National Agenda : Georgian Comes Home to Trouble : ‘I could not stay away,’ says Shevardnadze, whose new nation confronts ethnic enmity, terrorism and falling food supplies.

Back in his tiny, newly independent homeland in the Caucasus Mountains, Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister, has met challenges even greater than ending the Cold War.

“Hot” war is raging for the 19th month between Georgians and Ossetians in a northern region of the former Soviet republic. Supporters of former President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who was violently overthrown in January, continue to call for his reinstatement and are implicated in car bombings and other terrorist acts.

Gas supplies have been blocked, so many of the country’s factories stand idle and most of its 5 million people have no cooking gas. And Georgians--long considered the best-fed people of the Soviet Union--are now seriously malnourished because current food supplies are so poor.

“Practically every family suffers, every citizen feels it,” a solemn Shevardnadze, 64, said in an interview in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital. “That’s how bad things are now.”

The situation in Georgia, one of the 15 former Soviet republics struggling to build a new future as an independent country, can be described only as “chaos,” he said, stressing that his best efforts may be incapable of calming the ethnic and political storm in his country.

“I could not stay away,” Shevardnadze said. “It’s my homeland and it is in deep political and economic crises. It’s my responsibility to help my people bring our country out of its crisis. I don’t know if we will be successful.”

Shevardnadze returned to Georgia three months ago at the request of the military council that toppled Gamsakhurdia, who was accused of being a dictator. The move followed a fierce 16-day battle on the capital’s main street, in which more than 113 people were killed.

“Shevardnadze has brought the whole world’s attention to Georgia,” said Dzhaba Ioseliani, 65, one of the two commanders of the military council who were jailed under Gamsakhurdia. “The world knows that if Shevardnadze is the leader of the current power structure in Georgia, then that means the current power structure is democratic.”

An apparent majority of the people of Georgia seem to support Shevardnadze, hoping that his international stature will attract assistance from abroad and that his powers of diplomacy might end both the political turmoil among Georgians and warfare with the Ossetians.

Shevardnadze has brought some of the world’s most influential diplomats--U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher--to visit Tbilisi, where the charred and bombed-out remnants of many buildings stand as testimony to the recent political unrest. America and Germany have opened embassies, and 20 countries have officially established relations with Georgia since the white-haired statesman returned home.

People in the city’s commercial and industrial sectors say that opening Georgia to the world is no small accomplishment, and they are encouraged by the interim government’s full embrace of the free-market system. Many old ties with other former Soviet republics were severed with the breakup of the union, and businessmen are eager to make new contacts with Europe, America and neighboring countries like Turkey and Iran.

“He’s a Georgian, and he has great authority in the world--this is a great combination for us today,” Zurab Chkoniya, 40, a private store owner who sells German goods, said of Shevardnadze. “Now the whole world recognizes us. This is great for business.”

Others, however, are skeptical.

“There’s no gas, no food in the stores and our children are going hungry. Bandits are running loose on our streets,” Rima Arshanova, 57, a homemaker, complained as she stood in a group of women one evening in a Tbilisi neighborhood. “So what do we care if some diplomats come to visit?”

Shevardnadze more than anyone knows that new embassies and visits from famous statesmen will not end the terrorist attacks or solve the intractable conflict in South Ossetia, a region of northern Georgia where Ossetians, who speak a Persian-based language, and Georgians lived peacefully until 1990.

Then, Ossetian nationalists launched a move to secede from Georgia so they could unify with their clansmen in North Ossetia, across the border in Russia. Georgians insist that history gives them the right to the land and say they won’t give it up.

At one point, Shevardnadze risked his life to broker some sort of settlement, flying into the region by helicopter with only one bodyguard. His negotiations with local officials reportedly went well. But just a few days later, Georgian gunmen attacked a busload of Ossetian refugees, killing 36 people and undermining Shevardnadze’s peacemaking attempt.

