Georgia mounts economic blockade of renegade Adjara region
Posted: 15 March 2004 2330 hrs
POTI, Georgia : Georgia imposed an economic blocade around its renegade Adjara region in a bid to make its recalcitrant leader recognize the central government's authority.
The move was the latest step in an escalating armed standoff that was sparked early Sunday when armed supporters of Adjara's leader barred Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili from entering the coastal territory.
Tbilisi says unauthorized armed groups are operating on the territory of the semi-autonomous region on the Black Sea coast and has vowed to bring Adjara back under central control in time for March 28 parliamentary elections.
Adjara leader Aslan Abashidze charges that Georgia's new leadership will use the election to oust him from power in the same way as Georgia's veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze in late November and has refused to bow.
The tension was sharpened by the close attention of Russia, Georgia's giant neighbor that has a military base on Adjaran territory. Moscow has warned Georgia of "grave and unpredictable consequences" if Adjara comes under attack.
Georgian ministers said Monday they had no plans to send the military into Adjara but there were still fears the crisis could erupt into armed conflict, with Adjara's leader warning that Tbilisi's stance was leading the country toward bloodshed.
Saakashvili gave Abashidze a deadline of Monday evening to recognise the government's authority over his region or face unspecified consequences.
In the meantime, Saakashvili said that starting Monday morning he was ordering the closure of Adjara's Black Sea port, its border with Turkey and cutting off the region's road and rail links with the rest of Georgia.
He added that criminal charges would be brought against Adjara's leaders and their bank accounts frozen.
"We are dealing here... with an attempt to stage a mutiny against Georgia, and this is an armed mutiny," Saakashvili told reporters from his crisis center in Poti, a coastal town just north of Adjara.
"Georgia is facing a clear threat of disintegration.... No major cargo will enter or leave (Monday) from the territory of Adjara."
But the 36-year-old leader said he still favoured a peaceful resolution of the crisis, adding that "not all the resources for dialogue have been exhausted."
The blockade is likely to deal a devastating blow to Adjara's economy, which depends on the income from the transit of goods across its territory.
Abashidze has irked the authorities in Georgia's capital Tbilisi for years by running Adjara like a state within a state, ignoring orders from the government and witholding taxes.
Saakashvili, who was swept to power late last year in a bloodless revolution, has vowed to bring Adjara back into line and prevent it from following the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in bloody conflicts in the early 1990s.
Abashidze, though, remained defiant Monday, saying on television that Saakashvili "wants blood to be spilt. There is no logic to Tbilisi's position, which is going to lead to a new tragedy in a new region."
"You cannot talk in ultimatums with your own people, especially leaders who are note appointed or dismissed by the president," Abashidze was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
In Adjara's capital, Batumi the local authorities announced a curfew. That followed claims from Georgian officials Sunday that Abashidze's heavily-armed militia had brought tanks onto the streets and was handing out weapons to civilians.
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