Georgia celebrates the fall of provincial strongman

GEORGIAN president Mikhail Saakashvili addressed a jubilant crowd in the capital of Adzharia province early yesterday, calling its people “heroic” after officials said regional leader Aslan Abashidze resigned and left for Russia after a power struggle with the government.

"You are heroic people," Mr Saakashvili told the crowd, speaking through a window of Abashidze's former residence in the Adzharian capital Batumi, where thousands had protested for more than 24 hours, calling for the regional strongman's resignation.

"You have achieved your Georgia," said Mr Saakashvili, who vowed to work to the unite the country after his landslide election in January. He told supporters that they had "demonstrated to the whole world your striving for democracy."

People in the crowd chanted Mr Saakashvili's nickname Misha! and waved the red-and-white flag he made Georgia's after his election. What had been an anti-Abashidze protest turned into a celebration in the capital of the Black Sea province after officials said Abashidze resigned and left for Moscow the previous night with a high-ranking Russian official.

The protesters were informed of the resignation by Georgian prime minister Zurab Zhvania, who had come to the province earlier in the day, news agencies reported.

Mr Saakashvili later made an announcement on Georgian television. Abashidze reportedly left Batumi in the company of Russian Security Council head Igor Ivanov after several hours of talks. Ivanov had arrived in the Adzharian capital several hours earlier to discuss the region's rising tensions.

Concern over Adzharia soared this week after Abashidze ordered the destruction of bridges connecting Adzharia with the rest of Georgia on Sunday, a move he said was necessary to prevent Georgian forces from taking control of the province.

Mr Saakashvili raised the pressure yesterday by ordering the military to take control of all internal border crossings with Adzharia.

Tensions had brewed between Adzharia and the central government since Mr Saakashvili, a long-time Abashidze foe, was elected in January. He made bringing Adzharia under central government control a top priority, saying that Abashidze ran the province like a feudal lord.