Good morning/evening, here is my
World Roundup for
November 22, 2003
Legend:
fr = French language
it = Italian language
ro = Romanian/Moldovan language
es = Spanish language
de = German language
pt = Portuguese language
is = Icelandic language
su = Suomi language (Finnish)
nl = Dutch language
Everything else in English language
Note: That which you can see on your evening news will not be covered here.
NEWS FROM REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA
Well folks, it's the leading story in almost all headlines in almost all newspapers worldwide. Still haven't seen much of anything here in the US media, but of course, that's how it goes. If you've been reading the World Update then you'll already know some background about what's been going on.
First, the non-English news accounts:
Le Monde(fr)
El Mundo(es)
Telegraaf(nl)
Morgunbladid(is)
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze asked the newly-elected parliament to start work despite the protests.
According to the results, published by the commission, For A New Georgia, Georgia's main pro-president party, won a victory in the vote with 21.32 percent of the votes. Its ally, the Union of Democratic Revival, was in second place with 18.84 percent.
The leading opposition party, National Movement, was in the third place with 18.70 percent.
The opposition parties, however, refused to take part in the work of the "parliament appointed by Shevardnadze."
They have vowed to continue rally until President Shevardnadze steps down and the new parliamentary elections are held.
Russian News agency Itar-Tass however is declaring that Election Commission President Nana Devdariani believes that violations during the recent parliamentary elections were insignificant and didn't affect the elections' general picture.
"One should find strength to take the downs and the ups with dignity," Devdariani said in her appeal to the leaders of several opposition blocs who refused to obey the Commission's ruling on the election results and are demanding that elections be considered invalid.
According to the election results, the National Movement and Burdzhanadze-Democrats opposition blocs together won more than 50 out of 225 seats in the Georgian parliament. The leaders of these blocs assert that the elections have been rigged and are calling for new parliamentary elections.
The United States however, being the know-it-all that it is, declared that "extensive manipulation" had taken place in the ballot counting and therefore the elections "do not accurately reflect the will of the Georgian people" said US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. First of all, to call them the Georgian people is a real sign of ignorance. Secondly, a leader of the New Georgia party, Vakhtang Rcheulishvili, had this reply:
"There were some breeches in the process of voting, in fact, but there are no grounds to make claims about mass manipulations and procrastination with vote counting".
When a reporter asked him to comment on the assertions that there had been mass violations in the autonomous region of Adjaria and in the eastern region of Kvemo Kartli, Rcheulishvili said: "I wouldn't call those parts of the country an oasis of democracy, but one can hardly say that the election there was invalid, as only minor violations were registered there".
"Georgia doesn't have a well-established democratic tradition, and U.S. officials must understand that it was simply impossible to mechanically implant western electoral standards in this country," Rcheulishvili said.
Meanwhile, if you remember last week that Aslan Abashidze, the leader of the autonomous Adjaria region, came out with a massive soccer stadium rally for Shevardnadze. Turns out it was a smart political move as he is slated to be elected speaker of the new parliament. Some Georgian media and politicians are claiming, in the meantime, that Shevardnadze himself made a proposal to Abashidze to take the parliamentary post. I'm guessing they're right.
However, Mikhail Saakashvili isn't taking things lying down, and he's now organizing huge crowds to march on the Presidential residence.
"He didn't meet our demand and didn't step down, and we' ll march to the State Chancellery to make our voice known," Saakashvili said.
He indicated the protesters had no plans of assaulting the office or breaking into it.
Some twenty minutes later, over a thousand oppositionists approached the Chancellery, chanting Shevardnadze Must Go. Other participants in the meeting started joining them.
The authorities say about 8,000 people are taking part in the oppositionist meeting, but the radical opposition leaders say the number is 20,000.
Eduard Shevardnadze was in the building of national parliament at the time of reporting, and about 5,000 activists of the Renaissance party continued their rally in support of the president in front of the parliament.
And apparently this didn't quite turn out as expected as AP reports now that the crowd broke into Parliament and smashed a lot of furniture.
Opposition supporters broke into Georgia's Parliament on Saturday, scuffling with officials and forcing President Eduard Shevardnadze to flee the chamber as thousands of protesters outside demanded his resignation.
Opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili led hundreds of his supporters as they shoved their way into the chamber, overturning desks and chairs and leaping onto the podium, just after the president officially convened the body.
"The velvet resolution has taken place in Georgia," Saakashvili said, as the hall applauded him. "We are against violence."
Shevardnadze, the 75-year-old leader of this ex-Soviet republic, was hustled out of the chamber by his bodyguards.
The move came as tens of thousands of opposition protesters marched in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, waving flags and chanting "Leave" and "Enough." They have pledged not to leave until Shevardnadze is ousted.
This poverty-stricken ex-Soviet republic had slid into its biggest political crisis in years after Nov. 2 parliamentary elections, which the opposition and many foreign observers claimed were rigged.
I'll keep you updated on this as much as possible. Here is some background on Shevardnadze.
Whew.. ok on other news.
Amnesty Internation just released a report about policy brutality in Egypt. People continue to die in police custody, a leading human rights group said on Thursday.
Speaking of Egypt, an update on the health of its President, Hosni Mubarak, who was ill and partially collapsed on TV last week. He's apparently doing much better but the question was raised, who shall replace him when he's gone? Answer: nobody knows. Time for Middle East chaos once more! Mubarak is 72 years old.
11 people dead in Burundi as the Army battles FNL guerillas, just three miles from downtown Bujumbura, the capital.
Meanwhile France's Foreign Minister meets with Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo trying to shore up a peace deal. To show you how bad the situation is, the two had to meet in Libreville, Gabon because the IC is too dangerous.
Update on the Matatu strike in Kenya. Matatus are threatening to raise their fares 100% while Transportation Minister John Michuki scoffed at the operations and warned them that if they increased their fares they might be forced to "park at home". The honest to god truth is that half of this struggle is over whether or not seatbelts should be mandatory. It may seem trivial to you, but this is how democratic situations get worked out. Let's hope the "tout" violence never materializes.
In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez steals a play out of California's book as he is now using government soldiers to collect signatures country-wide to get a recall of 38 legislators who have opposed him. Sound fishy? It is.
Cuba's official press, Granma interviews Noam Chomsky (in English). Worth a read. Definitely worth a read.
Ok, this is critical stuff folks. John Negroponte gave the UN a briefing on Friday when the CPA took over the Oil-for-Food program of the UN. In the briefing:
Under the process, a transitional national assembly would be formed and would assume, by 30 June 2004, full responsibility. The Authority would then dissolve, as would the Iraqi Governing Council. A timeline had been established for the direct election of a constitutional convention, no later than 15 March 2005. A constitution would be ratified through a popular referendum and a new Iraqi Government would be elected no later than 31 December 2005.
And finally, an update from the famous Miss World pagent in China:
That is Ireland on the right, hugging Lithuania who is kissing Canada.
World Peace!
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