INDEPTH: GEORGIA
Georgia's new leaders
June Chua, CBC News Online | November 24, 2003
Nino Burdzhanadze
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Nino Burdzhanadze has been recognized as Georgia's interim president. She is a former speaker of parliament and a lawyer by training. Burdzhanadze is regarded as a moderate who wishes to create a "real democratic environment" in the country. She has pledged to uphold the rule of law and has promised new elections, though she says she does not intend to run for president.
"To be president is a great responsibility and I am not ready," said Burdzhanadze, 39 and mother of two sons. Her husband is the country's deputy prosecutor general.
Burdzhanadze comes from a well-connected family. Her father heads the former Soviet republic's bread and flour monopoly and helped finance former president Eduard Shevardnadze's last presidential campaign.
Burdzhanadze graduated from Tbilisi University in 1986 and completed graduate work in 1990 in the department of international law at Moscow University. She then taught international law at Tbilisi University. She has been a member of the Georgian parliament since 1995. Since then, she has headed the parliament's permanent mission in Great Britain, the committee on legal affairs, the committee on co-operation with the European community and the committee on foreign affairs.
She became Georgia's first female Speaker of the parliament in 2001. Eventually, she became disillusioned with Shevardnadze's rule and formed her own party, Burdzhanadze-Democrats, just before the Nov. 2 election.
She has described herself as forthright, which doesn't always help in politics. "I can work and defend the interests of my country. But I am very weak at backstage and corridor games, and especially at intrigue," she told one interviewer.
In recent interviews, she has said foreign policy will remain the same with a concentration on European values and eventual membership in the European Union.
In the past, the former Speaker has expressed concern over rising criminal activity in the country, especially a spate of kidnappings of businessmen. She called the situation "alarming and unfortunately dangerous for… the country's stability."
Her colleagues say Burdzhanadze has a calming influence. She has called on opposition activists not to turn their anger on Shevardnadze. Burdzhanadze says he's welcome to stay in Georgia and would be given protection.
Mikhail Saakashvili and supporters
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Mikhail Saakashvili's name has been mentioned as the possible new president of Georgia. He led protests for weeks after the Nov. 2 election that opposition parties called a sham. Saakashvili is a fluent English-speaker, who has been described as flamboyant and bold. The 35-year-old has attended schools in Kiev, Strasbourg and Florence. He graduated from Columbia University Law School in the U.S. and worked briefly for a New York law firm. Saakashvili is married to a Dutch woman and has an eight-year-old son.
His road to politics began when an old friend, Zura Zhvania, arrived at his New York office with an offer. Zhvania said he had been sent by President Shevardnadze to recruit talented young Georgians to join his government. The qualifications were intelligence, energy and no links to the old Communist elite. Saakashvili took up the offer and returned to Georgia as a Shevardnadze loyalist. He was elected to parliament in 1995 and became justice minister in 2000.
Soon after, a rift started to form between the minister and his mentor. Saakashvili launched an anti-corruption campaign bringing film crews to luxury mansions of Georgian officials. At a cabinet meeting, he produced documents and photos of expensive villas he said had been bought by ministers with the proceeds of corruption. Saakashvili pushed for legislation to confiscate property from ill-gotten gains. Shevardnadze lashed out and denounced it as "Bolshevik." Saakashvili resigned as justice minister in 2002, calling Shevardnadze's reign a "nightmare."
Saakashvili founded the National Movement party and was elected chief of the Tbilisi city legislature in 2002. Tbilisi is home to almost 1/3 of Georgia's five million people. He increased pensions, repaired leaking roofs and fixed elevators. Saakashvili became a hero in the public's eyes.
Saakashvili's party won the Nov. 2 parliamentary elections according to independent exit polls, but officials gave the nod to the main pro-Shevardnadze party. Opposition parties accused them of vote-rigging. Since then, Saakashvili has been seen in the streets talking to people, giving interviews to international media and visiting with Russian authorities.
A pro-western reformer, Saakashvili says people will see "concrete action" from his party. He has promised to stop corruption and to provide more money for salaries and pensions, but has yet to present an economic program.
In an interview with the The New York Times Saakashvili indicates how his American experience is a blueprint for his goals: "America taught me that you can go from nowhere to somewhere. I had a lot of problems at the beginning, but in just a few years I had a good job and an apartment on Central Park West. That shows a society that's open and rewards work and merit. If we can transplant those values here, our place in the history of this country will be secure."
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| GEORGIA QUICK FACTS: |
Capital: Tbilisi
Population: 5 million
Area total: 69,700 sq. km
Languages: Georgian (71%), Russian (9%), Armenian (7%), Azeri (6%)
Border countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey.
Pop. below poverty line: 54%
Major industries: Steel, aircraft, machine tools, appliances, mining, wood and wine.
Source: DFAIT and CIA
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| CBC STORIES: |
New elections pledged for Georgia (Nov. 24, 2003)
Georgia plunges into political chaos (Nov. 23, 2003)
Protesters storm Georgian parliament (Nov. 22, 2003)
Shevardnadze must resign: opposition (Nov. 21, 2003)
Georgia could slip into civil war (Nov. 20, 2003)
Russia, Georgia to co-operate on fighting Chechen rebels (Oct. 7, 2002)
Russia claims more rebels moving in from Georgia (Sept. 27, 2002)
Russia ready to hit Chechens in Georgia (Sept. 12, 2002)
Georgia accuses Russia of military incursion (Aug. 23, 2002)
Kidnapping ordeal continues in Georgia (Feb. 21, 1998)
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