Friday 29th of March 2024, 15:15 CET
Georgian opposition: Shevardnadze wants war
January 21, 2003
RFE/RL Transcaucasia

Written by Liz Fuller
Posted by HW on March 29, 2024

New war to delay elections
Speaking at a press conference in Tbilisi on 20 January, United Democrats leader Zurab Zhvania and National Movement head Mikhail Saakashvili accused President Shevardnadze of preparing to launch a new war in Abkhazia in order to create a pretext for postponing the parliamentary elections due this fall in which, they predicted, the opposition will defeat Shevardnadze's Union of Citizens of Georgia, Caucasus Press reported.

Back under control
In his traditional Monday radio broadcast on 20 January, Shevardnadze said that all efforts made in recent years to improve the competence of the Georgian military, including the Train and Equip program launched last year by the United States, were undertaken with the intention of bringing Abkhazia back under the control of the central Georgian government.

Hunger strike
Zhvania and Saakashvili declared their support for the Georgian veterans of the Abkhaz war who are currently on hunger strike outside the Russian Embassy in Tbilisi to demand the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeeping forces from the Abkhaz conflict zone. On 17 January, Zhvania had called on the Georgian authorities to render all possible to support to the Georgian guerrillas operating in the Abkhaz conflict zone and to include representatives of the Abkhaz government in exile in negotiations on resolving the Abkhaz conflict, Caucasus Press reported.

Call for overthrow
Georgian parliament deputy leader Djemal Gogotidze (Revival) has urged the Georgian displaced persons who since 6 January have blocked traffic across the bridge over the Inguri River to overthrow President Shevardnadze, Caucasus Press reported on 20 January.

"Shevardnadze's losing it"
Gogitidze argued "the main responsibility for losing Abkhazia lies with Shevardnadze.... We shall not win Abkhazia back as long as Shevardnadze is president." In his 20 January radio address, Shevardnadze admitted, as he has on previous occasions, that the August 1992 invasion of Abkhazia was a mistake he was powerless to prevent.
 
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