Shevardnadze to Speak at Rice on April 22

CONTACT: Mike Cinelli

PHONE: (713)
831-4794

E-MAIL: mcinelli@rice.edu

SHEVARDNADZE TO SPEAK AT RICE’S BAKER INSTITUTE APRIL
22
Georgian President, Baker to Conduct ‘Town Hall’
Meeting on Post-Cold War Era; Shevardnadze to Receive Baker Institute’s Enron
Prize for Distinguished Public Service

Georgian President Eduard
Shevardnadze will deliver an address, “Georgia, the Caucasus and Beyond,” and
join former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, in a “town hall” meeting to reflect on historic events that brought about a peaceful end to the
Cold War nearly 10 years ago.

The event–sponsored by Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for
Public Policy–is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 22, in Stude
Concert Hall, Alice Pratt Brown Hall on the Rice campus. Prior to the event,
Shevardnadze will meet with news media representatives at 5 p.m. in the
International Conference Facility of Baker Hall.

This will be the first time Shevardnadze and Baker have
appeared together in public to talk about their roles in bringing the Cold War
to an end and on future perspectives. They both made significant
contributions–as foreign minister of the Soviet Union and the U.S. secretary of
state, respectively–in managing a peaceful transfer to the post-Cold War era.

Former President George Bush will deliver a videotaped
welcoming message to start the evening’s program. Shevardnadze will then make
his address and participate in the “town hall” meeting, during which he will
exchange views with Baker on the historic events of 1989 and the state of the
post-Cold War world.

After the meeting concludes, Shevardnadze will be presented
with the Baker Institute’s Enron Prize for Distinguished Public Service. Kenneth
L. Lay, chairman and CEO of Enron Corp., will participate in the presentation.
Shevardnadze will be the third person to receive the prize. Previous recipients
were retired U.S. Gen. Colin Powell (1995) and former Soviet Union President
Mikhail Gorbachev (1997).

The event is by invitation only, except for students, faculty
and staff of Rice, who need only show university identification for admittance
to the event site.

As Soviet Foreign Minister from 1985 until his dramatic
resignation in December 1990, Shevardnadze was one of the principal architects
of glasnost and Perestroika and a leader of the movement for democratic reforms
and self-determination. He directed the policies that led to the withdrawal of
Soviet troops from Afghanistan, reduction of nuclear arms, the independence of
the countries of East and Central Europe, and the reunification of
Germany.

In 1992, the Georgia State Council invited Shevardnadze to
return to his native country to help restore peace and democracy following an
uprising in northwest Georgia, where ethnic Abkhaz nationalists and military
units of foreign mercenaries embarked on a policy of “national cleansing,” expelling 250,000 Georgians amid fierce fighting. With considerable personal
courage and risk to his life, Shevardnadze rallied the Georgian forces at the
front and then negotiated a cease-fire.

In 1995 elections, his Citizens Union party won a majority in
the Georgian parliament and he was elected president. He introduced democratic
and economic reforms that restored political stability, economic growth and
increased cooperation throughout the region. He also launched a program of
privatization.

Media coverage information follows:

Coverage Information for Georgian President Eduard
Shevardnadze’s

Visit to Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public
Policy

Date: Thursday, April 22, 1999

Time: 5 p.m. CST — Media briefing in International Conference
Facility, Baker Hall

6 p.m. CST — Speech, “town hall” meeting, Stude Concert Hall,
Alice Pratt Brown Hall

Presentation of Baker Institute Enron Prize for Distinguished
Public Service

Credentials

Journalists interested in attending the media briefing and
covering the “town hall” meeting need to e-mail or fax reporters’ names, media
affiliation, date of birth and social security number to the Rice University
Office of Media Relations by 5 p.m. on Friday, April 16. The e-mail address is mcinelli@rice.edu. The
office fax number is (713) 831-4747.

Satellite feed

For national and international broadcast media outlets,
satellite coordinates are: Satellite&endash;T5, at 97-degrees west.
Transponder&endash;24 at 4180Mhz downlink frequency, horizontal polarity,
audio on 6.2/6.8. The program will have a pre-broadcast info slate from 5:45
p.m. CST to 6 p.m. CST. The program will run from 6 p.m. CST to 7:30 p.m. CST
with a 15-minute soft closing to a 7:45 p.m. CST hard out.

Webcast

Shevardnadze’s speech and the “town hall” meeting will be
available live on the Internet through RealAudio/RealVideo. To listen to the
event online at http://www.rice.edu/rtv/, you must use “RealAudio Player,” a free, downloadable software. The
Rice site contains a link to the Web page from which the free RealAudio Player
can be downloaded. With the RealAudio Player installed on your computer, simply
click on the links located at http://www.rice.edu/rtv/. The file will begin “streaming” or sending the speech to your
computer.

Contact

Questions concerning this event should be directed to Michael
Cinelli, director of Rice’s Office of Media Relations, at (713)
831-4794.

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