Georgia close to civil war after thousands take to the streets

The former Soviet republic of Georgia stepped back from the brink of civil war when 15,000 opposition supporters who had marched on the offices of President Eduard Shevardnadze, demanding his resignation, dispersed peacefully late last night.

Hundreds of riot police and interior ministry troops were stationed across the capital on high alert.

The protesters linked arms to form a human chain around the heavily guarded presidential administration, calling on Mr Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister, to announce he was annulling the parliamentary elections that were held on 2 November, which opposition parties claim were rigged.

The opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili told protesters: "We are within 15 metres of Shevardnadze's offices. If he does not have the courage to walk this distance, it will be up to you to cast your verdict on his criminal regime. This man stole everything from us and he is not going to take notice of his own people."

The crowd moved from parliament along the main Tbilisi thoroughfare to outside his offices. Interior ministry troops watched as protesters chanted "step down" and "traitor". Yesterday's protest was the latest and most fervent expression of popular discontent since the elections. International observers said there had been "spectacular irregularities" in the ballot. No official results have been published, but provisional results, produced more than a week after the election, give Mr Shevardnadze's New Georgia bloc a narrow lead.

Mr Shevardnadze, who is not due to step down as President until 2005, has so far given no sign of yielding and has held talks with the head of a regional party, Revival, which came second.

Yesterday, as protesters gathered, he gave an unscheduled television address, warning, for the first time, that the country faced civil war. "While I am alive, while I am President, I will not allow a civil confrontation," he said. "It will be followed by civil war. There is a very real threat of it." He said that he had no intention of standing down until his presidential mandate expired, adding only that he would "never follow the fate of either Milosevic or Ceausescu".

All week protesters have been camped outside the parliament building in central Tbilisi. They dispersed peacefully last night and may launch a campaign of civil disobedience. Igor Gochava, a tall, slight man with silvery hair, said he had been there since last Saturday. Mr Gochava, his wife, their three sons and four grandchildren live in two rooms on the outskirts of Tbilisi. The building used to be a nursery school but is now full of refugees, such as Mr Gochava and his family, from the conflict in Abkhazia.

The breakaway region severed all ties with Tbilisi in 1993, and thousands of Georgians from the area are now living in hostels, public halls and even schools across the country. "None of our sons can find work, so the 12 of us have to get by on my pension," he said. That comes to 28 lari, or £9, a month. "It isn't even enough to buy bread," he said.

Mr Gochava'sis not an isolated case. Unemployment is rife, corruption among officials common and poverty widespread. Public services do not work, the roads are full of holes and there are frequent power cuts. The once-abundant orchards have fallen into neglect because there is no money to tend them.

Mr Shevardnadze, once regarded as Georgia's saviour, is widely blamed for the decline of a nation that used to be known as the fruit bowl of the Soviet Union, its lush hills and copious vineyards making it one of the most affluent of the republics.

Now, many fear that there could be a return to the violence of the early 1990s, when the country was racked by civil war. Renegade army units drove tanks through the capital, and snipers climbed on to roofs to take pot shots at protesters.

The brief civil war ended when Mr Shevardnadze, the last Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, agreed to become President of his native Georgia, on a platform of national unity.

Aslan Abashidze, a powerful Georgian regional leader, said last night that the unrest was increasingly reminiscent of events that drove the country to civil war after the collapse of the Soviet Union.