GEORGIAN OPPOSITION PARTY ASKS NOBEL INSTITUTE NOT TO AWARD NOBEL PEACE PRIZE TO SAAKASHVILI
Armenpress
Oct 4, 2005
TBILISI, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS: A Georgian opposition party has sent a
letter to the Nobel Institute in Norway asking it ‘not to award the 2005
Peace Prize to Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili.”
Shalva Natelashvili, the chairman of the Labor Party, said the party
asked the Novel Institute that is to convene on October 7 to decide the
winner, ‘to examine Georgian president’s performance, who is trying to build
an authoritarian regime violating basic human rights and freedoms.”
Saakashvili and Ukraine’s president Viktor Yuschenko had been nominated for
the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year by U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton
(D-NY) and John McCain (R-AZ).
Clinton and McCain sent a letter to the Nobel Institute in Norway saying
Yushchenko and Saakashvili had played historic roles in the lives of their
countries ‘displaying an extraordinary commitment to peace.” “Awarding the
Nobel Peace Prize to these two men would instill hope and inspiration in
those seeking freedom in other countries that lack it,” their letter said.