Georgian President’s Speech At Rally Outside Parliament

GEORGIAN PRESIDENT’S SPEECH AT RALLY OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT

RedOrbit
12 August 2008, 15:00 CDT
TX

The following is an excerpt from a speech by Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili at a rally outside the parliament building in
central Tbilisi on 12 August, which was broadcast live by state-
funded Georgian Public Television Channel 1. Earlier on 12 August
BBCM processed parts of the speech in which Saakashvili talked about
Georgia leaving the Commonwealth of Independent States and "Russian
invaders" continuing "ruthless, heartless destruction" of Georgians.

[Saakashvili] My dears, my compatriots, the whole world is watching
us today. I would be glad to see the world interested in our affairs
for a much better reason. Now, as I am speaking, the invader who
came from Russia is continuing the ruthless and cruel destruction of
my compatriots, our multiethnic citizens, representatives of various
ethnic groups. As a president of our country, I am in a very difficult
situation today. I was travelling on the [main] highway when they
started entering Zugdidi. I arrived in Zugdidi, turned back, and I
was watching how aircraft were flying down and bombing us, and how
every one of us was targeted by this ruthless, cruel and sadistic
force, but I could do nothing to protect my compatriots. I will never
forget that. But I want to tell you one thing: Together with you,
I will make these rascals pay dear. We shall be victorious without
fail. [Passage omitted: asks the rally to observe a minute’s silence
for the people killed in the conflict]

What did Russia want from Georgia? Does not Russia have
territories? Does not Russia have towns and villages? Does not Russia
have sufficient oil, gas, and everything else? What does Russia
want in tiny Georgia? What did Russia want in the small, beautiful
mountainous town of Tskhinvali, which it destroyed and turned into
another Groznyy over the last few days? Have these people learned
nothing from civilization? Have they learned absolutely nothing
since the Mongol [invasion]? Are they, like those Mongols, going
to continue confronting the civilized world? What they want is not
Abkhazia. What they want is not Tskhinvali. What they want is not
even Georgia itself. They do not want freedom, and that is why they
want to step on Georgia.

I want to tell you that there is no confrontation between us. We did
not want to start shooting at anyone. What could be worse than one
human being killed by another human being? In Kekhvi and Tamarasheni
[Georgian-populated villages in South Ossetia], where they are gunning
down my compatriots, where they are setting up concentration camps,
where Russian troops, who are not allowing European observers there,
are creating a new Srebrenica on the instructions of Vladimir Putin,
in the same towns and villages where we built kindergartens, schools, a
hospital, houses and roads over the last few months. They were closing
roads, and we were building roads. They were destroying our houses,
and we were building better houses for people. They closed a road to
a hospital, and we built a new hospital. They banned young people’s
movement, and we built sports grounds and swimming pools. They were
shooting from automatic rifles while we brought ensembles to entertain
people and make their lives better. And then Putin and his group could
not bear it any more, and they said: From now on, the only thing this
place will see will be Russian bombs and Russian cluster munitions
banned by an international convention.

What did Russian troops want in the Kodori Gorge and Upper
Abkhazia? You know that since we restored order there, there has been
nothing but peace and development in Kodori. [Passage omitted: says
that Georgia build social infrastructure and restored law and order in
the upper Kodori Gorge after 15 years of lawlessness; accuses Russia
of bombing a children’s skiing school in the gorge]

The next time Putin goes skiing to Switzerland, I want him to be
reminded that he bombed a skiing resort for children and killed our
children and our citizens there. I do not want the world to ever
forget about this. The world should always remind these people,
who committed these military crimes, about this. [Passage omitted:
says that Georgians have nothing against ethnic Ossetians and Abkhaz;
accuses Russia of heavily bombing Tskhinvali for four days since
Georgian troops left the town; talks about economic embargoes and
other problems that Georgia faced over the last few years]

We were building new roads, new schools, new hospitals. I want
to tell you that the new world-standard hospital in Gori, which I
viewed as my personal achievement, the new hospital in Gori in which
our doctors heroically worked for four days to help injured ethnic
Ossetians, Georgians, Russians, Ukrainians and everyone else, two
hours ago, on the orders of the Russian military, was hit by the most
precision-guided tactical weapon. They blew up this hospital. There
are injured and dead. Their targets are not the military. They are
targeting doctors. They are targeting clergy. [Passage omitted: says
that a religious building and a school were bombed] Their targets
are not the Georgian military. Because casualties among the Georgian
military after their bombings were minimal. These days, their targets
are humanity and justice. Their target is the people’s independence
and spirit. Their target is your existence and your spirit, my dears
and my compatriots.

