President takes over in Georgia (Georgia PM's Death from "Faulty Gas Heater")

BBC News World Edition ^ | February 3, 2005

[bd476]

President takes over in Georgia

Mr Zhvania played a prominent role in the Rose Revolution

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has said he is taking charge of the government following the death of his prime minister on Thursday.

Zurab Zhvania, 41, was found dead in an apartment in Tbilisi, apparently poisoned by gas from a faulty heater.

Officials say security guards found his body after breaking into a flat owned by friends early on Thursday.

Mr Saakashvili told a crowd in Tbilisi that he was "taking responsibility for leading the executive".

"I am ordering the government to return to work," he added.

Mr Zhvania was once an ally of the previous President, Eduard Shevardnadze.

But he turned against him and played a prominent role in the 2003 Rose Revolution that ousted Mr Shevardnadze.

Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said Mr Zhvania had arrived at the flat at about midnight local time on Wednesday (2100 GMT).

Security guards became suspicious after the prime minister failed to answer his phone for several hours.

Georgia will stand firm, and I hope I will stand firm because it is firmness that we need the most at present Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgian President

They broke in around 0400 to find Mr Zhvania dead in an armchair.

The body of his friend and the owner of the flat, named as Kremo-Kartli region deputy governor Raul Usupov, was found in the kitchen.

No foul play was suspected, Mr Merabishvili said, but the body had been taken to the coroner's office for further examination.

David Morchiladze, the general director of Tbilgaz - the company supplying gas to Tbilisi - said there was an Iranian-made heater installed in the flat which broke safety regulations.

"Carbon monoxide was bound to be collected in the flat," he said. His deputy added that the flat, which Mr Usupov had moved into only a few weeks ago, had no vent for the gas.

'Great patriot'

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili held an emergency government meeting which was shown live on Georgian television.

"Georgia has lost a great patriot whose entire life was devoted to tireless and selfless service to our country. I have lost my closest friend, most trusted adviser and greatest ally," Mr Saakashvili said, addressing his ministers.

"I hope you will stand firm, Georgia will stand firm, and I hope I will stand firm because it is firmness that we need the most at present."

Mr Saakashvili said that his thoughts were with "Zurab's wife Nino, his mother Irma and his three most beautiful children".

Another Rose Revolution leader, parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze, cut short her visit to Italy and is returning to Georgia.

[Destro]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1335084/posts

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.

[jb6]

Wasn't Zhvania openly feuding with other ministers. Need to cross check with articles I posted earlier.

[trumandogz]

Faulty Gas Heater?

Sure that could happen to anyone.

No foul play, move along now to the Michael Jackson Trail.

[Destro]

Reuters: There were reports of friction between Saakashvili and Zhvania, though neither man aired this in public.

[Destro]

Sure that could happen to anyone.

In the country of Georgia it sadly does - that is the only way to heat a home sometimes - and they are not the richest of people so they buy crappy heaters made in Iran.

[Pylot]

You have to give them credit for creativity.

The old line used to be "He got a cold".

[Servant of the 9]

Seems like accidents keep happening to leaders of the breakaway parts of the old soviet Union.
First Ukraine, now Georgia.

Well, Putin did come up through the KGB, didn't he.

So9

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

that is the only way to heat a home sometimes - and they are not the richest of people so they buy crappy heaters made in Iran.

Oh please this is not the little farmer down the lane, this is the Prime Minster of the country. He doesn't have a crappy Iranian built heater in his home. So lets think about this for a moment. The PM has bodyguards, aides, housekeepers, valets, and cooks and who knows what other personnel to support and protect him. No one else dies, and yet there are all these other people there.

So how are you at playing the game Clue?

[jb6]

Now it's "He got warm" :) on gas.

[jb6]

I wonder if he'll put someone else in place or just combine the power. If you read my previous articles ("georgia") you'll see that he basically has one party rule, has closed down 7 media sources and slammed the others into obediance. He's opposed (surprise for a Soros candidate /sarcasm) by the Republicans, Conservatives and Industrialist mini parties.

[GSlob]

Per your title: "Georgia" is not "Georgia, Russia". It is not a part of anything greater, save of Eurasian landmass, and is going as simply "Georgia".

[Destro]

this is the Prime Minster of the country

You might not travel a lot - but most middle class Americans live better than "rich" people in some countries do.

And this is not the Prime Minister's house either but his friend's apartment - his friend is the Kremo-Kartli region deputy governor Raul Usupov.

I do fine in Clue - as long as don't miss the details.