Despite his efforts, violence in the mountainous region continues to escalate. Earlier this month, 28 people were reported killed in just one day of fighting between Georgians and Ossetians. According to Georgian figures, more than 500 people have already died in the conflict and many thousands of the region’s 100,000 residents have fled their homes in fear.

Georgian guards tried to seize tanks and other armaments from a regiment of Russian soldiers stationed near Ossetia 10 days ago. Twelve Georgians and three soldiers died in the ensuing gun battle.

While Ossetia is a tinderbox, Shevardnadze says he has higher priorities.

“The most important thing now is to feed the people,” he said. “They are undernourished--not all of them, but many families, invalids and children.”

Also, he faces a continuing danger of political violence. Shevardnadze quickly achieved a truce among the many political factions in Georgia by putting 100 representatives from most of the groups on the ruling State Council, the interim executive government. But that fragile peace could be upset during the campaign for countrywide elections, scheduled for Oct. 11.

Even now, the attempt at a coalition government has been haunted by terrorist attacks, most of which are blamed on extremist supporters of Gamsakhurdia. Earlier this month, a roadside car bomb narrowly missed Ioseliani’s automobile and killed five passersby. Another car bomb did kill a leader of Mkhedrioni, a political group led by Ioseliani.

Meanwhile, strong members on the council, like Popular Front leader Nodar Natadze, have made it clear that they will support Shevardnadze only as long as they feel he is serving the public’s interest. Two State Council members sat in prison for their dissident activities, and many others were persecuted during Shevardnadze’s 13-year reign as Communist Party chief of Georgia--the post he left in 1985 to become Soviet foreign minister.

Shevardnadze tries to diminish his role in their suffering: “There were laws--like today we punish murderers, hooligans, et cetera . . . at that time similar punishments existed for dissidents. They were regarded as anti-Soviets. This was the practice in the giant empire.”

He freely admits to having past sins, the biggest of which, he concedes, “was being a Communist and the leader of the Communists here. But I have come back a different man from what I used to be.”

Some are not so ready to forgive.

“I think it’s immoral that he returned,” said Nana Kakabadze, 30, a dissident who was imprisoned under Shevardnadze and now works for the State Council. “But when the people are hungry, it is difficult to think about morals.”

Supporters of Gamsakhurdia, a longtime nationalist dissident under the Communists, also fault the former republic party boss.

“On the outside he looks good, but inside he’s Satan,” Mziya Kukvadze, 47, a teacher of blind children, said. “Why did we do all that struggling if we just end up with the same old Communist leader back again?”

Firing back, Shevardnadze declared: “The so-called Gamsakhurdia supporters are waging war against democracy. They blow up bridges and block the railroads. For five months, our railroads have been paralyzed.”

Of course, not all Gamsakhurdia backers are extremists. Many are upstanding citizens who were crushed to see Gamsakhurdia removed from power.

“He’s a national hero and he was our first honestly elected president,” said Demna Elisashvili, 43, a doctor, who marched out of his house to make a statement when he learned there was an American reporter talking with neighbors.

“He was overthrown by a neo-Bolshevik junta,” he continued with emotion brimming in his voice. “What’s worse, George Bush embraces this junta. He should be ashamed.”

Non-Georgian residents tend to have a far different perspective of Gamsakhurdia and his nationalist leadership.

“As an Armenian, it’s better for me under Shevardnadze,” said Laura Chatinyan, 18. “When I tried to get a job when Gamsakhurdia was in power, they told me, ‘Become a Georgian and we’ll hire you.’ That does not happen any more.

“I personally have big hopes for our future with Shevardnadze,” added Chatinyan, one of the half-million Armenians who live in Georgia. “I believe that he will bring stability.”

The question is whether he’ll be in power long enough to do the job. While he’s a career politician, Shevardnadze has never faced popular election.

And while many politicians and voters say it is his duty to run in October’s elections, he says he has not yet made up his mind whether to enter the race.