The Georgian Parliament’s July 18 resolution became another cause of confrontation between the authorities and opposition after the later refused to end its boycott of parliamentary sessions and declined to participate in voting on the document.
Officials from the ruling National Movement party have described the document as “historic and unprecedented,” while the opposition downplayed the resolution as “an empty paper” and “another PR action” of the majority.
Key leaders of the ruling party convened a news conference on July 19 and tried to explain that the opposition, which has been boycotting parliamentary sessions since March 31 with a demand for Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili’s resignation, missed an historic moment on July 18 by refusing to vote on the resolution.
Giga Bokeria, an influential MP from the ruling party, said that instead of supporting the authorities in a very decisive moment, the opposition “uses all methods to sow frustration in society.”
“One part of these political forces – I will not be ashamed to list them – the Labor Party, Forward Georgia [set by some of the former officials from the ex-President Shevardnadze’s administration], [wanted ex-security chief] Igor Giorgadze’s party – are directly linked with Moscow, while another part [of the opposition parties] is so blinded by hate towards the authorities, that it is even ready to make a deal with the devil in order to achieve its own goals,” Giga Bokeria said.
But opposition parliamentarians dismissed the ruling party’s criticism as an attempt to mislead society into thinking that the opposition is against Russian troops’ withdrawal from the conflict zones. Opposition lawmakers said the resolution was not important enough and it could not become an excuse for stopping their boycott of parliamentary sessions.
Lawmakers from the Conservative, Industrialist, New Rights and Republican opposition parties launched boycott on March 31 demanding resignation of the Interior Minister over as they put it police violence; reform of election system and direct elections of city mayors and regional governors.
“President Saakashvili himself turned this resolution into an empty paper after he announced following [the July 18] voting that final decision [on peacekeepers] will be made only after his meeting with Putin. So there is no reason to point a finger at opposition, while the President himself downplays the Parliament’s resolution,” MP Davit Gamkrelidze, leader of the New Rights party, responded to the parliamentary majority’s criticism.
The opposition claims that the executive authorities’ determination and political will is needed for the peacekeepers withdrawal.
The Georgian daily 24 Saati (24 Hours) published on July 20 an article by Tina Khidasheli of the opposition Republican Party in which she claims that the July 18 resolution serves for internal consumption through which the authorities try to overshadow various problems in the country mainly related with police violence and Sandro Girgvliani high-profile murder case.
In the article Khidasheli analyses all those three resolutions on Russian peacekeeping troops, which were passed by the Parliament in past nine months and claims that the July 18 resolution can not be regarded as historic because it is almost similar to previous two resolutions.
“Nothing special, historic and unprecedented has happened [through passing July 18 resolution]. The Parliament has once again reiterated position which was already stated for several times,” Khidasheli said.
The opposition parliamentarians did not participate in a voting of the first resolution passed on October 11, 2005, which set a deadline for the peacekeepers to improve their performance both in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. At that time the opposition wanted more radical resolution without any deadlines and demanding an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops. This kind of radical draft resolution was proposed by the opposition Conservative Party, but it was declined by the parliamentary majority.
The opposition parliamentarians voted for the second resolution which was passed on February 15, 2006 about peacekeeping operation in South Ossetia, although they were criticizing the resolution for being “unclear” and giving possibility of double-interpretation.