Ivane (Vano) Merabishvili (Georgian: ივანე [ვანო] მერაბიშვილი) (born April 15, 1968) is a Georgian politician who has served as the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs since December 18, 2004. A former NGO activist, he became directly involved in Georgia's politics in 1999 and emerged as one of the government's most influential members after the 2003 Rose Revolution.^[1]

Contents 1 Education and NGO career 2 Member of Parliament 3 Government minister 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Education and NGO career

Merabishvili was born in the village Ude in what is now Samtskhe-Javakheti region in south Georgia, then a Soviet republic. He graduated from the Technical University of Georgia in 1992 with a degree from the Faculty of Mining. After his schooling he held several positions at the Technical University of Georgia and the Institute of Agriculture of Georgia before becoming a president of the Association for Protection of Landowners' Rights in 1995 and a co-founder of the Liberty Institute in 1996.

[edit] Member of Parliament

Merabishvili's direct involvement with politics came in November 1999 when he was elected a Member of the Parliament of Georgia on President Eduard Shevardnadze-chaired Union of Citizens of Georgia (UCG) party ticket. Merabishvili was a member of an influential and vocal, but still a minority group of the UCG faction, known as “reformers” which were led by Zurab Zhvania and Mikheil Saakashvili and called for more radical and Western-oriented political reforms.^[2]

In April 2001, with the simmering split in the UCG, Merabishvili, then a chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Economic Policy, became the first and, at that time, the only leading member of the party who subjected Shevardnadze to open criticism. In an interview with the Washington Post, Merabisvhili claimed Shevardnadze was “tired” and lacked the political will to fight corruption.^[2] Shevardnadze downplayed the criticism, attributing Merabishvili’s statement to the latter's youth and inexperience.^[3]

In 2002, he became a Secretary General of Mikheil Saakashvili’s newly formed opposition National Movement. He was energetically involved in the protest movement following the November 2003 parliamentary elections which led to Shevardnadze’s resignation in the bloodless Rose Revolution.

[edit] Government minister

After Saakashvili’s ascend to presidency, Merabishvili served as the National Security Advisor and Secretary of the National Security Council from January 26 until June 7, 2004 when he was appointed as Minister of State Security. On December 18, 2004, the Ministry of State Security was merged with that of Internal Affairs of which Merabishvili was placed in charge.^[4] As the interior minister, Merabishvili presided over the police reform and crackdown on criminal bosses, the so-called "thieves in law". The police has been accused of using excessive force and heavy-handed tactics in the process, which Merabishvili denied to be the case.^[5]

In 2006, a controversy surrounding the murder of Sandro Girgvliani, a 28-year-old commercial bank official whose tortured body was found on the outskirts of Tbilisi on January 27 2006, had a significant political fallout and was at the forefront of several opposition attempts to force Merabishvili to resign. Girgvliani’s mother claimed interior ministry officials "masterminded my son’s murder" for insulting them and Tako Salaqaia, the wife of Minister Merabishvili, during a café encounter in downtown Tbilisi that evening. The court case resulted in the conviction of four lower-level ministry officials, but was heavily criticized by several independent observers and opposition parties as a cover up. During parliamentary hearings on February 28 2006, opposition parties criticized the ministry and walked out in protest.^[6]

Merabishvili himself accused the opposition parties of trying to use the Girgvliani murder case "for their political interests"^[7] and declared that he did not plan to resign.^[8]

Merabishvili has also been criticized for the conduct of police force during the November 2007 clash with opposition demonstration. Georgia's Public Defender (ombudsman) Sozar Subari later claimed he had a source according to which Merabishvili was one of those who decided to use police to break-up the protest rally and personally ordered to beat the demonstrators.^[9] Merabishvili later dismissed Subari's allegations.^[10]

By late 2008, Merabishvili had become perhaps the most powerful figure in Georgia next to Saakashvili.^[11] The Interior Ministry enlarged its responsibilities, taking greater control of border police and was designated by Saakashvili to oversee use of the substantial international assistance for Georgians displaced following the August conflict with Russia.^[12] In a march 2009 interview with the Rustavi 2 TV, Merabishvili said the assumption that he was the most influential figure in the Saakashvili’s administration was "over-exaggerated", but confirmed that in some cases the President had given him broader tasks.^[10]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Merabishvili’s official biography. The Government of Georgia website

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Preceded by Irakli Okruashvili

Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia December 28, 2004 – Present

Succeeded by Incumbent