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| Maia Panjikidze |
(thecable.foreignpolicy.com) The former officials being targeted for prosecution
in Georgia following that country's recent transfer of power are "criminals and
guilty" and have perpetrated crimes worse than Watergate, Georgian Foreign Minister
Maia Panjikidze
said Friday in an exclusive interview with The
Cable.
Panjikidze also said, in remarks certain to be
controversial back home, that residents of the Russian-occupied territories of
Abkhasia and South Ossetia, formerly part of Georgia, have a "choice" as to whether
they want to be part of Georgia or part of Russia.
But it's her remarks about the recent wave of
arrests in Tbilisi that may get her in hot water with Washington.
In the weeks since the Georgian Dream Party, led by
billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, won
parliamentary elections, high-level U.S. and European officials have expressed
concern that the prosecutions -- amounting thus far to 23 officials of the
previous government for alleged crimes including corruption and torture -- are
politically motivated.
"You can think it's political revUSAenge. It's not.
It's to restore the rule of law. It's not selective justice," Panjikidze
said. "This is not political harassment. These are not political leaders. They
are public servants and they have been involved in worse acts than Watergate in
the United States."
Panjikidze insisted that the new Georgian government
is not involved in the prosecutions or trying to influence the judicial process. But she is sure they are not innocent.
"Cohabitation [with the opposition] is very
important, but it doesn't mean that we have to ignore that these people are
criminals and guilty," she said. "There is no influence from the prime minister
or from other members of the government... These people are simply criminals."
"We have evidence that
there is something wrong with these people," she said. "The signs that they are
guilty are already there and the prosecutors' office already delivered evidence
to that."
Those remarks will do little to reassure Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, who, prior
to her Thursday meeting with Panjikidze, urged the new Georgian government to
play by the rules.
"We do hope that everything that is done with respect
to prosecuting any potential wrongdoers is done transparently in accord with
due process and the rule of law as is befitting of the Georgia dream and the
aspirations and sensitivities of the Georgian people," Clinton said.
State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland went a step further and urged the new Georgian
government to ensure "that there not be even the appearance of any political
motivation in prosecutions."
The
Cable asked Panjikidze
whether President Mikheil Saakashvili
himself may face investigation and prosecution when he steps down from office
at the end of next year.
"I don't know, I can't tell that to you because it's
an independent body and I have nothing to do with it," she said.
Outside observers are skeptical of the new government's
assertion that the prosecution of so many former officials so quickly after the
elections is a coincidence, especially since the promise of such actions was
part of the bitter campaign that brought the new government to power.
"The promise that officials would be punished helped
propel the billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili to
victory in October parliamentary elections, dislodging the
group of politicians who had controlled Georgia for nine years," the New York Times noted Friday.
For all the concern in Western capitals about the
direction of Georgia's domestic politics, Panjikidze's message is that the new government
is not going to change its foreign-policy priorities. The new Georgian
government wants to pursue European Union and NATO membership as soon as
possible, strengthen relations with the United States, and improve relations
with its neighbors, she said. Georgia intended to keep its troops in
Afghanistan past 2014 to assist with the training and advising of Afghan
security forces.
The new Georgian government also wants to pursue
dialogue with Russia, she said, but admitted that Russia refuses to begin that
dialogue due to the Georgian government's position on Abkhasia and South
Ossetia, which is that the territories must be returned immediately.
Panjikidze struggled to explain how the new
Georgian government plans to achieve those objectives and break a stalemate
that has lasted since August 2008, when Russian troops rolled across the border
and wrested away control in a short, sharp war that lasted five days.
Georgia has to improve its own internal conditions
to convince the people in Abkhasia and South Ossetia to decide to rejoin
Georgia of their own accord, she said.
"The plan is to make the country as attractive as possible
for Abkhasians and Ossetians and to give them the choice of what is better, to
be inside Georgia or to be part of Russia," she said. "If we will be able to
build the confidence between us and develop our country and show everybody
inside and outside it's a democratic country, it will be attractive for
everybody and they will see an opportunity for development and prosperity
inside Georgia."
Ivanishvili pledged shortly after the election that
his first overseas visit would be to the United States and he was expected to
visit this month, but that visit has now been postponed for reasons that both
parties declined to explain.
Panjikidze
said Ivanishivili hopes to come to Washington next year. "He has a lot of
things to do at home," she said.
This week, Ivanishivili accused the Washington Post editorial board of
conspiring with Saakashvili and his Washington lobbyists to criticize the new
Georgian government in commentary that harshly criticized the arrests of the former
officials.
"The magnate-turned-prime minister said last week that his first
official visit to the United States had been postponed, which is a good
thing," the Post said in an editorial Friday. "As long as he is imprisoning
opposition leaders and seeking to monopolize power, Georgia's new leader should
not be welcome in Washington."
Reacting at a subsequent press conference in Tbilisi, Ivanishvili lashed out at the Post.
"It is amazing and I will find out how [Saakashvili] managed that such
an editorial appeared [in the Washington Post]. Our president has had
only one thing organized well. This is what he is currently engaged in. This is
all he got. He does lobbying as much as he can. He has this system set
well," he said.
Asked about Ivanishvili's own
cadre of Washington lobbyists, which has included Patton Boggs and BGR
Group, Panjikidze said "We don't have lobbyists." When confronted with the list
of lobbyists on IvanshivilI's payroll, she said those lobbyists' contracts
would not be continued.
"That was in the
campaign. That is not now."
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