GEORGIA: Georgia's acting president, Ms Nino Burdzhanadze promised her people swift elections, security and stability yesterday, a day after mass protests forced Mr Eduard Shevardnadze to end his 11-year tenure as leader of the Caucasus nation.
After a night of celebration on the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, traffic again moved smoothly though streets where more than 50,000 people had thronged to demand the resignation of a man they blamed for rigging this month's parliamentary elections and presiding over rampant corruption and economic decline.
The greatest noise yesterday surrounded the whereabouts of Mr Shevardnadze (75), a former Soviet foreign minister whose shock of hair and political survival skills earned him the nickname "white fox".
In comments shown on German television, he denied reports that he was heading for a luxury villa he is said to have bought in the elegant spa town of Baden-Baden.
"Although I love Germany very much, my homeland is Georgia, and I owe it to her to stay here," he told ZDF television.
Mr Shevardnadze is remembered fondly by many Germans for his role, alongside then-Soviet leader Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, in helping reunify the country in 1990. The man who led protests to topple him, Mr Mikhail Saakashvili (35), said last night he hoped Mr Shevardnadze would stay in Georgia, the country of five million people that welcomed him back from Moscow as a hero in 1991.
"He is at home at his residence, and I think he should be given state protection," the US-educated lawyer and opposition leader said.
"It is important to create a precedent, that a former president can live normally in the country. It is vital for stability and security." The European Commission, France and Germany echoed the US State Department in welcoming the peaceful resolution of Georgia's political crisis, but caled for order and swift elections. Turkey said it hoped the future of a major US-backed oil pipeline running from the Caspian Sea, through Georgia, to its Mediterranean coast, would not be jeopardised by upheaval.
Mrs Burdzhanadze (39), who rallied for change alongside Mr Saakashvili, urged police and security services to help defuse the seething tension of recent weeks.
She met ministers and security chiefs on Sunday night, hours after Mr Shevardnadze stepped down, and said yesterday she expected some resignations, but would not make major personnel changes before parliamentary and presidential elections within 45 days.
Three regional governors, two city mayors and a deputy state minister have already quit their posts, however, highlighting the opposition that reformists may face over the coming weeks.
A major thorn in their side could be Mr Aslan Abashidze, leader of the autonomous Adzharia province who has declared a state of emergency there.
He is a fierce opponent of Mr Saakashvili, and his region is the only formally autonomous one in Georgia that has not broken away from Tbilisi, after Abkhazia and South Ossetia battled for de facto independence in the 1990s.
After taking part in talks to secure Mr Shevardnadze's peaceful resignation, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov flew for discussions with Mr Abashidze.
"I don't know if the exit that was found was the best exit," Mr Ivanov said yesterday of Mr Shevardnadze's departure. "It was not Russia's decision, but we consider the fact that blood wasn't spilled to be very important." Russian President Vladimir Putin, was equally non-committal.
"There is logical concern that the transfer of power in Georgia has taken place against a backdrop of strong pressure of the use of force," he told cabinet ministers.
"Those who organise and encourage such actions must accept their responsibilities before the Georgian peopleEdward Shevardnadze was never a dictator." But he made a scathing assessment of the former leader's time in office, calling his demise "the natural result of a series of systemic mistakes in domestic, foreign and economic policy," and lambasting the latter as "boiling down to begging for humiliating handouts from abroad." Citing membership of the EU and NATO as Tbilisi's ambitions, Mrs Burdzhanadze said Georgia would continue a westward diplomatic push that has angered Moscow, which fears losing influence in the strategically important state.
