Georgian PM dies in his flat

2005-02-03 11:05

Tbilisi - Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania was found dead in a Tbilisi apartment on Thursday, apparently killed accidentally along with another person by poisoning from gas that leaked from a heating radiator, Interior Minister Nano Merabishvili said.

"This was apparently an accident," Merabishvili told reporters after Zhvania's body was discovered in the apartment by his bodyguards, who broke down the door after the prime minister failed to respond to their telephone calls in the early hours of Thursday.

The death of Zhvania was described by analysts as a blow to President Mikhail Saakashvili and the economic reform effort in the unstable Caucasus country.

"This is a heavy blow for Georgia and for Saakashvili," Alec Rondeli, a respected political analyst, said. "His departure could seriously slow down reforms in the country. It was Zhvania who was behind the economic reforms in the country."

Widely respected

The bodies of Zhvania and another person identified as Raul Yusupov, the deputy governor of the Kvemo-Kvartli region of Georgia and a friend of Zhvania, were discovered lying in different rooms of Yusupov's Tbilisi apartment.

Merabishvili said "it seems clear" that the two died of gas poisoning and said a preliminary investigation pointed to a faulty gas heater as the source of the leak.

Zhvania's body was taken to a local morgue. It was not immediately clear who would assume the duties of prime minister but President Mikhail Saakashvili called an emergency meeting of the government for later Thursday.

Once an ally of former Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze, Zhvania, a 41-year-old father of three, later rallied behind the pro-Western Saakashvili, who was elected president in January last year after leading a peaceful revolution that toppled Shevardnadze in the autumn of 2003.

Georgian political experts said that although Zhvania had some opponents he was generally widely respected as a skilled and efficient political leader whose disappearance from the scene in the restive Caucasus country would have consequences.

"There is no politician of his stature in Georgia, no man with as much experience or intelligence," commented Taata Zakareishvili of the Tbilisi-based Centre for Development and Cooperation.

Zakareishvili speculated that Zhvania would be succeeded by a politician either close to Saakashvili himself or to Irakli Okuashvili, the country's influential defence minister.

"Zhvania played a unique role in Georgia," said Arshil Gegeshidze, an analyst with the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies.

- AFP