Georgia Rebels Advance Out of Ethnic Area Toward Capital

Rebels hostile to Georgian leader Eduard A. Shevardnadze have advanced out of their ethnic territory and are threatening the capital Tbilisi, Georgian radio said Sunday.

The rebels are loyal to ousted President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who is mounting a comeback from his ethnically distinct western region of Mingrelia.

The radio said gunmen using tanks and heavy artillery moved into the village of Khoni in neighboring central Georgia late Saturday. Earlier Saturday they had taken the port of Poti. Six people died in the fighting there.

Khoni is about 15 miles northwest of the central Georgian administrative center of Kutaisi, which remains loyal to Shevardnadze. It is a little less than that distance north of Samtredia, a railway junction where the lines from Poti and Georgia’s southernmost port Batumi meet.

A single line carries on to Tbilisi in the east. If the pro-Gamsakhurdia rebels now move on Samtredia, they will cut off Tbilisi’s access to all supplies from Black Sea ports.

Itar-Tass news agency quoted a Samtredia official as saying that Gamsakhurdia’s forces might also take that town, as there were insufficient government troops to defend it.

The rebels now control a total of nine towns and districts in western Georgia, Itar-Tass said.

Gamsakhurdia returned from nearly two years in exile two weeks ago when Shevardnadze’s attention was diverted to defending his country against a separate ethnic uprising in the rebel region of Abkhazia.

Abkhazia fell to separatist forces last week, and Shevardnadze has since accused Georgia’s mighty northern neighbor Russia of masterminding the rebellion.

Shevardnadze has appealed to Gamsakhurdia supporters to cease all activity while refugees are being evacuated from Abkhazia.

“It is possible to save these people only if we cease military activity and work together,” said a statement released by Shevardnadze’s office. “We have to open all roads to the disaster area, including the road to Zugdidi.”

Zugdidi, in western Georgia, is Gamsakhurdia’s stronghold.