Breakaway region ignores President's order to disarm, mobilizes military
By MARK MacKINNON Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - Page A18
MOSCOW -- The tiny former Soviet republic of Georgia sat on the brink of civil war last night as the leader of a breakaway region ignored a deadline to disarm and instead mobilized his army and air force.
As Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili tried to cool tensions by backing away from talk of an economic blockade against the Black Sea province of Adzharia, the province put its army and air force on "full combat readiness" and sent 1,000 citizens to the border to form a human shield against any attempt at an incursion.
Mr. Saakashvili had given Adzharian leader Aslan Abashidze until last night to disarm and acknowledge his authority after his motorcade was barred from entering the Muslim enclave twice on the weekend.
But Mr. Abashidze ignored the deadline, and appeared to be digging in for potential repercussions. Last night, the Russian news service RIA Novosti reported from the Adzharian capital, Batumi, that machine-gun posts had been set up atop key buildings, and troops and armoured personnel carriers were seen moving toward the border. The main bridge across the nearby Choloki River had been mined, Adzharian officials said.
Georgia's armed forces were also on alert throughout the day, and the federal government established a crisis centre just outside the rebel territory.
"Almost the whole of Adzharia is militarized today; all roads from the autonomous republic are blocked; a railroad has also been dismantled in one of the sections," Georgian Interior Minister Georgy Baramidze said.
Refugees were seen on TV streaming out of Batumi, telling reporters they were heading for the safety of other parts of Georgia.
There were reports last night of small-arms fire along Adzharia's border with the rest of Georgia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe said it was withdrawing its staff, who were in the province to monitor a parliamentary election set for March 28.
The parliamentary contest is at the crux of the crisis. Mr. Abashidze says pro-Saakashvili organizers are planning mass demonstrations near the election date in an attempt to force him from office.
In November, Mr. Saakashvili led street protests that ousted Eduard Shevardnadze and led to his own election.
Adzharia, a small, mostly Muslim region in Georgia's southwest with historical links to Turkey, has long had the autonomy to run its own affairs, and does not pay taxes to the central government in Tbilisi.
Mr. Abashidze receives political support from the Kremlin, and many in Georgia were blaming Russia for the deepening crisis, noting that the showdown began while Mr. Abashidze was in Moscow for weekend "consultations."
Georgia has long accused Russia of meddling in its internal affairs, citing the Kremlin's overt support for separatist movements in the northern provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia during civil wars in the 1990s that left both with effective autonomy. Russia also maintains two military bases on Georgian soil, despite repeated requests from Tbilisi and pressure from the United States to remove them.
One of the two bases is in Batumi. And although Moscow has said it would remain neutral in case of a conflict, Mr. Abashidze has suggested that he expects Russian troops to come to his aid. In a statement on the weekend, Russia's Foreign Ministry warned Mr. Saakashvili of unclear "consequences" if he used force to end the standoff.
Tensions between Russia and Georgia have increased since Mr. Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister, was forced from office. Many in Russia view the so-called "rose revolution" as a CIA-sponsored coup.
"Mr. Shevardnadze tried to subdue Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Mr. Saakashvili is making the same mistake," Leonid Ivashov, a former top official in Russia's Defence Ministry, said yesterday. Mr. Saakashvili, who has pledged to unite the fractious country under his rule, has told Moscow several times that it must stop treating Georgia like a colony.
He warned on the weekend that "not a single tank" should leave the Russian base in Batumi if there were a crisis.
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