From: MSN Nicknamesatanay_b  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/21/2005 6:59 AM

The following was received from a friend that thought to be nice to know:

What similarities are there between

Amiran Meskheli and Lavrenti Beria?

Rezonansi has found out about a very scandalous document that is in force at the Ministry of Home Affairs. It turned out that many experts knew about the existence of such document.

As to the document itself our source couldn’t tell us in detail whether this is an Order, Charter Clause or other type of legislative act. But the fact is that such document does exist and has been in force at the Ministry since January.

The document was inspired by the “effective” member of Vano Merabishvili’s team - Amiran Meskheli.

According to the document, employees of Ministry of Home Affairs (approx 30 000 people) and their family members have to inform Mr. Meskheli about every communication and contact they have with foreigners.

When traveling abroad or meeting foreigners at any other circumstance, employees of Ministry of Home Affairs and their family members have to record their conversations with foreigners and submit the tape to the ministry.

Rezonansi has approached several public figures to find out their opinion on this subject.

Elene Tevdoradze (MP): I didn’t know such a rule existed. What a terrible thing is this? What can I say, sure, I’ll try to check this matter.

Paata Zakareishvili (Member of Tbilisi Sakrebulo, Political Analyst): It seems to me this order was copied directly from the times of Beria. Even in times of Khrushev such things weren’t happening anymore. This is an alarming sign of the course our country has taken towards the authoritarian regime, as they fail to govern using democratic methods. The worst thing is that by merging Ministries of Security and Internal Affairs we got the worst outcome - Ministries of Security with police functions. These are limitations assigned to the policemen that are ordinary citizens of Georgia and they can not face any limitations except those set by Constitution. This is violation of rights of policemen and their family members.

What is the rationale behind such requirement?

 

Paata Zakareishvili (Member of Tbilisi Sakrebulo, Political Analyst): There must be some counterintelligence department at the Ministry of Home Affairs that will work on disclosing foreign agents in Georgia. These spies can be Russian, American, from any country. Even friendly countries often have spies on each others territory. It is quite possible, that we may have some suspicions concerning activities certain countries may be conducting in Georgia. That is why a special service is needed that will pay particular attention to contacts with foreigners – but this service implies 100, maximum 200 people, and not 30 000!

At present Georgia is absolutely friendly surroundings, Russia being the only exception. All the western countries are our friends, even historical enemy – turkey is our friend now, so I don’t understand why do we try to picture foreigners as enemies? This didn’t happen even during the Cold War.

 

Tinatin Khidasheli (Lawyer): I have seen this document. First thing I’d like to note - It seems to me that the creators have invoked somehow the spirit of Beria – who dictated them what to do.

To speak more seriously – this is a very dangerous piece of paper – that proves that we have in fact abolished The Ministry of must be some counterintelligence department at the Ministry of Home Affairs , not the Ministry of Security. This document makes all employees of the ministry – security agents - this is indeed very dangerous.

Secondly – this is violation of many people’s privacy that may have some kind of relation to foreigners and the employees of the Ministry.

Another laughable and scary thing is that the document directly indicates the name of person in charge – Deputy Minister Meskheli – and that all this information is for him.

Which Articles of Constitution does this document contradict?

 

Tinatin Khidasheli (Lawyer): There are many articles violated. First of all– this is right of privacy. This document concerns too many people, whose travel, phone or internet communications are to be reported to the Deputy Minister.

To give an extreme example – let’s imagine that some employee of the Ministry has 12 year old child with good internet skills and he/she communicates with foreigners in various chat rooms. This means that his father has to inform Amiran Meskheli about every such conversation within the 5 days.

We need to find out what’s going on in this ministry – lack of control leads to creation of such documents.

 

Rezonansi tried to talk to people at the Ministry. We tried to re-check the information with Deputy Minister Meskheli himself, but the reply from the Press Office of the ministry was as follows:

“This is a secret document. Neither you have right to publish it, nor we - to comment on it. his is an official position of the Ministry” – said Natia Lodia, employee of the Ministry’s Press Office.

We seriously doubt that this document is secret - as there are too many people informed about it.