Jaba Ioseliani

Violent warlord in post-Communist Georgia

Jaba Ioseliani, warlord and politician: born Khashuri, Soviet Union 10 July 1926; married Venera Bolkvadze (one son); died Tbilisi, Georgia 4 March 2003.

In the colourful politics of post- Soviet Georgia, Jaba Ioseliani was an irrepressible force. As half of a duumvirate which ousted independent Georgia's first elected president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, and installed Eduard Shevardnadze as head of state in 1992, Ioseliani was arguably the second most powerful man in Georgia in the early 1990s.

But he was better known as a gangster who built up a feared private army, the Mkhedrioni (Horsemen), and remained a constant reminder of the turbulent and violent early years of Georgian independence.

As a young man he staged a massive bank robbery in Leningrad, but was arrested. He served 17 years in prison before being freed in 1965. (He would later serve another sentence for manslaughter and in the post- Soviet era would argue that such criminality in Soviet conditions was an expression of stifled initiative.)

He resumed his education, gaining a doctorate in philology and becoming a theatre critic, poet and playwright. He was soon a feature of the cultural life of Georgia's capital Tbilisi and became a friend of Shevardnadze, then Georgian Communist Party leader.

It was not until the nationalist fervour whipped up in the Caucasus in the late 1980s that Ioseliani came to prominence, joining the Georgian National Congress. His monarchist views and mistrust of presidents would only be strengthened by his subsequent experiences.

After Soviet soldiers brutally beat demonstrators to death with shovels in Tbilisi in April 1989, Ioseliani founded the Mkhedrioni, ostensibly as a self-defence force. A secretive band, all members took an oath of loyalty to him and knew that treachery meant death. Members wore a distinctive medal of Georgia's patron saint, St George. Like Ioseliani, many had a criminal record.

He was soon leading them against Georgia's ethnic minorities, first of all the South Ossetians, who were threatening unilateral independence from Georgia.

He turned on Gamsakhurdia, who imprisoned him in February 1991 with hundreds of his followers. Ioseliani went on a 40-day hunger strike in protest. He escaped from prison in December 1991, as opposition to Gamsakhurdia was mounting. Ioseliani – whose conviction on firearms charges had barred him from standing for president in 1991 – and fellow warlord Tengiz Kitovani succeeded in driving the president from power.

Of course he had regrets about using violence to oust the democratically elected Gamsakhurdia, Ioseliani assured the travel writer Stephen Brook. But quoting the poet Erakli Abashidze, he added: "I go to the market, buy a cucumber and take it home. When I begin to eat it I discover it is rotten. Am I obliged to eat the cucumber to the end because I chose it at the market?"

The two warlords shared power as heads of the Military Council, before inviting Shevardnadze to return from Moscow in March 1992. They knew they would never themselves be recognised internationally as legitimate leaders.

Ioseliani, elected to parliament later that year, was determined to keep Shevardnadze in his place. His office was located directly above Shevardnadze's and he was constantly surrounded with armed followers wherever he went.

In December 1992 Ioseliani and Kitovani led the disastrous attack by Georgian forces on the western region of Abkhazia, whose minority Abkhaz population was set on independence. The ignominious Georgian defeat was a bitter blow to Ioseliani's prestige.

Relations between Ioseliani and Shevardnadze grew tense as the president moved to curb his power. In February 1994 the Mkhedrioni was formally disbanded and transformed into the Rescue Corps, of which Ioseliani remained head, but it continued to function as a private army. In early 1995, Shevardnadze ordered it to disarm, accusing the group of deep involvement in crime. That November, Ioseliani was arrested for allegedly organising a car bomb attack against Shevardnadze three months earlier.

Ioseliani was charged with treason and plotting the killings of several political leaders – charges which were never properly substantiated – and eventually sentenced in 1998 to 11 years in prison. He was released under an amnesty in spring 2000. In recent months he had announced his intention to stand again in this autumn's parliamentary elections.

Felix Corley