World's Number One Reformer
TBILISI/BERLIN/WASHINGTON (Own report) - German/US-American dissention is surfacing in the assessments made of the Georgian presidential elections controversy. Mikhail Saakashvili, a henchman of the United States, was declared victor, of these elections, so obviously fraught with irregularities. The defeated opposition candidate, Levan Gachechiladze, had announced his plan to appoint the former foreign minister Salome Zurabishvili prime minister. Zurabishvili, a French citizen, had been a diplomat of the French foreign ministry until she began her career in Georgia. The power struggle for the presidency is concealing important developments in Georgia, developments that have been supported by both Berlin and Washington since the so-called "rose revolution" in late 2003. Tbilisi is loyally living up to its responsibility as transit country for Western energy supplies originating in Central Asia and furnishing troops for Western occupation armies in Serbia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Over the past few years, the country's economy had been radically transformed to meet Western standards. While Germany is increasing its supplies to the small, wealthy elite, large segments of the population are sinking deeper into poverty.
Absolute Monopoly
In the controversy over last weekend's presidential elections in Georgia, obvious dissention between Berlin and Washington was surfacing. Both agree that irregularities accompanied the vote. Incidents of intimidation had been made public prior to the elections. Government representatives had threatened to place polling booths under video surveillance and fire civil servants, if they voted for the opposition.[1] They threatened to make the distribution of state social services dependant upon the outcome of the elections. These threats must be taken seriously, because the party of outgoing President Saakashvili has an "absolute monopoly over all political institutions of the country - from the center of power in Tbilisi all the way to the smallest mountain village in remote regions,"[2] according to the Georgian field office of the Heinrich-Boell Foundation (German Green Party). Western observers have yet to confirm information concerning particularly unlikely election results - 100 percent in favor of the outgoing President in electoral districts, where many people had publicly pronounced themselves in favor of the opposition. But the OSCE's preliminary report is criticizing the "deficient and very deficient" counting of the votes, long delays and a posteriori changes in election protocols.[3]
US Puppet
But Western observers are disagreeing on the overall evaluation of the elections. Whereas US observers immediately described the vote as "a viable expression of free choice of the Georgian people", the German leader of the OSCE Election Observation Mission was still lacking "clarity on some important election day aspects".[4] These diverging declarations show how arbitrarily the West assesses elections to be "valid" or "invalid" in peripheral states. But they also indicate a divergence in relations with the official winner of the elections. In late 2003, Mikhail Saakashvili was placed in power, through the common efforts of western powers. He established close contacts with Berlin soon after becoming President.[5] But in the meantime, he is seen as "a puppet (...) particularly of the United States," according to a Georgian political scientist.[6] On the other hand, the central figure of the Georgian opposition, Salome Zurabishvili, who has possibly been cheated out of her electoral victory, has her roots in French diplomacy.
French Diplomat
Salome Zurabishvili, daughter of a Georgian exile, was born in France and has both the Georgian and French nationalities. During her diplomatic career, she served in French embassies in the United States, in Italy, in Tschad and in the French diplomatic mission to NATO. In November 2003 - after Saakashvili, with the support of the West, overthrew his predecessor - she became French ambassador in Tbilisi. After only four months, she quit her post to become foreign minister of Georgia. She was discharged at the end of 2005, and the West lost an important contact in this southern Caucasian country. Zurabishvili, a French citizen, then joined the opposition, but, because she was not born in Georgia, she could not be a presidential candidate. Therefore Levan Gachechiladze, the leading opposition candidate, announced that, should he become president, he would appoint her his prime minister. He also planned to devaluate the office of president to concentrate power in the hands of the prime minister. With the opposition's electoral defeat, Paris and Berlin lost the chance to install a French head of government in Tbilisi.
Canon Fodder
The power struggle for the presidency is concealing important developments in Georgia, that were jointly supported by Berlin and Washington since the so-called "rose revolution" in late 2003, including the its services rendered to western wars. Tbilisi is not only deploying subsidiary troops in Iraq; it is also participating in the occupation of Afghanistan and Kosovo. To avoid difficulties, Georgia, with the help of the United States and Germany, is restructuring its armed forces to correspond to NATO standards. The German Bundeswehr is organizing extensive training programs for Georgian soldiers. Last October, approx. 150 Georgian soldiers were trained in Leipzig for their deployment in Kosovo. Georgian soldiers are also training in Germany for their deployment in Iraq.[7] Georgia is one of the two CIS member states with the fastest increase in military spending, writes the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP): "The renewal of its internal and external security structures is one of the most visible reform accomplishments since the 'rose revolution'."[8]
Energy Transit
The transformations of the Georgian economy are also very visible. For its radical economic restructuring, the World Bank recently declared Georgia the "world's number one reformer in 2006". In spite of local bureaucratic problems ("corruption"), the conditions are considered excellent for investments. The country has, in the meantime, fundamentally adjusted its economy to serve as the transit route for energy supplies, a role it was relegated in western strategy plans: oil and gas pipelines are transporting the precious raw materials from the Caspian Basin, skirting Russian and Iranian territories, across Georgia to Europe.[9] Foreign investments are therefore concentrated in the energy sector and its affiliated branches. For the rest of the economy, only the construction sector is booming. It is these economic sectors and the consumerism of a small elite, with high purchasing power, that account for a double digit rise, over the last two years, in German imports into this Caucasian country.
Basis of Calculation
Aside from these western coveted economic sectors, the country is sinking deeper into poverty. "The average wage of large sectors of the population is beneath the existence minimum", reports the German development ministry.[10] Retirement pensions are below 20 Euros per month. Observers estimate that the unemployment rate is much higher than that officially advanced (approx. 14 percent). Over the past few years, the only decrease has been in the percentage living below the poverty line - from 55 percent to approx. one third of the population. This decrease is not due to an amelioration of living standards, but due to manipulations of the basis of calculation: according to the Western basis of calculation the amount of the bread ration required daily has been lowered.[11]
[1] TI Georgia Announces Preliminary Results of Monitoring of Misuse of Administrative Resources During Pre-election Campagn; Transparency International Georgia 05.12.2007
[2] Präsidentschaftswahlen in Georgien 2008 - ein Etappensieg für den politischen Pluralismus; www.boell.de
[3] Saakaschwili zum Sieger erklärt; Frankfurter Rundschau 07.01.2008
[4] Georgien: Massenproteste nach Präsidentenwahl; Die Presse 07.01.2008
[5] see also Bitte um Eingliederung
[6] Politologin: Politische Krise in Georgien nach Wahl nicht beendet; dpa 06.01.2008
[7] see also Civilians on the Battlefield
[8] Russland und Georgien: Konfrontation im Umfeld Europas; SWP-Aktuell 32, Juni 2007. See also Im Kaukasus
[9] see also Unsicheres Terrain, Paketlösung and Transitgebiet
[10] Georgien: Situation und Zusammenarbeit; www.bmz.de
[11] Es handelt sich um eine Berechnungsmethode der Weltbank. Wirtschaftsentwicklung Georgien 2007; Bundesagentur für Außenwirtschaft 05.12.2007
