Skirmishes were spreading through the Georgian capital in the second week of a violent power struggle, and rebel forces say the fight against President Zviad Gamsakhurdia could become a republicwide civil war.
The first week of fighting, mainly along central Rustaveli Avenue near the parliament building, has left nearly 60 people dead and 300 wounded, according to the Health Ministry."If this continues much longer, there will be a sea of blood," said opposition leader Georgi Chanturia during a news conference. "I'm afraid that it will not only be on Rustaveli, but throughout Tbilisi and Georgia."
The unrest in Georgia has left the South Carolina-size state of 5.4 million residents in political disarray as 11 other former Soviet republics work on developing the new Commonwealth of Independent States.
The fighting pits soldiers loyal to Gamsakhurdia against an opposition coalition led by intellectuals and rebel National Guardsmen. The conflict, which began Dec. 22, has involved several thousand people and has been fought around the Parliament building, where Gamsakhurdia has taken refuge.
Opposition forces on Sunday were pushed back from the area around the mammoth Parliament building, but fighting persisted Monday three blocks away near the opposition headquarters in the old Georgian Institute for Marxism-Leninism.
Skirmishes were spreading around this city of 1.5 million, with random shootings reported between bands of armed fighters.
Chanturia said more than 1,000 Georgian veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan were considering helping the opposition after the leader of their veterans' union, Nodar Georgadze, was arrested Sunday.
The opposition said Monday that Foreign Minister Murman Omanidze also had been arrested and reportedly was being held with Georgadze in the boiler room of the Parliament. It was unclear why Omanidze was arrested.
Besides the three Baltic states, Georgia is the only former Soviet republic not to join the commonwealth. Commonwealth members have agreed not to consider its membership until the fighting ends, and Russian President Boris Yeltsin has ordered former Soviet troops under his control to leave Georgia.