Tbilisi, November 12 (Interfax) - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has made very critical comments about developments in Georgia, where the chief of the general staff of the armed forces and two other senior officials have been arrested, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Monday.
“The secretary general was very critical. I practically can’t
remember any critical tone from NATO about Georgia in the past few
years, but I haven’t heard the secretary general use such a tone even in
talking about other countries. This is a reason for some thought,”
Saakashvili told reporters in Prague.
The Georgian leader is attending a session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in the Czech capital.
Saakashvili condemned the arrests of the chief of Georgia’s Joint
Staff, Brig-Gen. Giorgi Kalandadze, and the two other officials.
NATO’s Military Committee was due to visit Georgia this month, but “that visit never materialized,” the president said.
“I now spoke to the NATO secretary general in trying to make sure
such a visit should at least come off in spring and the issue of Georgia
shouldn’t at least come off the agenda for the meeting of the NATO
ministers of defense in December. I don’t know in this situation what is
to be done if we don’t get the MAP [Membership Action Plan, a plan of
preparations for joining NATO], but there at least needs to be some kind
of progress, there at least needs to be a signal,” Saakashvili said.
He said he had tried to “give a chance” to Georgia’s new Cabinet and
to prevent Georgia’s plans of joining NATO going haywire by ordering
Kalandadze after the latter’s release on bail to resume his duties as
chief of the Joint Staff.
“Unfortunately, they failed to take that chance. I think everyone
should realize that those matters can’t be sources of argument between
the government and president. It is vital for Georgia to become a member
of [NATO] from the point of view of our long-term prospects. We mustn’t
have this issue as a source of political confrontation. We’ll harm our
country thereby,” Saakashvili said.
“They’ll probably acquire some experience after their visits abroad. I
hail the foreign visits of our prime minister [Bidzina Ivanishvili]. I
think that for him they are a source of information and that they will
be useful for him, and that, in general, every member of government will
see the interests of the Georgian people more clearly. The Georgian
people mustn’t be harmed because of someone’s lack of experience or some
other intentions,” the president said.
Kalandadze and brigade commander Zurab Shamatava were released on 20,000-lari (413,000) bail on Friday.
Saakashvili met with Kalandadze immediately after his release and, as
commander in chief of the armed forces, ordered the general to resume
his duties.
However, on Sunday, the Tbilisi City Court satisfied an appeal from
the Office of the Chief Prosecutor and suspended Kalandadze as chief of
the Joint Staff.
Kalandadze, Shamatava and former defense minister and ex-interior
minister Bacho Akhalaia are going on trial at the Tbilisi City Court on
December 23. They are charged with abuse of office, and Akhalaia is also
charged with illegal detention and has been left in custody for two
more months.
