The FINANCIAL — President Saakashvili said offered on August 29 setting up of, what he called, “an anti-crisis council” to monitor foreign aid coming into Georgia as part of relief efforts after armed conflict with Russia.
“I am offering the opposition to set up a joint anti-crisis council, which will include not only the opposition, but also representatives of the civil society,” Saakashvili said. “The goal is to have these anti-crisis councils not only in the center [Tbilisi], but also on the ground [in the conflict-affected areas], which will be composed by the opposition, civil society representatives and by the victims themselves so that to control inflow of aid and its distribution.”
“I would be more than glad to involve entire political spectrum and the society in this process,” he added.
Meanwhile, Levan Gachechiladze, an opposition politician who was Saakashvili’s main rival in the January 5 presidential elections, said he had met with Saakashvili recently and discussed the matter.
But it seems that the opposition wants more than only just overseeing aid distribution.
In an interview with the Georgian daily, Rezonansi, published on August 30, Gachechiladze said that he had offered Saakashvili during the meeting to elaborate an anti-crisis plan to help create genuinely “liberal conditions in the country.”
“This involves changing the election-related legislature; setting television stations free of propaganda pressure and preventing economic crisis,” Gachechiladze said. “That is the anti-crisis program, which should be implemented by the authorities in close cooperation with the society.”
He also said that currently, against the background of presence of the Russian forces on the Georgian soil, there was no time for confrontation with the authorities.
Gachechiladze, however, added that time will come, when those who “have made mistakes” would be held accountable.
“Today and tomorrow I will not go into street [staging protest rallies], but if the authorities fail to take their share of responsibility and if they fail to acknowledge mistakes, there will be no other option,” he added.
Gachechiladze is a co-leader of the opposition coalition, but he spoke only on his behalf.
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