Posted on 02/03/2005 8:14:23 AM PST by Destro
Georgia PM Found Dead; President Assumes Functions
By Niko Mchedlishvili
TBILISI, Georgia (Reuters) - The prime minister of ex-Soviet Georgia was found dead on Thursday in a bizarre gas poisoning that robs the inexperienced president, Mikhail Saakashvili, of a steadying hand to help run his turbulent country.
Saakashvili said he was taking over the functions of Zurab Zhvania, one of the few heavyweights in his reformist leadership who will be hard to replace. It was not clear if this was a temporary move or not.
Zhvania's bodyguards found the 41-year-old slumped in an armchair near a gas heater at a friend's apartment, said Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili. "This is a tragic accident ... It was a gas poisoning," he said.
Zhvania was the senior figure in a trio of leaders who spearheaded a "Rose Revolution" of street protests that toppled veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze in November 2003 and then installed the West-leaning Saakashvili in power.
The president's decision to name himself as a caretaker prime minister underscored the scarcity of suitable candidates to succeed Zhvania in the country of 5 million people.
"As president I am taking over leadership of executive power. I am ordering the government to return to work," he told a crowd outside Tbilisi's Holy Trinity cathedral where Zhvania's funeral is to be held.
"(Zhvania's death) is a huge blow for our country and personally for me as a president and as a person," a red-eyed Saakashvili earlier told ministers at an emergency meeting, many of them dressed in black, his own voice breaking with emotion.
"I have lost my closest friend, my most loyal adviser, my biggest ally." (There were reports of friction between Saakashvili and Zhvania, though neither man aired this in public.)
European Union (news - web sites) foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was saddened by Zhvania's death. Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), whose relations with Georgia's leadership have often been fraught, sent his condolences.
NO EVIDENCE OF FOUL PLAY
Zhvania's body was found at 4:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) when his guards, worried that he was not answering his mobile phone, broke down the door of the friend's apartment, said Merabishvili. The friend, a middle-ranking official, also died.
There was no evidence of foul play, forensic experts said. Tests showed Zhvania's blood contained fatal levels of a substance called carboxihaemoglobin, said Justice Ministry official Levan Samkharauli.
"That means that the cause of death was carbon monoxide gas," he said. A post mortem report is expected on Friday.
Gas poisoning is common in Georgia, mainly caused by the heaters run off gas canisters that people use in winter, when power supplies are erratic.
Georgia lies in the Caucasus mountains, on the transit route for oil and gas exports from the Caspian Sea to the West, and is racked by simmering conflicts over the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Zhvania was widely seen as a moderating influence on Saakashvili, a 37-year-old U.S.-trained lawyer who is prone to emotional outbursts and provoking confrontation.
There were widespread reports of rivalry between the two men but they never aired this in public.
On occasions when Saakashvili's relations with Moscow or separatist regimes broke down, Zhvania was able to act as a go-between. He was also an able back-room organizer in a cabinet with little experience of the machinery of government.
"(Zhvania) was a very important figure in the leadership who was helping the government to work as a team," a close aide, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.
"But I think there's enough unity in the government and (it) won't come apart after this tragedy."
Under Georgian law, the president has seven days to announce a full-time replacement for Zhvania. The candidate must then be approved by parliament, which is dominated by Saakashvili supporters.
Zhvania is survived by a wife and three children. (Additional reporting by Margarita Antidze)
"Zhvania was the senior figure in a trio of leaders who spearheaded a "Rose Revolution" of street protests that toppled veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze in November 2003 and then installed the West-leaning Saakashvili in power."
AND NO FOUL PLAY? Uh huh! (sarc)
In your fevered mind you would have to create a concpiracy where the body guards remain outside with knowledge of the hit and the malfunctioning gas burner would have to have been placed in the house in advance-working fine until just the right moment when the PM paid a visit.
Suicide or Arkancide?
Georgiacide?
Unexpected Retirement
I have seen pictures of gas hookups in Georgia using water hoses. More likely a gas heater accident - which in Georgia happens a lot.
Right! (big sarc) And other PM candidates don't get poisoned with a rare poison that's so lethal that it scars their face and miraculously live instead. Yeah, tell me another one! (another big sarc)
The gas was KGB gas.
LOL
I'll take your word for it, though I must admit it's fun to consider the alternatives.... like watching a Tom Clancy unfold before your eyes.
I have no doubt that conditions there are not up to the latest U.S. Plumbing code. I wouldn't be surprised either way really (accident or foul play). It is tragic.
not my word - I am like trying to figure out the odds of this being a hit - hits do happen in Georgia - A LOT. But the killers always try and ambush cars of the victim (over half a dozen times to the last president). So this does not fit any MO and to carry it out is very difficult. the complicated James Bond type of assasination is a fiction book and movie invention.
I am like trying to figure out the odds of this being a hit - hits do happen in Georgia - A LOT. But the killers always try and ambush cars of the victim (over half a dozen times to the last president). So this does not fit any MO and to carry it out is very difficult. The complicated James Bond type of assasination is a fiction book and movie invention.
Sounds like carbon monoxide poisoning. Happens pretty often in this country. It could indeed be a tragic accident.
Yeah, I figure if they really wanted him dead, they'd have just had him shot and "robbed" or something.
car bombs have been the methods attempted -and failed-- its easier to kill using car bombs than pulling out this tricky gas death -so if they could not o the easy thing right I doubt the gas leak is an assasins doing.
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