- "...Mr Shevardnadze now believes that the United
States helped to orchestrate his downfall... 'I was one of the biggest
supporters of the US policy. When they needed my support on Iraq I gave
it. What happened here, this I cannot explain.'"
-
- TBILISI -- Eduard Shevardnadze,
the deposed Georgian president and an embittered, broken man, told The
Telegraph yesterday that he had "rescued the world" from the
brink of nuclear catastrophe by ending the Cold War, only to be betrayed
by the West.
-
- Speaking at his official residence on a hill overlooking
Tbilisi, the man who was once one of the world's most feted politicians
said he had been let down. "If the Cold War had not stopped there
would have been a Third World War," he said. "We rescued the
world. I'm not saying that I did it alone but I played one of the most
important roles.
-
- "There were 40,000 Soviet tanks in Europe and hundreds
of thousands of guns. Within 24 hours they could have been on the Atlantic
coast [of France] but we didn't do that even when the hotheads wanted to
use force in Berlin and crush Solidarity in Poland."
-
- But Mr Shevardnadze now believes that the United States
helped to orchestrate his downfall. Upset by what he saw as a gross betrayal
by his friends, the 75-year-old strongman vented his sense of hurt, particularly
at the role of Richard Miles, the American ambassador, whom he alleged
was instrumental in the opposition's success in unseating him, as well
as local activists backed with American money.
-
- "I was one of the biggest supporters of the US policy,"
he said. "When they needed my support on Iraq I gave it. What happened
here, this I cannot explain."
-
- Mr Shevardnadze sat surrounded by the mementoes of three
decades of high authority. On one wall there were framed photographs of
him with George Bush Sr, Javier Solana, President Jacques Chirac, James
Baker and even Ray Charles, the singer.
-
- Tucked into the side of the black leather blotter on
his ornate desk was the business card of the president of the United States
of America, with telephone numbers scribbled on the back in pencil.
-
- But the ageing man sitting on the black leather sofa
appeared tired and a little bewildered. His voice was low and hoarse and
his delivery slow.
-
- In the past two weeks, he has visibly aged. Georgians
say his legendary forceful presence has all but evaporated.
-
- Yesterday morning he travelled by car to the state chancellery
to clear out his office. For 30 years, Mr Shevardnadze stood at the helm
of Georgian politics. Three days ago he was forced out of office as tens
of thousands of angry protesters threatened to storm his residence.
-
- At the height of the crisis, sparked by rigged parliamentary
elections on Nov 2, comparisons were drawn between Mr Shevardnadze and
the Balkan dictators Slobodan Milosevic and Nicolae Ceausescu.
-
- They clearly hurt him. "Who in the world would believe
that Shevardnadze could be Ceausescu or Milosevic?" he said. "In
1989 I was the first to visit Bucharest when President Iliescu was surrounded
by tanks. I told him the Soviet Union is with you."
-
- He claims he never contemplated using force to crush
the huge opposition demonstrations in Tbilisi. "When the popular movement
started I saw it threatened the integrity of Georgia and decided to announce
a state of emergency," he said.
-
- "Everything was ready - the army, the internal troops,
the police - but I looked at the huge crowd. I saw in their faces it would
be impossible to calm them, that they were not afraid of anything, and
I knew there would be bloodshed. That morning I told my colleagues the
only way out was my resignation."
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/27
/wgeor27.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/11/27/ixworld.html
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