Word: gamsakhurdia
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...struggling to hold Georgia together since he took office last year. The intervening 18 months have taxed the talents of the consummate diplomat with a series of crippling crises: economic collapse, political chicanery, ethnic rebellion and even a guerrilla-style insurgency waged by the country's former President, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, whose lust for power remains undampened by the popular coup that deposed him nearly two years ago. The revolt in Abkhazia, where a small minority of ethnic separatists want an independent state, has put the fate of Georgia on the line. In Sukhumi, where he has set up headquarters, Shevardnadze...
...keystone to Georgia's future as an independent state. Under pressure from Moscow, the insurgents suspended their drive for autonomy and endorsed a cease-fire in July. But when Shevardnadze's forces turned to the task of breaking a blockade imposed on the Georgian capital of Tbilisi by Gamsakhurdia's rebels, the Abkhazians struck again. Two weeks ago, fighters launched a ferocious attack on Sukhumi. Within 48 hours, surprise had enabled them to seize the heights overlooking the city and pour artillery, mortars and missiles down on the civilian population...
...certainly the jaws of peril. State Department officials regard the current tensions there as "chaotic to the point of anarchy." Eduard Shevardnadze's government is threatened not only by a war in the breakaway region of Abkhazia but also by violence from supporters of ousted communist President Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Says a Western diplomat: "Georgia is a country full of people with guns who shoot them all the time...
GEORGIAN LEADER EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE COULD barely suppress his jubilance at what he called the "embarrassing" results in the parliamentary elections. In the first balloting held in the republic since President Zviad Gamsakhurdia was forcibly deposed last January, Georgians by a majority of 95% endorsed the former Soviet Foreign Minister's uncontested bid to become chairman of a new parliament. Shevardnadze promised his new constituents that he would do everything he could "not to leave them disappointed...
...fire-blackened walls of Tbilisi's Government House are a grim reminder of the street battle last December that toppled Gamsakhurdia, Georgia's first popularly elected President. The fervently patriotic Georgians had been quick to follow the lead of the Baltic republics in breaking away from Moscow early in 1990, but the majority admit they were duped by the charismatic nationalist, whose dictatorial policies turned democratic forces against him. * Gamsakhurdia instituted no economic reforms and left the state bureaucracy in a shambles. His worst legacy, though, was to set his compatriots on a collision course with ethnic minorities who felt...