http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1999/09-27-99/vo15no20_insider.htm
© Copyright 1994-2000 American Opinion Publishing Incorporated
A Model "Democratic" Dictatorship
"Mr. President, you have embraced democracy, and your vision
and your leadership and your courage have made Georgia a model for
democratic change," Secretary of Defense William Cohen gushed
during a meeting with Georgian dictator Eduard Shevardnadze on
August 1st. Cohen’s "model" of his view of democracy
is revealing. Shevardnadze took power after a bloody 1991 military
coup that overthrew Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first freely elected
President of Georgia, who had been jailed as a dissident under the
old Soviet regime and died under suspicious circumstances in 1993.
In his book Biohazard, Ken Alibek, the former deputy chief
director of Biopreparat, the Soviet bio-chemical weapons program,
reports that the KGB had discussed killing Gamsakhurdia through
the use of a specially devised biological agent.
Shevardnadze’s regime was characterized by the State Department
this year in the following way: "Police and security forces
continued to torture, beat, and abuse prisoners and detainees,
force confessions, and routinely fabricate or plant evidence....
Corrupt and incompetent judges seldom displayed independence from
the executive branch, leading to trials that were neither fair nor
expeditious.... Law enforcement agencies and other government
bodies illegally interfered with citizens’ right to privacy. The
government constrains some press freedoms. The government limits
freedom of assembly, and security forces continued to disperse
some peaceful rallies violently." Shevardnadze’s regime
must be incontestably tyrannical to provoke such condemnation from
the appeasers at Foggy Bottom — yet it is Cohen’s "model
for democratic change."
Just as troubling as Cohen’s statement is the fact that many of
the same police and security personnel committing murder and
routine torture may have been trained by U.S. Special Forces.
President Clinton approved the training of Shevardnadze’s
personal guard by Green Berets shortly after he took office in
1993. Cohen boasted on August 1st that U.S. training of Georgian
military and security forces is increasing: "This year our
militaries will carry out 30 joint exercises — training events
and other contacts. That’s a three-fold increase since
1995." |
