Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze demanded Monday that his enemies surrender or face destruction as government troops advanced toward the rebel stronghold of Senaki.
The momentum in Georgia's civil war swung toward Shevardnadze over the weekend when his troops captured two towns from paramilitary forces backing former Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia."Gamsakhurdia and his admirers are the main enemies of Georgia today," Shevardnadze said Monday in his weekly radio address. "And we must finish this off."
Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister, spoke with renewed confidence after government troops advanced into Gam-sak-hur-dia's home province of Mingrelia over the weekend. It was the first government victory in four weeks of fighting in western Georgia.
Shevardnadze's forces seized both the railroad town of Abasha and Martvili in western Georgian province, government officials said.
That brought them closer to Senaki, a key military stronghold of the rebels known as "Zviadisti," from Gamsakhurdia's first name.
Gamsakhurdia is an ardent nationalist who was ousted in a popular uprising in January 1992. After 18 months of exile in southern Russia, he returned a month ago to lead an insurrection aimed at driving Shevardnadze from power.
In Monday's radio address, Shevardnadze guaranteed the safety of any rebel soldiers who put down their weapons and surrender. But he said the offer did not apply to Gamsakhurdia or the ex-president's closest lieutenants, the Interfax news agency reported.
Shevardnadze also urged other countries not to provide asylum for Gamsakhurdia, calling him and his rebels "enemies of Georgia."
Shevardnadze has been struggling to hold this former Soviet republic together despite the Zviadisti and a separate rebellion by separatists in the province of Abkhazia along the Black Sea.
He suffered a major military defeat in Abkhazia last month when the separatists broke a Russian-mediated cease-fire with a surprise offensive that captured the regional capital, Sukhumi.
In recent weeks, Shevardnadze's forces also had been pushed back by the Zviadisti, who seized a dozen towns in western Georgia. But over the past four days the momentum shifted to Shevardnadze, whose soldiers pushed Gamsakhurdi's supporters out of six towns and advanced into Mingrelia.
About 80 people have been killed in clashes between government troops and Gamsakhurdia fighters; the Abkhazian conflict left about 3,000 people dead. The fighting has created more than 200,000.