I want us to understand why they carried out this exemplary
punishment of Georgia and what Georgia means for the rest of the
world today. Georgia represents a boundary between good and evil,
between civilization and brutality, a society respecting human
rights and a society that ignores human rights and is irritated
by human dignity. [Passage omitted: says that the world views the
Georgian-Russian conflict as a David and Goliath struggle] [The crowd
chants: "Misha, Misha", and "Georgia, Georgia"]

But I would like to tell you my dear that Russian tanks crushed
our defenceless women and children gathered here, in this square,
19 years ago [in April 1989]. I was much younger then, but I learned
a bitter lesson, and I said that they would not be able to operate
with impunity on Georgian territory.

And I would like to tell you that over the last five days the Russian
army, the Russian Armed Forces suffered a greater loss over a short
period of time than in any bilateral conflict since Russia’s attack
on Finland in 1939. And I want to thank our troops who achieved this.

I would like to tell you that we are a small nation, we have a small
professional army, we are not a militarized society, we cannot –
people, they came in. If anyone had doubts, they brought 1,200 tanks
into Georgia in one hour, 1,200 tanks, more than they brought into
Afghanistan in the first days [of the operation], more than they
brought into Hungary, more than they brought into Czechoslovakia in
1968. Georgia, Tbilisi of 2008 is a Prague of 1968, is a Budapest of
1956, is a Finland and Karelia of 1939. Georgia is a European nation,
a small European nation which has said that it will not put up with
violence, which has said that it will never give up its independence.

Georgians have shot down 21 flying apparatus with essentially most
simple of means. [Applause] Over 400 invaders have been destroyed. I
would like to tell you that this does not make me happy at all. It
does not make me happy at all that the Russian pilot whom we shot
down had a trolley bus pass for the city of Moscow. People, what
did the man had to do – A retired pilot was put in a plane, sent
to punish and destroy another country, instead of letting the man
to have normal life in his country, with his family, his children
and grandchildren. Is it not a huge crime to even send such a man to
certain death in a foreign country which has never had anything against
Russia, and we do not have anything against the Russian people either.

I would like to tell them that we are very sorry about every
death. But I would also like to say that 90 per cent of the most
elite special-purpose unit of the GRU [Russia’s Main Intelligence
Directorate], Vympel, 78 people, dropped on the Tliaqana hill, in
the heart of Georgia, in one go, were completely destroyed by our 20
fighters who were there, who did not go away and remained there till
the end. [Applause]

I would like to say that we have also destroyed more than 50 tanks
and other armoured hardware of the opponent; we have destroyed scores
of other firing points; we have destroyed a very large number of
weapons. They are now saying that we had Americans in the army, that
we had French. Russian TV is telling me that we had Ukrainians in our
tanks. I want to tell you that there was not a single Ukrainian or
American in our tanks, or in our armed forces. But we had citizens of
our country; we had ethnic Ossetians, ethnic Georgians, ethnic Abkhaz,
ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians who defended their homeland,
Georgia, and will always defend it whenever we need it. [Applause]

I would like to tell everyone, friends, I would like to tell everyone
that our path is a path of freedom. A classic plan for eradicating
freedom is being implemented against Georgia today. Democracy was
destroyed in Russia. People who destroyed the Chechen people, for
example, took over Russia. More than 80,000 people have died in the
town of Groznyy alone. And today it is they who are lecturing us. It
is these people who are repeating the tragedy of Groznyy in Tskhinvali.

And then Russia, which has made huge money, decided that it was time to
reclaim lost territories. As always, Georgia has again turned out to be
the most desirable diamond for the Russian imperial crown. If Georgia
falls, Ukraine will have problems; if Georgia falls, Lithuania, Latvia
and Estonia will have problems; if Georgia falls, the entire civilized
world will have problems. This is our fate – the frontline of defence
of the entire civilized world and democracy passes through Georgia.

I would wish – I would not spill a single drop of blood of our
citizens for anything. But you should know one thing. This was a
conscious choice of our citizens. This was the choice of our boys
who went to defend their country. This was the choice of the doctors
who have worked day and night at our hospitals. This is the choice
of our society.

I would like to tell everyone that in 1921 Rustaveli [Tbilisi’s main
avenue] was empty. We all were in conflict with each other. Georgia was
divided. There was no desire to put up resistance and Russia’s 11th
Army, commanded by Georgian representatives Stalin and Orjonikidze,
entered Georgia and took the fragmented, divided Georgia in just a
couple of days. This is a repeat of that plan.

