PACE Monitors Offer MIA, Opposition Meeting

Monitors from Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) offered the Georgian opposition and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) to arrange a meeting to exchange views on “security arrangement” ahead of the planned opposition rally on April 9.

Matyas Eorsi, a Hungarian lawmaker from PACE, who paid a fact-finding visit to Georgia on March 25-26, said such meeting could increase of confidence between the authorities and the opposition for at least “little bit.”

“Indeed we have an impression that this country has learnt the lesson of November 7,” said Eorsi, who traveled to Georgia along with an Albanian lawmaker Kastriot Islami – both co-rapporteurs on Georgia in PACE.

“We identify one problem, although. This is lack of any trust between the authorities and the opposition both ways,” he said after concluding two days of meetings with the government officials, lawmakers from the both the majority and minority factions, as well as with opposition parties having no representation in the parliament.

Eorsi said that both the opposition and the authorities said they “do not want any violence, any breach of the constitution, but [they also say] others may want it.”

He said that PACE fact-finding mission was recommending that the Interior Ministry – whether the minister Vano Merabishvili himself, or his deputies, or other authorized official – to meet with all the opposition “who is ready to accept the invitation.”

“And during this meeting they should share each others views and plans about security arrangement; so the opposition would know what are the security plans of the government and the authorities will also learn what are the plans of the opposition to calm down the tension if somebody makes something wrong,” Eorsi said.

“I shared this idea with number of stakeholders and most of them welcomed this proposal,” he added, but declined to specify.

“This is not an ambitious plan. It should not discuss anything except of security arrangement; exchange of information and exchange of views – that’s it. I think that will contribute to little bid increase of confidence to each other,” Eorsi said.

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