Georgian Crowd Embraces Bush

Secret Service Is Later Told of Possible Grenade Thrown During Speech

By Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 11, 2005; A12

TBILISI, Georgia, May 10 -- President Bush addressed a huge and exuberant crowd here in Georgia's Freedom Square, hailing the country's Rose Revolution as a model for democracy movements around the world. Georgian authorities later told the Secret Service that someone in the crowd threw what was described as a hand grenade toward the stage and that it landed within 100 feet of where the president was speaking but did not explode, a Secret Service spokeswoman said.

Lorie Lewis, the spokeswoman, said Georgian authorities did not report the grenade-throwing incident until Bush was safely aboard Air Force One on the way back to the United States. Bush gave his speech, in which he credited Georgia for touching off a global "freedom movement," apparently unaware of the possible attack.

"It was reported [that] the device described as a possible hand grenade hit an individual in the crowd and the device fell to the ground," Lewis said Tuesday night in Washington. "It is reported a Georgian security official picked up the device, which did not detonate, and removed it from the area."

No U.S. officials or journalists present at the event reported seeing any incident that matched the description.

U.S. authorities had not seen the device as of Tuesday night. The Secret Service has agents in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, working with the FBI, State Department and Georgian authorities to investigate the report, which had not been confirmed.

Guram Donadze, a spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry, at first denied that a hand grenade was thrown close to the president, telling the Associated Press, "This is an absolute lie." But he later said the secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, Gela Bezhuashvili, would make an announcement about the incident Wednesday.

In his speech, Bush said the Georgian street revolt known as the Rose Revolution had touched off similar movements in Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon and Iraq.

"You're making many important contributions to freedom's cause, but your most important contribution is your example," Bush told the crowd, speaking in bright sunshine. "Your courage is inspiring democratic reformers and sending a message that echoes across the world: Freedom will be the future of every nation and every people on Earth."

People waited for hours in the square for Bush to step onto the speaker's platform, some of them dressed in red, white and blue to form a human U.S. flag. Others wore red and white for a counterpart Georgian flag. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili estimated that 150,000 people showed up; the White House put the number at 250,000.

Bush's presence was a huge boost to Saakashvili, the 37-year-old architect of street protests that brought down the discredited government of Eduard Shevardnadze. "For the Georgian people, this is really a sign of strong solidarity with them," Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili said in an interview. "It's one thing to know it. It's another thing to see it."

The visit irritated the Russian government, which views recent uprisings along its borders as an effort by the United States to extend its influence into Moscow's historic zone of influence. When Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov learned of Bush's itinerary weeks ago, he wrote a letter of complaint to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Bush took a gentle jab at Russian President Vladimir Putin in his speech and at a news conference here Tuesday when he endorsed Saakashvili's plans to peacefully return the pro-Russian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Georgian control while granting them considerable autonomy. "The sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia must be respected," Bush said, an implicit reference to Moscow's support for the separatists.

But in a message calibrated to please Russia, Bush warned Georgia to respect the rights of its minority Abkhaz and Ossetian populations. Senior U.S. officials said before the trip that Bush planned to urge Saakashvili in private talks not to take provocative actions in the regions.

Bush also volunteered to help mediate a dispute over Russia's two remaining Soviet-era military bases in Georgia. Moscow has failed to fulfill a 1999 agreement to withdraw 3,500 troops it has in Georgia. In recent talks, Georgian officials insisted they leave by 2008, but Moscow balked. In response, the Georgian president on Monday boycotted Moscow's 60th anniversary celebration of the end of World War II.

Saakashvili, educated at George Washington University and Columbia University School of Law, came to international attention when he mobilized tens of thousands of demonstrators into Freedom Square to protest electoral fraud.

His campaign culminated in November 2003 when he burst into Parliament with a rose demanding the resignation of Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister. Saakashvili was elected president -- with Shevardnadze's support -- and set about remaking a country on the verge of collapse, where electricity often did not work, retirees scraped by on $7 a month and the government was suffused with corruption.

Saakashvili's boundless energy and buoyant optimism have made him a favorite in Washington, and Bush has clearly been taken with him. The president told interviewers before leaving Washington that he decided to make the trip in part because of Saakashvili's enthusiasm in inviting him.

While still broadly popular at home, Saakashvili has stirred growing criticism with a brash and impetuous manner. His blunt candor and thirst for radical change that appeal to many people strike others as needlessly confrontational. Some critics complain he has concentrated power at the expense of the opposition and the news media. To discourage the notion of one-man rule, Bush made a point of meeting here with Parliament Speaker Nino Burdzhanadze, who, while allied with Saakashvili, remains an independent political figure.

Saakashvili said the visit would embolden would-be revolutionaries. "Georgia provides a living example that democracy can work in this part of the world . . . and I think that's the message President Bush is sending to the outside world by coming here," he told reporters.

Among those watching from Freedom Square on Tuesday was Anatol Liabedzka, chairman of the opposition United People's Party in Belarus, whose government was labeled "the last dictatorship in Europe" by Rice last month.

Liabedzka and a colleague held up a banner: "Freedom Belarus." It was drawn during the morning at the office of the International Republican Institute, a U.S.-funded group that promotes democracy. Liabedzka planned to meet with Saakashvili in the evening to garner support for the Belarusan opposition. Liabedzka, whose allies met with Rice recently, said Bush's visit here would bolster his efforts in Belarus.

"It means that yesterday Tbilisi, today Kiev, tomorrow Minsk," the Belarusan capital, he said.

VandeHei reported from Washington.