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Bush hails georgia rose revolution 2003 inspiration { May 10 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/10/AR2005051000542.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/10/AR2005051000542.html
Bush Hails Georgia as Inspiration for Democracy
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 10, 2005; 11:12 AM
TBILISI, Georgia, May 10 -- President Bush hailed this rugged former Soviet republic Tuesday as a model for democratic revolution around the world, cheered on by a sea of flag-waving Georgians flooding this capital's Freedom Square in a sequel to the government-toppling protests of 18 months ago.
Addressing one of the largest crowds of his presidency, Bush credited Georgia's Rose Revolution of 2003 with touching off a "freedom movement" that has spread to Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon. Georgia's experience, he said, even helped rouse Iraqis to the polls in January to choose their first democratic government in a half century.
"You are making many important contributions to freedom's cause, but your most important contribution is your example," Bush said, rattling off the places that have followed Georgia's lead in recent months. "Your courage is inspiring democratic reformers and sending a message that echoes across the world -- freedom will be the future of every nation and every people on Earth."
In stopping here on his way home from Moscow on the final leg of a five-day European trip, Bush became the first U.S. president to visit this tiny impoverished country of 4.7 million tucked in the Caucasus Mountains. With the paint still drying from a massive makeover of down-and-out Tbilisi, the reception Bush received exhilarated White House aides. While Bush is viewed ambivalently, or worse, in many European countries, Georgia embraced him with unabashed exuberance.
The crowd that gathered in Freedom Square and spilled over into downtown streets numbered at least in the tens of thousands; Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili estimated 150,000 showed up, and the White House put it at 250,000. Under sunny skies, Georgians waited hours for Bush to arrive, some of them dressed in red, white and blue to form a human U.S. flag while others wore red and white for a counterpart Georgian flag.
Bush's presence was a huge boost to Saakashvili, the 37-year-old architect of street protests that brought down the discredited government of Eduard Shevardnadze.
"For the Georgian people, this is really a sign of strong solidarity with them," Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili said in an interview. "It's one thing to know it. It's another thing to see it."
But it also irritated Russia, which views recent revolutions along its borders with suspicion that the United States is trying to extend its influence in Moscow's orbit. When Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov learned of the itinerary weeks ago, he fired off a blistering letter of complaint to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Bush took another gentle jab at Russian President Vladimir Putin during his speech and a news conference Tuesday when he endorsed Saakashvili's plans to peacefully reincorporate the pro-Russian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia while granting them considerable autonomy.
"The sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia must be respected," Bush said in an implicit reference to Moscow's longstanding support for the separatists.
Bush also volunteered to help mediate a bitter dispute over Russia's two remaining Soviet-era military bases in Georgia. Moscow has failed to fulfill a 1999 agreement to withdraw its 3,500 troops. Saakashvili has insisted they leave by 2008, but Moscow has balked, prompting the Georgian president to boycott Russia's 60th anniversary celebration of the end of World War II.
At the same time, in a message calibrated to please Russia, Bush warned Georgia to respect the rights of its minority Abkhaz and Ossetian populations. In private, senior U.S. officials said before the trip, Bush planned to urge Saakashvili not to take provocative actions in the separatist regions.
In a joint press conference before his speech, Bush said that "a truly democratic society is one that honors and respects minorities." He also made the point in a roundtable discussion with civil society leaders at the Georgian Parliament. "In my own country, w have struggled with this issue throughout our history, and yet, we're constantly reminding ourselves of the need to respect minorities," Bush said as the meeting began.
Saakashvili pledged in the press conference, "We will peacefully resolve our disputes with our long-suffering South Ossetian and Abkhaz citizens and the territories. We will widen and deepen our democratic reforms to better the lives of Georgians."
Bush thanked Saakashvili for contributing troops to Iraq and Afghanistan and promised to help Georgia meet its goal of joining the NATO alliance.
Educated in the United States at Columbia University Law School and George Washington University, Saakashvili rocketed to international attention in November 2003 when he mobilized tens of thousands of demonstrators to protest fraudulent elections. His campaign culminated when he burst into parliament with a red rose and demanded Shevardnadze's resignation. Saakashvili was subsequently elected president -- with Shevardnadze's vote -- and set about remaking a country on the verge of collapse, where electricity often did not work, pensioners scraped by on $7 a month and the government was suffused with corruption.
Saakashvili's energy and optimism have made him a favorite in Washington, and Bush clearly has been taken with him. The president told interviewers before leaving Washington that he decided to make the trip in part because of Saakashvili's enthusiasm in inviting him.
Yet while still broadly popular at home, Saakashvili has stirred growing criticism with a brash and impetuous manner. The same thirst for radical change and candor that appeal to many strike others as needlessly confrontational. Some critics complain he has accumulated power at the expense of the opposition and media. To discourage the notion of one-man rule, Bush made a point of meeting with parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze, who, while allied with Saakashvili, remains an independent political figure in her own right.
But Bush's main goal was to highlight the birthplace of the democracy movement that he has adopted as a mission for his second term.
"As you build freedom in this country, you must know that the seeds of liberty you are planting in Georgian soil are flowering across the globe," Bush told the crowd. "I have come to thank you for your courage."
Saakashvili said Bush's visit would embolden other would-be revolutionaries.
"Georgia provides a living example that democracy can work in this part of the world . . . and I think that's the message President Bush is sending to the outside world by coming here," he told reporters.
Among those watching from Freedom Square on Tuesday was Anatol Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civic Party of Belarus, a former Soviet republic to the west of Russia still ruled by a neo-Stalinist former collective farmer. Many in the marginalized opposition there have taken hope from Georgia and Ukraine, hoping the same wave will wash through their country next.
Lyabedzka and a colleague held up a large handwritten banner that said "Freedom Belarus," a sign drawn during the morning at the office of the International Republican Institute, a U.S.-funded group promoting democracy. Lyabedzka planned to meet with Saakashvili on Tuesday evening to garner support for the Belarusan cause. Lyabedzka, whose allies met with Rice recently, said Bush's visit here would bolster his efforts back home in Minsk.
"It means that yesterday Tbilisi, today Kiev, tomorrow Minsk," he said. "It means that this is a serious struggle against dictatorship and for democracy."
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
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