Georgians mourn prime minister as authorities continue investigation amid
persistent suspicions
AP Worldstream
Feb 06, 2005
JIM HEINTZ
Georgians bid farewell Sunday to the late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania
amid worries about the future of their struggling country and doubts
over the official explanation of his death.
Mourners by the thousands came to the capital’s recently opened Holy
Trinity Cathedral and filed slowly past Zhvania’s coffin, which was
covered with the Georgian national flag, as priests sang requiem
music. Among those who came to mourn were President Mikhail
Saakashvili and the man he replaced after leading opposition protests
in 2003, Eduard Shevardnadze.
Georgian Orthodox Church leader Catholicos Ilya II summed up Zhvania’s
political career, his death and the country’s prospects for progress
by saying “Joy is the origin of sorrow, and sorrow is the origin of
joy.”
After the requiem, Zhvania’s body was to be taken to Parliament for a
ceremony outside the legislature before burial in the Didube cemetery,
where some of Georgia’s most illustrious people are interred.
Zhvania, 41, was found dead early Thursday in the apartment of a
friend, who also died; both deaths officially have been attributed to
carbon-monoxide poisoning due to faulty ventilation of a gas space
heater.
Although such deaths are not uncommon in Georgia, where central
heating systems went out of service a decade ago amid the country’s
post-Soviet deterioration, many Georgians resist the official
explanation.
“There’s a lot about this that isn’t understandable,” said one of the
mourners, 68-year-old retired miner Mamanti Dzhakhaia. He noted that
both Zhvania and his friend were found dead sitting in chairs, whereas
carbon-monoxide victims usually succumb while sleeping.
He also questioned whether Zhvania’s security guards were
lax. Official reports say the guards broke into the apartment only
after being unable to reach Zhvania by cellular phone for a long
period, perhaps hours.
Although Georgian officials have repeatedly dismissed the possibility
of foul play, they also have asked help from the U.S. Federal Bureau
of Investigation in analyzing blood samples to determine Zhvania’s
cause of death.
Zhvania was a key figure in attempts to lift the country out of its
post-Soviet economic collapse and political turmoil. He was also one
of the leaders of the 2003 “Rose Revolution” protests that propelled
Saakashvili to power and brought down Shevardnadze.
Zhvania earned respect and affection from many Georgians and was seen
as a moderating balance to the sometimes-incendiary boldness of
Saakashvili, who was elected president in 2004.
“He will be hard to replace. All the other members of government will
have to work better than they have been doing,” said another mourner,
47-year-old agronomist Khuta Temularia.
Among the dignitaries traveling to Georgia for the funeral was
U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, who was designated by President George W. Bush to head the
U.S. delegation. Neighboring Russia, which has had tense relations
with Georgia over two separatist regions that have ties with Moscow
and over Saakashvili’s determination to cultivate closer relations
with the West, was sending a low-level official _ Transport Minister
Igor Levitin. World Bank President James Wolfensohn also was scheduled
to attend.
Lugar on Sunday hailed Zhvania as a man noted for “cajoling more than
haranguing” and praised the ambition of his policies to make Georgia a
fully functioning nation.
“He was saying, quite simply, that Georgia is not a barren, exotic
country where imported reforms can only take root as fragile specimens
in a carefully tended hothouse,” Lugar told reporters. “On the
contrary, ‘bring reforms’ he was saying, ‘bring sound administration,
bring rationality, bring democracy … we are ready for them’.”
Zhvania’s initiatives as premier included working to seek negotiated
settlements to the separatist tensions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Zhvania’s death followed a Tuesday car-bombing that killed three
policemen in Gori, a Georgian city close to South Ossetia, prompting
speculation that both incidents were aimed at derailing the
negotiation process.
One Georgian parliament member said both events were the work “of
certain outside forces,” an apparent reference to Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sharply rejected the assertion.