We are having a day of mourning today but I nevertheless asked you
to gather here because they must see that Rustaveli is no longer
empty. This is not 1921. We are in the 21st century and Georgia stands
united. [Applause]

[Passage omitted: Saakashvili thanked opposition leaders and MPs for
their support; said exiled former Defence Minister Irakli Okruashvili
(a native of South Ossetia) rang him the previous night to say that
he wanted to return to Georgia and join the reservists. He said
he was ready to forget every offence when it came to Georgia and
its statehood. He said it was time to forgive and extend a hand of
friendship. His remarks were greeted with applause and chants "Misha,
Misha" and "Georgia, Georgia"]

I would like to tell you one thing. Over these days we have suffered
a massive strike. People have died. But the nation is not dead,
and what does not kill a nation makes it stronger. Therefore, as
a result of this blow we shall be twice as strong as we have been,
to spite them. [Applause; chants "Georgia, Georgia"]

I would like to say thank-you to the entire international
community. This morning in Gori they used a bomb banned by
international conventions to kill a Dutch journalist who wanted to
report the truth about what is happening in Georgia. When I went
to the frontline to bring back with me the lads from Tskhinvali,
a Russian journalist approached me and asked us to let him through
to Tskhinvali. Our lads asked him not to go because the Russians,
their compatriots, were shooting there. He pleaded with us that he
should be allowed to go at his own risk. He also asked if he could
take a few pictures of us, with me in military uniform, which I
did. So he went there, but was killed half an hour later by snipers
on the Russian army’s side.

I would like to tell everyone, members of the families of the
journalists who were killed, the doctors who were killed and those
were wounded and maimed that the Georgian nation will never forget the
fact that you have started to report the truth. In 1956 in Budapest,
there were no journalists or TV channels. Very little was reported
from Prague in 1958. Live TV reports still did not exist in 1979 in
Afghanistan. Now the whole world watched the tragedy of Georgia live
on TV. The world order will never be the same again.

I would like to thank representatives of all our ethnic groups. People,
Georgia belongs to all of you, Georgia belongs to Ossetians, Georgia
belongs to Abkhaz, Georgia belongs to Georgians, Georgia belongs
to Georgia’s regions, Georgian Armenians, Georgian Azerbaijanis,
Georgian Russians, Georgian Ukrainians. We are not against anyone. We
are certainly not against the Russian nation. I know full well that
the Russians are not just Putin. Russia’s policy is currently Putin
alone. But in the future we will certainly find each other again
because something that has been built over the centuries cannot be
destroyed like this by one maniacal megalomaniac.

Georgia has never been freer than today. Today Georgia has been harmed
but is also more proud than ever before. I want to tell the whole world
this. They can try to bomb us, destroy us, attack us and deploy 2,000
more tanks – although tanks are nothing on Georgian soil – they can
threaten us, but there is one thing that is as clear as day to me:
Georgia will never be brought down to its knees and Georgian will
never surrender. [Applause] [Passage omitted: more on importance of
freedom and unity]

I would like to inform you about our decisions. We have made the
decision, after consultation with the chairman of parliament, to
announce that Georgia is leaving the Commonwealth of Independent
States, the CIS. [Applause] We are saying a final farewell to the
Soviet Union. The Soviet Union will never return here. [Applause] We
call on Ukraine and other CIS member states to leave this organization
administered by Russia, which does not listen to anyone in doing
so. [Applause]

We have made the decision that, together with withdrawing recognition
for the Russian peacekeeping mission in Abkhazia – I told the American
president and other world leaders about this yesterday – we have made
the decision to declare the Russian army in Abkhazia an occupying army
and declare Abkhazia and South Ossetia occupied territories. [Applause]

I want to tell you that until the last occupier leaves Georgian soil,
there will be no peace for any Georgian and there will be no peace
for any occupier. It will never be easy for them to find a peaceful
place on this soil.

[Passage omitted: praises Georgians for fighting for freedom]

The Georgian army is a tenth of the number of people who have gathered
here. But the real Georgian army, the full Georgian army is you. You
are the most courageous army in the world. That is why neither the 58th
[Russian] Army nor the Pskov division can defeat such an army. They
sent the same units here that took Budapest in 1956 – the Pskov
division. They deployed the same tanks here that entered Prague in
1968. We were bombed by the same pilots who bombed Afghanistan. But
just as they failed to defeat Czechoslovakia, just as they failed to
defeat Hungary, just as Afghanistan where the debris of Russian tanks
are lying around as they are on the road to Gori – [changes tack]
We will be as free as all the nations I have listed and will be very
successful and very happy. [Applause, chants of Misha, Misha]

[Passage omitted: thanks the Lithuanian foreign minister for
solidarity; thanks the presidents of Ukraine, Poland, Latvia,
Lithuania, Estonia and France for deciding to visit Georgia; urges
demonstrators to accompany him to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in
Tbilisi after the rally where they would "pray for peace in Georgia"
and then return to the area outside parliament at 1600 gmt to greet
the "six presidents"; Saakashvili and demonstrators sign the Georgian
national anthem at the end of his speech]

Originally published by Channel 1, Tbilisi, in Georgian 1210 12 Aug 08.