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Us trained lawyer key coup figure { November 24 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.guardian.co.uk/georgia/story/0,14065,1092173,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/georgia/story/0,14065,1092173,00.html Security chief pulled rug from under president Nick Paton Walsh in Tbilisi and Ian Traynor Monday November 24, 2003 The Guardian Tedo Japaridze rarely speaks in public, but his words last Friday night were all the more telling for coming from a man of reticence. The chief of Georgia's national security council and a former ambassador to Washington blew a gaping hole in Eduard Shevardnadze's bid to cling to power by denouncing the parliamentary elections of November 2 as fraudulent and demanding a rerun. The strong signal stimulated opposition confidence that if they pushed against the police lines under Mr Japaridze's command and protecting the president, they might give way. That is exactly what they did on Saturday. Another key figure in the bid to oust Mr Shevardnadze was the president's former protege, Mikhail Saakashvili, a polyglot US-trained lawyer who studied in Ukraine, France, and at universities in New York and Washington. His wife is from the Netherlands. Mr Saakashvili, 35, was a highly regarded justice minister before resigning a couple of years ago in purported disgust at the corruption that became a byword for Mr Shevardnadze's rule. After quitting the government, he formed the United National Movement, now the main opposition party. It claims to have won the disputed elections, but was officially placed third. In late 2001, Mr Saakashvili led demonstrations outside the Georgian parliament, honing the techniques of protest now being applied more effectively. But he exhibits a hardline streak which makes many observers wary, and has faced persistent accusations that his brand of strident nationalism is xenophobic and racist. The troika plotting the takeover was completed by Nino Burdzhanadze, a 39-year-old lawyer who had been serving as an effective opposition parliament speaker and who declared herself acting president on Saturday after Mr Shevardnadze fled the parliament. In the turmoil of the past few days, she had loudly called for peaceful protest and assured Mr Shevardnadze that he would be treated graciously if he went quietly. A former supporter of the president, she, too, campaigned against corruption, the issue which more than any other fuelled the anti-Shevardnadze revolt.

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