Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
What has been happening in Georgia in recent weeks looks like ersatz of a civil war. The real civil war took place in Georgia in 1990-1993 and led to bloody conflicts with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It started from a confrontation between political and social groups in the capital.
The parliamentary elections of October 1st when the coalition Georgian Dream by Bidzina Ivanishvili won couldn’t solve the problem. The sides simply switched places: Mikhail Saakashvili’s team turned to be the opposition, while his long-term rivals came in office. But mutual hatred and intransigence remained. It concerns not only politicians, but also their supporters, i.e. common citizens.
Any civil contradiction begins with the conflict of values and “a mental blast.” The classic example is Georgia: a tragic story of 19-year old Buta Robakidze who was killed by policemen on November 23, 2004. Late at night Buta and his friends were going home after a party. His car was stopped by the police guard. It is still unclear what was next: the policemen said that young people were armed and they were right to use force against them. One of the policemen accidentally shot at Pobakidze and killed him. But relatives and friends of the guy stated that there were no armaments in the car, and the police planted guns on their car. After the power had changed, those guys who survived on that dreadful night were set free as “political prisoners of Saakashvili’s regime.”
And suddenly one of former police officials who was brought to responsibility for falsification of evidence – Irakly Pirtskhalava – gave a video to journalists (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyknpquOu2A). It was recorded on the spot and showed that young people had armaments in the car. Moreover, not only guns, but also Kalashnikovs. The video demonstrates that Bashaleishvili shot, trying to make one of the detained lie down, and Robakidze who was standing in a couple of meters from them swooped down.
Bashaleishvili was judged and sentenced to prison for 4 years. He did a spell in prison and nobody would judge him for killing by recklessness again. But parents of Buta Robakidze and the society demanded to punish the police officials who defamed Buta and his friends.
And now 8 years later the sensational video is appearing from nowhere. The society clashed into those who believe that the video is fake and those who believe it is real. The history of teaches us that public discussion of big criminal cases often leads to serious social problems and a clash. The Dreyfus affair in France is a bright example.
Of course, the Robakidze affair has gained the political character: supporters of the president respired and stated that the new authorities tried to defame the Revolution of Roses and the non-corrupted police. Those who all these years thought that the Robakidze affair confirmed lying and hypocrisy of Saakashvili’s power can only hope for an expertise will find the video fake. And what if not? The expertise will be conducted by the USA and Germany.
The most dangerous is a blast of values between big groups of the society, which appeared due to the results of the Revolution of Roses and the price which the society paid for the struggle against corruption and for modernization. The point is that the policemen who killed the 19-year old boy were recruits. They came to the police after Saakashvili exiled all former employees who were accused of corruption. It should be noted, these accusations were fair.
The new guard didn’t take bribes. From this point of view Saakashvili’s police was absolutely just. But here we have paradox: during 8 years of Shevardnadze’s regime his “corrupted police” conducted street operations against bandits, thieves, murders, and other rubbish, but there were no cases of accidental killing or purposed shooting at a suspect during arresting. Because the operations were conducted by corrupted, but professional policemen. Buta Robakidze and his friends dealt with “uncorrupted dilettantes” who were taught in two weeks and gave them guns which are very dangerous in inexperienced hands.
Buta Robakidze is not the only victim of such dilettantism. A well-known case when “a non-corrupted guard” which replaced the corrupted traffic police accidentally shot Georgy Gamtsemlidze for overspeeding. They targeted at wheels, but shot a man.
If we dig deeper into the current confrontation between Democrats and Republicans in the USA and Conservatives and Laborites in the UK, we will find mental essences which come from old times of the Civil War and the War of white and red roses. However, the problem of Georgia is that its new authorities try to destroy the opposition completely – Saakashvili’s party – as a supporter of “an alternative essence.”
How they are doing it and what the consequences of their efforts are will be discussed in the next article.
