Soviet Georgia Mourns Victims of Clashes

Black flags flew at half-staff in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Tuesday, radio stations played funeral music and people dressed in black as Georgians mourned 18 people, most of them said to be innocent bystanders, who died in weekend clashes between protesters and Soviet troops.

Tanks and armored personnel carriers remained parked in central squares, a clear warning to would-be protesters, and officials said about 200 people were arrested for violating a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Soviet troops collected tens of thousands of privately owned guns, mostly shotguns and rifles kept for hunting.

Business as Usual

But businesses and public transportation ran as usual, and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze went into the city’s streets and factories to try to restore calm in his home republic.

Residents reported a subdued atmosphere in the city. Mourners placed hundreds of flowers in a central Tbilisi square where the 18 Georgians were killed in a riot Sunday, and cars and buses were draped with black flags. Movie theaters and other places of entertainment were shuttered.

Protests in Georgia, which began a week ago, focus on demands that the southern republic of 5.2 million be granted independence from the Soviet Union. Demonstrators chanting in the Georgian language waved the flag used by the republic during its brief period of independence from 1918 until 1921, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union.

Increasing ethnic protest is a price of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost , or greater openness. But the official Communist Party newspaper Pravda, in a front-page commentary, signaled that there may be limits to Gorbachev’s policy, warning that the outbreak of nationalism in Georgia is a case of glasnost gone awry.

“The slogans of democratization, glasnost and broader human rights and freedoms are, increasingly, manipulated by groups of people who, passing themselves off as advocates of perestroika (restructuring), are in effect its real opponents,” Pravda said.

The Kremlin has responded quickly to the crisis and taken several measures to try to cool the atmosphere, including declaring Tuesday an official day of mourning and setting up special commissions to investigate conditions in the republic.

In addition, Shevardnadze, a former Communist Party leader in Georgia, canceled a trip to East Germany and rushed to his home republic Monday. He met Tuesday with workers, spoke to residents on the streets and addressed the Academy of Sciences, Soviet television and the official Tass news agency reported without elaboration.

Practical steps also have been taken to disarm the populace. Troops Tuesday began collecting hunting rifles and other privately owned guns in the republic.

“There are a total of some 66,000 guns in the hands of the population, and it has been decided to temporarily take them into custody,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov told reporters in Moscow.

12 Crushed to Death

A special commission was established to study the incidents surrounding the 18 deaths. Gerasimov said initial reports showed that 12 of the dead were crushed by the crowds and that a 13th, a 70-year-old woman, died from traumatic shock. But some witnesses said shots were heard.

Georgian Communist Party leader Dzhumber I. Patiashvili, speaking on Soviet television, acknowledged Monday night that many of the victims were innocent bystanders and that authorities in the republic had mishandled the demonstrations.

He said troops armed with clubs and shields tried to clear demonstrators from the central square but that when the protesters refused to retreat, “the troops didn’t back off and unfortunately, innocent people who were not active participants in the demonstration died.”