Georgian opposition members demand Saakashvili's resignation

Sep 9, 2008, 17:04 GMT

Tbilisi - As peace talks try to defuse the Georgian crisis, Georgia's opposition sparked the first calls Tuesday for President Mikheil Saakashvili's resignation.

Two opposition politicians broke an unspoken truce that held during the open conflict with Russia last month to demand early elections.

These are not the first rumours of dissent over Saakshvili's failed and costly gambit to reassert control over breakaway South Ossetia, which led to war with the former Soviet state's powerful neighbour, Russia.

Now, a wartime government pact to stand unified has lapsed and politicians, including within the president's party, are cautiously voicing calls for a probe into his actions.

David Gamkredlidze, head of the New Right party, said he expected to be branded a 'traitor and Russian agent' by the ruling party for his words.

'Despite numerous warnings Saakashvili unilaterally took the criminal and irresponsible decision to shell (the South Ossetian capital) Tskhinvali, which led to catastrophic consequences for the country,' Gamkredlidze said Tuesday.

'Saakashvili no longer holds either political or moral right to be the president of Georgia or commander-in-chief,' he was quoted by local media as saying.

Sakkashvili came under fire for the scale of the military defeat and for erring in his choice of allies.

'As a result of this defeat over a thousand of our citizens were killed and wounded; over 100,000 people were forcefully displaced; the Georgian army is disintegrated, disarmed and demoralized,' Gamkrelidze said at a news conference in Tbilisi after a visit to Washington.

Opposition leader Shalva Natelashvili of the Labour party a day earlier accused Saakashvili of unthinkingly turning Georgia into the victim of US-Russian rivalry.

Over 80 prominent organizations and individuals wrote an open letter asking for an end to government war propaganda.

'Extensive propaganda is currently underway, blaming the catastrophic consequences on everyone - an aggressive Russia, an ignorant West (which, it is claimed, ignored the Georgian leader's warnings), the opposition, Russian spies, etc. - everyone, but not the authorities themselves,' the letter published in the Georgian daily Resonansi said. It stopped short of naming Saakashvili.

Saakashvili announced the reunification of Georgia as one of the main goals of his presidency after taking power in 2003's so-called Rose Revolution.

While US Vice President Dick Cheney again hailed Georgian democracy in a visit to Tbilisi last week, Western allies were disappointed by Saakashvili last autumn, when he declared emergency rule and set riot police against thousands-strong opposition protests.