MOSCOW (Yevgeny Sidorov, for RIA Novosti) - Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili recently promised autonomy, privileges and compensation to South Ossetia, and suggested creating a free trade zone there while preserving special relations between the breakaway republic and Russia.
The reply from Dmitry Medoyev, South Ossetian envoy to Russia, read that "the incorporation of South Ossetia into Georgia is impossible under any conditions." He said, "In the past 15 years South Ossetia has proved that it has built a state that survived several instances of Georgian aggression."
Medoyev said South Ossetia categorically rejected the offer, and denounced Saakashvili's initiative as "one more PR campaign staged for outside consumption and sponsors." The Georgian leadership had made such proposals before, but "like before, the new ones are nothing more than words."
There are other reasons for South Ossetia's refusal to return to Georgia. Tbilisi is trying to present Georgia abroad as a model democratic state, but there has not been real democratic change there so far.
Trends underway in Georgia are generally viewed, including in the West, as running counter to democracy, primarily the growing concentration of political power in the hands of Saakashvili and his team, who use tried and tested methods such as pressure on the media, changes to election legislation, the excessive financing and strengthening of security agencies, and the placement of trusted people in key positions in the center and the regions.
The latest example of "growing democracy," Georgian style, was an April amendment to the election code to preclude opposition participation in creating the election administration body. From April, only the president may submit candidates for the posts of president and members of Georgia's Central Election Commission for parliamentary approval. As a result, in mid-June the parliamentary opposition refused to vote for the president's candidates to the new CEC of Georgia.
Another relevant example was the decision to exclude a provision on independent arbitration from the new Tax Code, as victory in arbitrated disputes between the state and business nearly always goes to business.
Or take the restoration of "democratic order" in Georgia's higher education: The recent reform cancelled self-government for universities. In June, the president ordered the liquidation of the Greater Council of Tbilisi State University, which has reinforced the protest mood among Georgian intellectuals. A number of Georgian cultural figures, scientists and artists who supported the Rose Revolution signed an open letter to the government expressing their outrage at human-rights violations and pressure from the authorities on the media and courts.
The Georgian government is pursuing this domestic policy because it cannot improve the social and economic situation in the country, because corruption is growing and the government fears a stronger opposition, and because national minorities in Georgia are protesting ever more loudly against infringements of their rights.
The ratings of Saakashvili and the ruling United National Movement have plummeted of late. According to a poll conducted by the Gorby opinion-poll association, only 31% of respondents think Georgia is moving in the right direction, while 39% took a negative view. Two months after the Rose Revolution, about 84% of those polled thought that the country had chosen the right way. The rating of the ruling United National Movement has nearly halved since last year, and is now only 34.7%.
The actions of the Georgian leadership worry not only the opposition but also its formal supporters. Delegates to regional National Movement conferences in April and May sharply criticized the policy of the Saakashvili team in the center and provinces.
Rank-and-file members of the ruling party have accused the authorities of unprofessional behavior and of abusing their posts for personal gain. In some regions, whole groups of active party members have terminated their membership, and a considerable part of them joined the opposition.
The West has become more critical in its assessment of democracy in Georgia and the domestic policy of its leadership. Terry Davis, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, who visited Georgia in mid-April, outlined several problems that could seriously complicate Georgia's position in the Council of Europe. Davis meant a review of the status of Adjaria, which was deprived of its autonomous rights, the repatriation of Meskhetian Turks, ratification of the European Social Charter, and accession to the convention for the protection of national minorities and their languages.
The Council of Europe believes that Georgia should review the provisions of its Criminal Code that stipulate possible "money for freedom" deals between the prosecution and the defendant and overhaul the local government system by introducing elected city mayors and heads of local administrations.
After meeting with members of Georgian non-governmental organizations and the opposition, who reported on torture and other violations in the country's penitentiary system and on infringements of the freedom of the press and human rights, Davis said it would be premature to speak about democracy in Georgia if the government disregarded these shameful facts.
Yevgeny Sidorov is a political analyst.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
