Wednesday, March 27 2013

Tbilisi. Swiss ambassador to Georgia Guenther
Baechler said in his "personal letter" to Georgian PM Bidzina
Ivanishvili that "unprecedented and partisan" statements and
allegations by some "misguided" members of the European Parliament
against Georgia's new authorities "do not reflect the political reality in
Georgia at all.", civil.ge portal reports.

The Swiss Ambassador's letter is dated to
March 15 and it was made public after the Georgian government posted it on its
website on March 26; the Swiss embassy in Tbilisi also released the letter on
the same day.

Earlier, 20 members of the European
Parliament criticized the present Georgian authorities, later the European
People's Party published a Declaration, stating that after elections in October
2012 and transference peacefully the power, steps back were made, damaging
Georgia's image.

The Swiss ambassador writes to the
Georgian PM that his March 14 open letter to EPP "is an excellent answer
and perfectly expresses the grievances and feelings of the Georgian
people."

"As a Prime Minister you may be
obliged to react in clear words to such kind of false attributions to the new
and democratically legitimized government of Georgia," Ambassador Baechler
writes. "I would say there is not even a need to respond to such kind of
superficial assessments and - as it seems - concerted propaganda of some
misguided European MPs."

"It is interesting to see how much
some members of the EPP adapted from ancient Soviet-style propagandistic
methods - methods, they would publicly deny of course," the Swiss
ambassador's letter reads.

It also reads that Georgia "is much
freer than it ever used to be in the past and it is much freer than any country
in the neighborhood." He writes that in the October parliamentary
elections majority decided "to vote the Rose revolutionaries out of office
because they were about to leave the democratic path in order to become a
rather authoritarian modernization regime."

"One cannot overestimate what the
previous UNM government achieved when it managed to eradicate the old system of
corruption in Georgia," the Swiss ambassador says, adding that now the new
government was facing a huge task to eliminate "the system of so-called
elite corruption including the misspending of taxpayers' money and the transfer
of finances abroad."

"Between the false alternative of
tolerating a culture of impunity on the one hand and blank amnesty for all
crimes on the other there is only one 'red line'. This red line is marked by
the law and nothing else but the democratically legitimized and internationally
monitored law. The adherence of law helps to avoid several pitfalls and traps
such as politicized prosecution, court trials on weak ground, or crusades of
revenge. I observe a strong political will on your side to perform according to
the law and to internationally established standards," Ambassador Baechler
writes.

He writes to the Georgian PM that his
active engagement with the civil society, asking for their advice,
"indicates that you are serious about pledges made during and after the
elections."

"The performance of the Parliament as
well as of the Ministries - after 100 days in office - is quite remarkable,
too. The parliament for the first time in Georgian history became a space of
real political debates, of sound legislation, and of joint projects of both
majority and minority," Ambassador Baechler writes.

He also expresses confidence that PM's
government would spare no efforts to avoid those unspecified mistakes, which
had been made by the new authorities.

"If a government is modest, admits
mistakes, searches for improvements, allows media to be critical about
governmental actions, ask the civil society for advices and support, then
citizens tend to be tolerant and will allow a government to learn from its mistakes.
I am confident that you are well aware of mistakes that happened during the
last 100 days or so and that you use all your energy and wisdom to avoid such
mistakes in the future," the letter reads.

Swiss ambassador, whose country has acted
as a mediator between Georgia and Russia after the two countries cut diplomatic
relations following the 2008 August war, also praises PM Ivanishvili's handling
of relations with Moscow, saying that he "managed within a short period of
time to change the tone in Georgian relations" with Russia.  The Swiss ambassador also writes that before
the October parliamentary elections "some political figures" in
Georgia accused him of being "politically biased towards the
opposition."

"Yes, it may be true that I am indeed
biased. I never hided that I am biased towards democracy, human rights, and
peaceful relations as I always was during my diplomatic and academic
career," he writes. "The choice between political programs, between
UNM, GD and eventually other parties has to be made solely by the Georgian
citizens and voters themselves - neither by me as a foreign diplomat nor by any
European MPs either. If I ever interfered in Georgian affairs I do apologize
with the Georgian citizens. I will certainly refrain from doing so again",
the Swiss Ambassador writes in his letter.