TV Anchor's Killing Touches a Nerve in Georgia

By DOUGLAS FRANTZ, THE NEW YORK TIMES

TBILISI, Georgia, Aug. 11 — No one heard the close-range gunshot that killed Giorgi Sanaia here last month, but the death of the popular young television anchor at the country's top-rated network reverberated powerfully across this capital city.

Hundreds of people gathered outside his rundown apartment house when word spread he had been killed. Young men and old women shouted insults at the city's police chief and at the country's minister of internal affairs as Mr. Sanaia's shrouded body was carried out.  Within hours, President Eduard A. Shevardnadze canceled an important foreign trip, fearing Georgia could be plunged into chaos by outrage over what most people assumed was a political assassination. He also sought help from the F.B.I. to bolster the credibility of his police.

"What we have here is a thoroughly thought out and targeted provocation, the goal of which is to provoke instability, fear, distrust in society," said Mr. Shevardnadze in an appeal for calm on state radio.

In fact, distrust is not far below the surface of this tiny nation, and Mr. Sanaia's killing has touched a nerve here. Corruption is rampant, and it is a common belief that Mr. Sanaia was killed for political reasons — and that the people behind it will never be known.

The prospect of instability in Georgia, a route for Caspian Sea oil and gas and an anchor of Western-oriented democracy in the region, is unsettling to the United States and its allies.

Western governments and international lenders have backed Mr. Shevardnadze and Georgia's 5.5 million people with billions of dollars of aid since it gained its independence from the Soviet Union a decade ago. The United States provides about $100 million a year.

But instability has been a part of Georgia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since Mr. Shevardnadze became president after a civil war, he has survived two assassination attempts. A mutiny in May by soldiers who had not been paid in more than a year nearly escalated into an attempted coup. Two breakaway republics in northern Georgia are seen as continuing threats to stability.

In a country weary of poverty — the average annual income sank below $750 this year — and fed up with corruption, people's reaction to the killing of Mr. Sanaia reflects not only a deep-seated distrust of the police but also growing dissatisfaction with Mr. Shevardnadze. Criticizing him directly, however, remains taboo.

"I don't trust the police and I don't have confidence in the government," said Eteri Kuchukhidze, 79, who lived next door to Mr. Sanaia. She wept quietly in her darkened apartment as she continued: "It was a political killing. He was a nice young man who had no enemies."

While tending a blazing oven at the small neighborhood bakery, Dato Kirimeli said flatly: "I don't trust that this will be investigated. I don't have trust in the police."

Identical sentiments surfaced in a poll of 500 residents of this capital city, completed Friday by Georgian Opinion Research Business International. Fifty-seven percent of the people surveyed said political interests were behind the killing, 63 percent did not think the killer would be found and 69 percent did not think the person who ordered the killing would be identified.

More than half the people did not think the government was interested in investigating the matter, and 47 percent did not think it was appropriate for the F.B.I. to join the inquiry.

A national poll in June by the organization ranked corruption as the second biggest problem, after unemployment and ahead of poverty. More than a third of the respondents said almost all government officials were corrupt; a quarter more said most were corrupt. Mr. Shevardnadze's approval rating was a dismal 6 percent.

Last year, Mr. Shevardnadze identified corruption as a major problem and appointed a commission to attack it. But diplomats said the commission had done little, and senior Georgian officials said it was difficult to root out corrupt officials who had built their own power bases.

The president's governing Citizens Union Party has been fragmented by its inability to combat corruption or to improve the economy. A group of prominent businessmen left to form their own party, and the remaining ranks split into factions of young reformers and older conservatives.

In a startling example of the rift, Mikhail Saakashvili, the young justice minister, stood before a meeting of government ministers on Wednesday and angrily accused several of them of profiting from corruption. He waved photographs of their lavish homes and demanded a law to confiscate property bought with illegal gains.

"Corruption is a big problem and it is very difficult to fight without a harsh dictatorship," said a senior adviser to Mr. Shevardnadze.

Unlike counterparts in other former Soviet republics, Mr. Shevardnadze does not rule with an iron hand. Criticism of the government and protests tolerated here would be brutally suppressed elsewhere.

Whether because of tolerance or indecision, corruption batters the economy at every level and the government cannot collect enough revenue to operate. Businessmen pay off tax inspectors, and the poor bribe the police. In the June survey, people said they had to bribe doctors for treatment.

Nothing, however, has galvanized public anger like the killing of Mr. Sanaia. Only 26 years old, he was the host of the leading news show on Rustavi 2, the top-rated private network, and a friendly face in most living rooms at 11 each night.

Journalists have been attacked across the former Soviet Union for reporting on corruption or criticizing public officials. The slaying of a Ukrainian Internet reporter last fall prompted months of protests against President Leonid Kuchma.

By all accounts, Mr. Sanaia was evenhanded and respected, and his show did not delve deeply into wrongdoing. "He was a gifted journalist who was never biased or aggressive," said Erosi Kitsmarishvili, general director of Rustavi 2. "That is why we think his murder was not just to kill him, but a message."

The message, if it was one, remains unclear and there are no clear beneficiaries from his death. The police are also investigating the possibility that the slaying was personal.

Mr. Sanaia's body was discovered on the evening of July 26 after he failed to show up at work. His wife and 6-year-old son were away on vacation, and colleagues said he had spent the previous evening at a bar with friends.

The one-room apartment was locked, and the police entered from the balcony. They found Mr. Sanaia lying on his back in a pool of blood, wearing boxer shorts and eyeglasses. He had been shot once in the back of the head. There was no sign of forced entry.

The public reaction led Mr. Shevardnadze to cancel a trip to Azerbaijan, where he was to sign an agreement for a natural gas pipeline through Georgia to Turkey. The pipeline and a parallel oil pipeline are vital to the country's economy.

The president pledged a full investigation. With the permission of the American Embassy, an F.B.I. agent arrived to help collect forensic evidence, which was sent to the bureau laboratory in Washington.

A few days after Mr. Sanaia's death, several thousand people marched down Tbilisi's main street to honor his memory. On July 31, Mr. Shevardnadze attended Mr. Sanaia's funeral, and 50,000 people joined the procession.

Now, public protests have faded and Mr. Sanaia's body is interred beneath a simple wooden cross in Saburtali Cemetery, where many of Georgia's prominent figures are buried. The distrust and cynicism bared by his death remain.