[jb6]

Who benefits? Yushchenko, an EU leftist, is "poisoned" with a substance that has no known fatalities and was able to make it a center piece of his platform while casting doubt on his enemies. This guy dies off after feuding with the boss and the boss anounces he's taking his powers to, for himself. Hmmm, this after Saakashvili closed 7 indepenedent media sources and forced the others under his belt. Yup, all Soros candidates too.

Can't wait till 2008 when the polished dirty tricks come to America.

[bd476]

From BBC Online:

Zurab Zhvania: Architect of revolution

Zhvania lacked Saakashvili's charisma but was a better tactician


"The boyish Mikhail Saakashvili may have grabbed the headlines during Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution, but the whole thing might have collapsed without Zurab Zhvania masterminding the tactics.

"He played a critical role, no less important than Saakashvili," said Jonathan Cohen of Conciliation Resources, an NGO that works closely with leaders in the region.

"He was a much more astute tactician", Mr Cohen said, and was instrumental in persuading then-President Eduard Shevardnadze to step aside peacefully, leading the way to a more democratic Georgia.

"He knew Shevardnadze better than Saakashvili did and was key in the way they negotiated him out of his role."

"Zhvania was the person Saakashvili really
listened to and in many cases, he managed to
stop Saakashvili on the brink of fairly radical things"

Paata Zakareishvili, Center for Development and Co-operation

Zhvania, who went on to become prime minister in the wake of the revolution, was found dead at the home of a friend on 3 February 2005, the apparent victim of gas poisoning.

The death appeared to have been accidental.

It robbed Georgia of a man many had once predicted would be its president.

And it may have removed an important moderating influence on the current president, warned Paata Zakareishvili of the Center for Development and Co-operation in the capital Tbilisi.

"Zhvania was the person Saakashvili really listened to and in many cases, he managed to stop Saakashvili on the brink of fairly radical things."

He cited negotiations with the breakaway region of South Ossetia as an example.

"Without Zhvania there will be nobody to neutralise the more radical figures in Saakashvili's entourage," he said.

Shevardnadze ally

Zhvania became active in the former Soviet republic's politics in the early 1990s as an environmental activist.

He allied himself with Mr Shevardnadze after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Mr Shevardnadze returned from Moscow to take up the reins of power in the republic he had led in the 1970s and '80s.


Zhvania was close to Shevardnadze but grew disillusioned with him

He was instrumental in creating the Citizens' Union of Georgia, Mr Shevardnadze's party, and was once seen as his heir apparent.

But Mr Cohen said the relationship between the two men was never straightforward.

"There is always a Machiavellian element in Georgian politics about who's using whom. He was close to Shevardnadze for a number of years but he was cautious of him as well."

"He thought that reforming from within was the way to change things."

But by the late 1990s, many Georgians were becoming disenchanted with Mr Shevardnadze's rule.

The lush, fertile country once known as the breadbasket of the Soviet Union had fallen into deep poverty and had lost control over several breakaway regions.

Opposition

Zhvania stood down as speaker of the Georgian parliament in 2001 and went into opposition against Mr Shevardnadze, despite the president's offering him the state ministership - effectively making him head of government.

Zhvania refused because the deal would have left Mr Shevardnadze in control of the "power ministries" - those with armed forces at their disposal.

In opposition, he allied himself with Mr Saakashvili, another young reformer who had once been part of Mr Shevardnadze's inner circle but had turned against him.

"There was always a Blair-Brown type of rivalry between them", Mr Cohen said, comparing the two Georgian leaders to the UK prime minister and his chancellor.

"Saakashvili's charisma pushed him to the front - he's excellent at set pieces, motivating, charisma."

"Zhvania never had that, but he was someone with a much more sober take on things," Mr Cohen said.

President Saakashvili appeared on television in tears after Zhvania's death was announced.

"Georgia has lost a great patriot whose entire life was devoted to tireless and selfless service to our country. I have lost my closest friend, most trusted adviser and greatest ally," Mr Saakashvili said, addressing his ministers."

Thursday, 3 February, 2005, 12:07 GMT

Zurab Zhvania: Architect of revolution

[bd476]

GSlob said: "Per your title: 'Georgia' is not 'Georgia, Russia'. It is not a part of anything greater, save of Eurasian landmass, and is going as simply 'Georgia'."

True, but imagine the reaction of our Proud Southern Freepers if the title had simply remained: "President Takes Over in Georgia."

The parentheses were used to indicate my added edit.

If you would like the title within the parentheses changed, that's okay, too. :)

[bd476]

And the poor Deputy Interior Minister of the Republic of Dagastan must have died of lead poisoning:

North Caucasus Official Shot Dead

[bd476]

Ping.

[jb6]

bump/ping/urg

[MeekOneGOP]

bump!