President’s Press Office Misquotes U.S. Ambassador

The U.S. embassy in Georgia issued a statement today saying that information provided by the Georgian presidential press service published in the November 6 issue of the state-run Svobodnay Gruzia and Sakartvelos Respublika “contained several inaccuracies” regarding President Shevardnadze’s meeting with Ambassador Miles on November 5.

“The embassy would like to publicly note that the ambassador did not say that the Georgian elections would serve as a model for the region. Ambassador Miles made no such statement in his meeting with President Shevardnadze,” the U.S. embassy statement reads.

U.S. Ambassador Richard Miles met on November 5 with President Shevardnadze to discuss the post-election situation in the country. Mass irregularities during the November 2 parliamentary elections triggered mass protest rallies in Georgia.

“Georgian citizens have a right to assemble peacefully and to express their grievances,” Richard Miles said after the meeting.

Below is the transcript of the U.S. Ambassador’s briefing, held on November 5 after meeting with the Georgian President. The transcript is reposted from the official web site of the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi. 

Press conference, November 5, 2003
Ambassador Miles at the State Chancellery

Ambassador Miles: I had a good and useful meeting with President Shevardnadze. And the topic was exclusively the election process. I relayed the concern of Washington over some of the irregularities on Election Day. And we discussed those in some detail. And I also expressed Washington’s concern, and of course, my own concern, about the delays in providing the final tally on the vote count. We all know that by Georgian law, the District Election Commissions have until 6 o’clock tomorrow evening to provide these tallies to the Central Election Commission. But there would not seem to be good reason to be why more votes have not been sent forward and have not been officially tallied. So, acting under instructions from Washington, I urged the president to do what he could through his administration to hasten this process. I’ll be glad to answer a couple of questions, but I have to leave. I only have a few minutes here.

Question: How would you assess the situation in Tbilisi-I mean the protests happening in Tbilisi streets? And how just are the demands of the opposition forces?

Ambassador Miles: I guess I wouldn’t want to get into that last part, because that certainly is a value judgment. I have an opinion on it, but it’s personal. People in general, and certainly Georgian citizens, have a right to assemble peacefully and to express their grievances. And I have spoken with the opposition leaders to try to encourage them to maintain these demonstrations in a peaceful manner. Frankly, I’ve done the same thing with appropriate law enforcement authorities. And so far, that has been the case.

Question: The CEC Chairperson severely criticized the evaluations submitted by the OSCE observers. She said there were certain (unintelligible). Could you speak about those?

Ambassador Miles: The answer is no. I did talk to Ms. Devdariani yesterday, but not about that and I have not spoken to her today.

Question: How would assess the results of the elections? Do you think that the election results were falsified and do you think election results must be abolished?

Ambassador Miles: Oh, I wouldn’t go anywhere near that far, but I would refer you to the statement which the embassy issued earlier today. It was a critical statement.

Question: Were you satisfied with the president’s response?

Ambassador Miles: I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to as the American ambassador to give that kind of a comment. We had a good conversation. We always have a frank discussion, a friendly discussion-even a little bit of humor. I really would not want to categorize those discussions, including this one. I don’t think that would be appropriate.

Question: What is the position of Washington over the threat of destabilization and how the Georgian authorities must avoid this?

Ambassador Miles: Well, I don’t see a big threat of destabilization. I mean, we have had, as we expected, some public demonstrations. They’ve been peaceful. People have expressed their views, which is their right. I think, in that sense, it’s kind of a normal situation. One more question, and then I have to go.

Question: Do the authorities intend to engage in a dialogue with opposition forces? Because we heard today there was a criminal case established against the opposition leaders.

Ambassador Miles: I don’t know anything about any criminal case, but the authorities have been in touch with the opposition leaders. I think that’s healthy, and I encourage them to continue to talk to each other. They’re going to have to work together in the new parliament, so they may as well start that dialogue now. Thank you very much.