Channel 1, Tbilisi, Georgia
Aug 12 2008

Georgian president’s speech at rally outside parliament

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]

[translated from Georgian]