Georgian Forces Seize Last Rebel Bastion

TBILISI, Georgia â€”  Government forces captured the last stronghold of rebels loyal to ousted President Zviad Gamsakhurdia on Saturday, the Defense Ministry said.

It said there was no resistance and no casualties as troops entered Zugdidi and supporters of the ardent nationalist fled into the nearby breakaway province of Abkhazia.

Georgian television showed government troops embracing in the center of the city, which appeared almost deserted.

“All of Gamsakhurdia’s fighters fled into Abkhazia. They have all left Georgian territory,� Defense Ministry spokesman Gia Chikovani said.

He said Gamsakhurdia, who had led the revolt from a base in Zugdidi, was now in the town of Gali, six miles inside the Abkhazian border. It was not clear when he left Zugdidi, which is in the heart of his Mingrelian homeland.

Gamsakhurdia was violently overthrown in January, 1992, by opponents who said the former human rights activist and translator of Shakespeare had become a dictator. He denied the charges and called those who overthrew him criminals.

After he fled the capital, Tbilisi, his supporters continued a low-level guerrilla war against the leadership of Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister who assumed power in his native Georgia while Gamsakhurdia was in exile.

Gamsakhurdia’s commander in chief, Loti Kobalia, issued a statement accusing Russian troops of surrounding Zugdidi on three sides with massive firepower, including tanks and armored personnel carriers.

A spokesman for the Russian military in Georgia denied that Russian troops were involved in the conflict.

“We categorically reject the charge that our troops are in any way taking sides in the fighting. I can tell you that there is not a single Russian soldier involved,� he said.

Russian troops have been guarding roads and railway lines in the west of the former Soviet republic. Marines began arriving in the Black Sea port of Poti on Thursday with the stated aim of guarding it and the nearby port of Batumi.

Their presence appeared to give an important psychological lift to Shevardnadze’s forces as they advance to snuff out Gamsakhurdia’s comeback attempt.