[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 10 (Thursday, February 3, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S966-S967]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    DEATH OF GEORGIAN PRIME MINISTER

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I take a moment to share with the 
Senate the very sad news from Georgia this morning that Prime Minister 
Zurab Zhvania has died in what Georgian officials are calling an 
accident.
  According to government statements, he apparently suffocated during a 
meeting with his friend and Georgian deputy governor, Zurab Usupov, 
from a gas leak in a space heater. Mr. Usupov also died.
  We send our condolences to his wife, three children and the people of 
Georgia. Prime Minister Zhvania led a crusade for freedom and democracy 
in Georgia that brought about the Rose Revolution.
  As Prime Minister, he led the fight to root out corruption and set 
Georgia on a new path where democratic institutions could flourish. At 
the time of his death, he was advocating a peaceful resolution to the 
problems in South Ossetia.
  We mourn his death. People throughout the world, who believe in 
freedom,

[[Page S967]]

democracy, human rights, and the viability of peaceful political 
opposition in a political struggle, mourn him as well. He will be 
missed.

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