Gamsakhurdia Loyalists March Through Tbilisi

Thousands of supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the ousted president of Georgia, marched through the streets on Saturday chanting, “Down with the junta.”

In western Georgia, one man was killed trying to take weapons from a former Soviet military base.

The ruling Military Council set up roadblocks on some bridges over the Kura River that runs through Tbilisi to prevent the marchers from reaching the government building.

In the western town of Poti, forces loyal to the deposed president, backed by a tank and a howitzer, remained firmly in control Saturday despite the new government’s claim to have taken it.

“If the Tbilisi troops come, we will blow up the bridge,” said a rifle-toting loyalist on the main bridge to the port, peering through binoculars at a dozen government troops stationed just across the Rioni River.

“There is not a single government soldier in Poti,” said a gunman called Georgy at the town hall, taken over by Gamsakhurdia men, shouting and waving their Kalashnikov automatic rifles.

No violence was reported during Saturday’s march in Tbilisi, which attracted many young people. Earlier pro-Gamsakhurdia demonstrations in the capital involved mainly middle-aged and old people.

Military Council co-chairman Jaba Ioseliani, commander of the Mkhedrioni (Horsemen) troops, said earlier that peace negotiations were continuing. He said from his temporary headquarters in Senaki, 30 miles away, that he would not move for a few more days. The Mkhedrioni troops sent from Tbilisi manned roadblocks of big trucks and armored personnel carriers outside Senaki, scene in the west of pro-Gamsakhurdia demonstrations Friday, and Teklati, Samtredia and Khobi to the north.

Gamsakhurdia has been hiding in Georgia after fleeing Tbilisi on Jan. 6, and a plane reportedly was waiting in the western Georgian town of Sukhumi to take him out of the republic at a moment’s notice.