Let’s not abandon Georgians again

By Salome Zourabichvili

Back in the 1920s, Labour’s leader Ramsay MacDonald spoke up against the Russian invasion of Georgia and the overthrow of its moderate social democratic government.

Sadly, by the time he came to power MacDonald was too concerned with trading with Soviet Russia to be bothered any more by Georgia. Our people were abandoned by outsiders and our fiercely held independence was crushed.

But if the west forgot Georgia’s brief time as a democracy from 1918 to 1922, Georgians did not. Georgia was the first country to declare its independence from the Soviet Union in the Spring of 1991.

Sadly, since then, our democracy has faltered again. The current president, Mikheil Saakashvili, took power in January 2004 as a crusader against corruption and for human rights. For a while he made real progress, but there was something rotten in the heart of his government and gradually the canker of authoritarianism spread. Ordinary Georgians are suffering as a result.

Cutting crime became an excuse for the interior ministry’s special forces to go on the rampage with automatic weapons. Reuniting the country became an opportunity to indulge in provocative rhetoric and eventually fall into a Russian war trap last year. Building a modern market economy turned into fleecing business for political donations and democratic debate degenerated into the riot police clubbing peaceful protestors, troops smashing up independent TV stations and rigged presidential and parliamentary elections.

A diverse and unlikely coalition of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the US State Department have all reported on these egregious crimes.

When Vice President Biden visited Tbilisi this summer, President Saakashvili promised a “new wave of democracy”, not for the first time. But the reality of his rhetoric is that in the last month he has released politically-connected murderers from prison after just three years in jail; has appointed a man branded a “criminal” by our human rights ombudsman as defence minister; and has authorised a campaign to smear the patriarch of the Georgian church – easily the most respected citizen of Georgia, which is why Saakashvili fears him.

Ramsay MacDonald was an early member of the Fabian Society, so perhaps it is appropriate that the Young Fabians will host an event with the Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia, Giorgi Baramidze tonight. In Georgia, people as young as 15 are beaten up because they go to peaceful political gatherings.

I hope that, when he meets ministers, Young Fabians or Labour members, no one repeats the mistake of Ramsay MacDonald and thinks human rights can wait for another time.

We need your help in Georgia now.

For more details of events in Georgia, please visit www.georgiamediacentre.com.