Georgia has put its armed forces on alert after recently elected President Mikhail Saakashvili's convoy was barred from
Published:
15 March 2004 y., Monday
Georgia has put its armed forces on alert after recently elected President Mikhail Saakashvili's convoy was barred from
entering the restive region of Adzhara, a Georgian radio station says.
The mounting tension on Sunday, accompanied by a reported closure of the country's airspace, follows Saakashvili's stark warning to the
region's leader to abide by national law or face action.
The Imedi radio station said that in the Adzhara-controlled town of Batumi -- Georgia's main Black Sea port -- local authorities had blocked
the airport runway with trucks.
Georgia's Rustavi-2 television showed footage of soldiers blocking Saakashvili's convoy at a checkpoint on the road into the Adzhara
autonomous republic. A warning shot could be heard.
"No way. We will not allow you to enter," one soldier told Georgia's Prosecutor General Irakly Okruashivili and Interior Minister Georgy
Baramidze when they approached his post on foot.
In a telephone address on Adzhara radio, the region's leader Aslan Abashidze, who is in Moscow, told his supporters: "Be vigilant, stay firm,
I'll be with you very soon."
But it was not clear if he would be able to fly back or if Georgia's airspace was closed. Zurab Chankotadze, head of the civil aviation
administration, said the Interior Ministry had taken over his headquarters and he had been denied entry.
Šaltinis:
swissinfo.org
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
The whale shark is the largest living fish species and is usually found in tropical and warm oceans. This gentle giant is not dangerous to humans but demand for its internal organs is putting it in grave danger.
more »
Land shortages in China and environmental concerns have inspired innovative alternatives at the Asia Funeral Expo in Hong Kong.
more »
Britain's Queen Elizabeth delivers landmark speech of reconciliation during visit to Ireland but stops short of apology.
more »
French climber Alain Robert, known as "Spiderman" scales Turkey's tallest building.
more »
The growth of a tree takes place so slowly that, in real time, it's impossible to observe. Six years ago plant-lover and British film-maker Neil Bromhall decided to speed up the process with time-lapse photography...
more »
Chinese artist Wang Jiang makes portraits of famous faces including U.S. President Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden from nothing but paper torn by hand.
more »
Residents of the southern Spanish town of Lorca stay in makeshift camps and shelters after an earthquake hits the town, destroying buildings and killing at least eight.
more »
The latest technological development in robots is the main focus of the Shanghai International Conference on Robotics and Automation in China.
more »
A rare earthquake rocked Lorca, an ancient town in southeastern Spain, on Wednesday causing houses to collapse, damaging historic churches and public buildings and killing at least 10 people.
more »
A small factory in New York's Brooklyn is doing its best to keep the dying art of making vinyl records.
more »