Quests of the Georgian politics

The recently started work of the committee for investigation of death of the first Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia has stuck. One of its representatives stated that the committee should be granted the status of an investigative agency; otherwise, he will step down from office. The status would enable to interrogate the two former State Security Ministers Igor Giorgadze and Shota Kviraya.

The initiative of establishing a parliamentary committee for investigating the events that happened sixteen years ago was taken in Georgia in different ways.

Some people believe that it is the second president of the country Eduard Shevardnadze who was involved in the death of Zviad Gamsakhurdia; the latter died in unclear circumstances (suicide being the official version). He came to power after a short-term Tbilisian war. Others are traditionally looking for a "Russian trace". Some experts believe that the whole noise about the committee was made to distract the people from other important and urgent problems.

Anyway, Eduard Amvrosievitch agreed to answer any questions put by the committee. It comprises 11 delegates representing the ruling United National Movement party and the parliamentary opposition. The committee will engage experts, lawyers and psychologists as well.

The work of the committee will be carried out in three stages, as reported by the son of the first president Konstantin Gamsakhurdia who made a decision to return to parliament in order to head the investigation. During the first stage, the committee is going to request all official documents, as well as audio and video records related to the first president. At the second stage, as soon as the documents are obtained, it will make up the list of persons who might provide information related to the case. Besides, the committee is going to investigate the events after Gamsakhurdia was overthrown. Afterwards, it will make up a final statement as to the reasons of death of the first president of Georgia.

As reported earlier by GeorgiaTimes, armed conflicts with Eduard Shevardnadze's supporters forced Zviad Gamsakhurdia to escape. After that, the first president made an unsuccessful attempt to have his revenge. On December 31, 1993 he died in unclear circumstances in one of the villages in Western Georgia. The family of the first president has more than once refused to carry out a repeated expertise, saying that it is impossible to find out whether it was a murder or a suicide. The same opinion is held to by his elder son, who is heading the committee. According to the Georgian media, Konstantin Gamsakhurdia said that he sees no need for disinterment of his father's body. As he noted in his interview with the journalists, two years ago, the Institute of Rostov carried out an expertise and provided a qualified opinion.

"The experts determined the track of the bullet and confirmed that the firing came from a short distance; however, they cannot say for sure whether it was a suicide or a murder. The doubts are attributed to the fact that the case is lacking a ballistic opinion and the weapon and the bullet case were lost. The disinterment of the former president's body will not help answer the question whether he was shot", - Konstantin underlined.

It is notable that former Prime Minister of Georgia Tengiz Sigua, who was in office since November 1990 until August 1991 and since March 1992 until August 1993, also expressed certain doubts.

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