Posted on 11/01/2001 4:16:41 AM PST by Milosevic2
PUTIN: RUSSIA ATTENTIVELY FOLLOWS EVENTS IN GEORGIA
GEORGIAN SPEAKER CALLS FOR EARLY PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
GEORGIAN INTERIOR MINISTER ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION
Speaking of unadulterated bs ...
Russia tops the list of 75 countries cooperating with Iraq within the framework of the relevant UN-backed oil-for-food program. The Russian-Iraqi trade turnover has reached the $4.2-billion mark,
Then why are all them Iraqi children dying all over the place?
TBILISI, Georgia ...Nov 1, 2001--
Georgian President Eduard Shevarnadze has sacked his entire Cabinet amid a crisis prompted by a botched raid on an independent television station, the country's parliamentary speaker said.The security service raid this week prompted opposition calls for Shevarnadze and his team to step down.
Zurab Zhvania, the speaker, told the parliament that "they just told me that the president has made a decision to oust the entire Cabinet."
"Our task now is to ease tension in the city and prompt the demonstrators to disperse," Zhvania said, according to The Associated Press.
Shevardnadze's spokesman Kakha Imnadze said he could not immediately confirm the decision.
The raid had already cost Security Minister Vakhtang Kutateladze his job and opposition politicians were demanding that Interior Minister Kakha Targamadze and Prosecutor General Gii Meparishvili also quit, The Associated Press reported.
Some had called for the entire government, including Shevardnadze, to step down amid claims that the operation was an attempt at a state coup.
Georgia's parliament had convened on Thursday to discuss the crisis which centres on at attempt by 30 security agents to search the Rustavi 2 television offices on Tuesday.
The agents were acting on a warrant which alleged that the crusading TV station had evaded taxes.
But they were forced to retreat after being denied entry by the company director.
The operation was witnessed by hundreds of Rustavi supporters who claimed the state was trying to silence critical media.
Kutateladze was forced to resign on Wednesday as about 3,000 protesters gathered in front of parliament to show their support for the TV station.
Shevardnadze "shouts that he fights corruption but he has surrounded himself with corrupt officials," said Kote Kherodinashvili, one of the protesters.
Shevardnadze accepted the resignation of Kutateladze, saying it was the "right" decision, while maintaining that the raid on the television station had nothing to do with other government departments and was not a sign of state interference in independent media.
"There is no threat to freedom of speech in Georgia," Shevardnadze said. "It is inviolable."
But he criticised staff at Rustavi 2 for defying a court order to open their financial records for examination, although he admitted that Kutateladze's "methods ... were not very well thought of."
TBILISI, Georgia -- Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has accused Russia of launching air strikes on Georgian villages.Shevardnadze said he wanted to discuss the matter with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
"The Russian bombing raids on Georgian land cannot be justified," Shevardnadze said in his weekly radio address on Monday.
Georgia's Defence Ministry said helicopter gun ships and Su-25 jet fighters raided villages in the Kodor Gorge and strafed the Marukh mountain pass on Sunday and early on Monday.
Some houses were set on fire, but there was no immediate information on casualties, Defence Ministry spokeswoman Nino Sturua told The Associated Press. Russian military officials denied any involvement.
The area is near the border between Georgia and its breakaway region of Abkhazia and has been the site of recent clashes involving ethnic Georgian and Chechen fighters.
Shevardnadze also demanded that international monitors be allowed to oversee Russia's pullout from a Soviet-era base in Abkhazia.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday that the shooting down of a U.N. helicopter in Abkhazia earlier in the month had dealt a big blow to the peace process.
Four U.N. observers, two local staff and three Ukrainian crew members were killed when their helicopter was shot down during an observation flight to the Kodori Gorge on October 8. The attackers have not been identified.
Annan, in a report to the 15-nation U.N. Security Council, branded the attack an outrage that underlined the failure of both sides to adequately protect U.N. personnel, which he called "the cornerstone of any United Nations involvement."
Members of the U.N. Observer Mission in Georgia, known as UNOMIG, are deployed on the separation line between Georgia and Abkhazia.
Georgia lost Abkhazia to separatists in a 1992-93 war, during which it accused Russia of siding with Abkhazia. Russian peacekeepers have been based in the region since 1994 to enforce a shaky truce, but no political solution has been found.
PROPHETIC WORDS of the TRUE PROPHET
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.