[ninty]

Suprised no one has posted this yet. I found this to be quite amazing. A bloodless coup d'état carried out to perfection. This situation could have easily turned bloody, with the army still under Shevardnadze's control, he coud have opened fire on the crowd. I'm glad things worked out for the people of Georgia. It seems that no one sympathized with him and all wanted a new leader after he rigged an election. Its nice to see that people of the state have power over a corrupt person like this man is played out to be. Hopefully its true, and seems to be since no one wanted to stand by him, unlike the fall of the Communist system.

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Shevardnadze resigns amid opposition pressure

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) -- President Eduard Shevardnadze announced his resignation live on Georgian television on Sunday.

"I realized that what is happening may end with spilled blood if I use my rights," he said. "I have never betrayed my people and I decided that I should resign."

Asked where he was going to live, Shevardnadze said, "At home."

News of the reported resignation sparked roars and cheers and excited dancing among the tens of thousands of opposition supporters gathered outside the parliament building, which the opposition seized a day earlier, forcing Shevardnadze to flee the building as he attempted to open the first session of the new parliament elected in the widely denounced Nov. 2 voting.

Shevardnadze's control of this ex-Soviet republic had been slipping Sunday as leaders of protesters already occupying parliament urged tens of thousands of supporters to seize more organs of state power and some military units defected to the jubilant protesters thronging the capital's streets.

Georgi Baramadize, an opposition leader, had threatened to take his supporters to storm Shevardnadze's home if the Georgian leader failed to go.

"We will go and take the last presidential residence," Saakashvili told protesters, claiming "almost the entire army had taken the opposition side."

Saakashvili has promised to guarantee the safety of the Georgian leader and his family if Shevardnadze resigned in the wake of the allegedly fraudulent parliamentary elections that sparked the political crisis. Shortly after Saakashvili arrived, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was also shown on Georgian television driving up to the residence. Later, Ivanov who had been shuttling between the opposing sides throughout the day, departed without speaking to reporters.

An armoured personnel carrier was parked outside the residence and two ambulances had arrived earlier.

Groups of soldiers swore allegiance to the opposition throughout the day, but there was no way of knowing how widespread the defections were.

A National Guard commander said that 120 of his soldiers had pledged allegiance to the opposition-appointed interim president. The independent Rustavi-2 television station broadcast footage of the troops, who are part of the Defence Ministry, joining the opposition rally in front of the parliament. It did not identify the commander.

Georgi Shengilia, commander of an elite Defence Ministry special forces battalion stationed on the outskirts of Tbilisi, said he would not fulfil Shevardnadze's orders.

Shevardnadze went on state television to demand that the opposition leave the parliament and presidential headquarters and said once again that he was ready to meet with them for talks. But he said that if they did not abandon the parliament building, he would take steps to enact the state of emergency he announced Saturday.

Shevardnadze also sacked Tedo Dzhaparidze, his top security aide, who had publicly acknowledged fraud in the Nov. 2 parliamentary elections and called for a new vote, the president's office said.

Saakashvili urged his supporters to seize the Interior Ministry headquarters if Shevardnadze tried to convene a new parliament there and ordered them to take control of the state television, which he accused of airing "pro-Shevardnadze propaganda."

Saakashvili, speaking to more than 50,000 boisterous supporters outside parliament, also told them to begin ousting local administrators appointed by Shevardnadze.

The crowd swelled under bright, sunny skies as the day went on -- to such an extent that opposition leaders encouraged them to spread out to other areas of the city to avoid a stampede. Members sang folk songs, danced and shouted their approval as their leaders announced each new advance.

When another, 50-strong unit of Defence Ministry troops arrived at the square to declare their loyalty, demonstrators embraced them and heaved some of the soldiers into the air in jubilation.

The Georgian political crisis reached a new peak Saturday when the opposition chased out the newly elected parliament. Nino Burdzhanadze, speaker of the outgoing parliament and one of three main opposition leaders, proclaimed herself acting president until early elections she called for in 45 days.

In the latest signal of faltering loyalties in Shevardnadze's inner circle, his international legal affairs adviser, Levan Alexadze, told Rustavi-2 that he was going over to the opposition. "Maybe Georgia has a legitimate president, but Nino Burdzhanadze is a real president," he said.

Burdzhanadze said the opposition was negotiating with some of Shevardnadze's ministers, but refused to name them.

Defence Minister David Tevzadze said political consultations must solve what he described as a "legal absurdity" and that the military wouldn't resort to force as part of the state of emergency called by Shevardnadze.

Tevzadze confirmed his loyalty to the president. He said Shevardnadze hadn't given him orders to seize parliament or use force against the opposition in any way. "On the contrary, I have received warnings that there should be no action that could lead to bloodshed," he said.

However, he said "if the situation spins out of control, (the military) will fulfil its constitutional duty."

Russia and the United States -- both of which fear instability in the Caucasus region -- called on Georgians not to allow violence.

"It's necessary to bring the developments into the constitutional framework and avoid provocations," Ivanov told the opposition crowd .

Saakashvili said the opposition had given Ivanov its demands and the foreign minister had promised to convey them to Shevardnadze. He said Ivanov had pledged that Russian military units stationed in Georgia wouldn't intervene.

The opposition has pressed Shevardnadze to step down immediately instead of waiting until 2005, when his term ends. The fraudulent elections, which Shevardnadze had declared democratic and fair, became a tipping point for a population fed up with the poverty, corruption and crime that have dogged Georgia for more than a decade.

Shevardnadze had resolutely refused to step down. Even as bodyguards hustled him out of the parliament Saturday with protesters on his heels, he pledged, "I will not resign."

© Copyright 2003 Associated Press