevardnadze has kept strange company is beyond doubt. He was propelled to power in 1992 by two militias, the National Guard and the Mkhedrioni (Horsemen), which engineered the coup that ousted president Zviad Gamsakhurdia but quickly turned into a lawless mafia. The Georgian authorities say he is in Moscow, and suspect he is being protected by former KGB men.But she also blames the President for surrounding himself with people like Mr Giorgadze. But Mrs Sarishvili- Chanturia was to be found in her Tbilisi office, still wearing her widow’s weeds. “Why was he slain?” she asked, then answered: “Because he was a real alternative in the presidential elections.” The couple had been preparing for three years for Mr Chanturia, the NDP chairman, to run for the top job.She blames Georgia’s former head of security, Igor Giorgadze, whom the Georgian government has charged with trying to assassinate Mr Shevardnadze in August.
Since then,at 32, she has become one of the country’s three most popular politicians and head of the National Democratic Party (NDP), perhaps the best-organised party in Georgia.Long lines of Georgians spent yesterday queuing in the tree-lined boulevards and cobbled streets outside the polling stations. PHIL REEVES
Tbilisi
Were it not for amazing good fortune, Irina Sarishvili-Chanturia would not have lived to see her countrymen step out to the polls for an election that will almost certainly return Eduard Shevardnadze to the Georgian President’s office.Had the assassins had their way, she would have died with her husband, Giorgi, who was shot 11 months ago in one of several unsolved political murders.But she survived the spray of machine-gun fire, although she still has a bullet lodged near her heart. It also sends food and the very few supplies which the inventive Tigers cannot use for war purposes.Tamil refugees are in no immediate danger of starving, according to relief agencies. But the danger exists that, denied proper medicine and water purifiers by the government, since these too are bizarrely considered to be materiel, Tamils fleeing the war may soon find themselves facing a far more deadly enemy: a cholera epidemic..
The northern Tamils and the southern Sinhalese have co-existed on this island for centuries. Some blame the British colonialists for upsetting the equilibrium by giving the minority Tamils a boost.The Sinhalese government cannot decide whether the Tamils, like a rebellious younger brother, should be coddled or beaten. So, confusingly, it does both.Even in the Tiger-run areas, Colombo still pays salaries to teachers, bank clerks and postmen. Where they are huddled, in Chavakachchi, is less than six miles from the battle zone, and the hammering of artillery shells and mortars is relentless.The fratricidal aspects of this conflict are also apparent.
They are camping in schools, Hindu temples, convents, anywhere that gives shelter from the monsoon rains. Some said it was because the Tigers refused to let them pass unless they paid 50,000 rupees (pounds 500) for a “three-month visa” into enemy territory. Others insisted that few Tamils wanted to go south because they were afraid of reprisals by the island’s majority Sinhalese. Unable to halt the army’s assault on Jaffna, the Tigers lately have turned on easier prey, massacring Sinhalese and Muslim villagers in the borderlands.These refugees voiced bitterness towards their supposed protectors. After the Tiger chief, Velupillai Prabakharan, broke off peace talks with the government in April and restarted the 12-year-old civil war, many Tamils now openly express fear and distrust of their rebel leaders “The Tigers may have a dream of Eelam, but not the people.