Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Georgia Puts Trade Limits on Province

Monday March 15, 2004 9:16 PM


By JIM HEINTZ

Associated Press Writer

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Georgia's president slapped trade restrictions on the restive Adzharia province Monday after the region's leader ignored a deadline to accept federal authority.

Tension was high along the regional border, where Adzharian security forces and armed civilians stood guard. Shots were fired in the air Monday evening as Georgia's interior minister approached.

The standoff began Sunday after President Mikhail Saakashvili was prevented from entering Adzharia, an autonomous region within Georgia. The fiercely independent regional government, led by Aslan Abashidze, has been strongly critical of the ``rose revolution'' in November, when Saakashvili led protests that forced former President Eduard Shevardnadze to resign.

On Sunday evening, Saakashvili had given Adzharia a 1:30 p.m. EST Monday deadline to accept his authority and disarm paramilitary forces.

In a briefing in the capital Tbilisi after the deadline expired, Saakashvili said he had put in place measures to ``introduce control'' over the port of Batumi, Adzharia's checkpoint on the Turkish border, and rail traffic. He didn't give precise details, but said the measures would be ``temporary, until the situation returns to normal.''

``That's something any normal state would do in similar circumstances,'' Saakashvili said. ``We are not doing anything dramatic.''

Saakashvili won a landslide election to replace Shevardnadze in January and pledged to reunite the Caucasus Mountains country. New parliament elections are scheduled March 28, and Saakashvili said the recent rising tension between Adzharia and the central government likely arose from Abashidze's fears of losing power in the parliament vote.

Repeating a pledge to solve the tension without bloodshed, Saakashvili added that ``we are committed to the supremacy of our constitution.''

In Washington, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had called Saakashvili and urged him not to allow the tension in Adzharia to escalate. Powell, who is in India, spoke Sunday night to Saakashvili and also to Russian security council chief Igor Ivanov.

Russia has strongly backed Adzharia - it has a base there - and warned Georgia to keep its hands off the region. Russia also supports two other rebellious Georgian regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from the country in the early 1990s.

Abashidze on Monday introduced a state of emergency - one of several he has declared since the November revolution - and a curfew for Adzharia.

Georgian State Security Minister Zurab Adeishvili told an emergency government meeting in the neighboring Black Sea port of Poti that special armed formations have been created in Adzharia with more than 1,000 people, while weapons had been handed out to civilians.

Groups of men, many armed with automatic rifles, were seen arriving Monday at the river that forms Adzharia's border with Georgia, the Interfax news agency reported. Several hundred men in camouflage were also patrolling the area and set up camp.

As Interior Minister Georgy Baramidze approached the border Monday evening, someone began shooting in the air, he told Rustavi-2 TV.

Abashidze said he was ready to talk with Saakashvili, but struck a defiant note.

Speaking on Adzharia TV, Abashidze said he and Saakashvili had ``a difficult conversation'' by telephone Sunday. ``He was just saying what he wanted and wouldn't listen.''

Abashidze said Saakashvili had demanded control of customs duties from Adzharia, which borders Turkey, and the port in its capital, Batumi. ``I told him, 'Make your (requests) and we will discuss this question,''' he said.

Since November, Adzharia has run its own affairs, withholding tax payments from the central government and otherwise refusing to cooperate with Tbilisi. Abashidze has claimed the central government was preparing to use the military to overthrow him.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3864240,00.html


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