Georgian capital tense after clashes

Press, 13 April 1989, Page 8

Georgian capital tense after clashes

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The streets of Tbilisi, capital of Soviet Georgia, remain tense and public services are still disrupted after week-end clashes between troops and nationalist demonstrators which killed 18 people.

The Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, dispatched to his native Georgia to investigate the deaths, was besieged yesterday by questions during meetings with residents. Georgian Communist Party leaders discussed at a special session how to return public services to normal and denounced “extremists, picketers and hooligan elements ’’disrupting industry, public transport and schools. In Moscow, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Gennady Gerasimov, announced the temporary recall of private weapons and said a general criminal investigation had been opened, though it was not clear against

whom it was directed. Soviet television news showed black flags dotting balconies on blocks of flats yesterday — designated a day of mourning in the southern Soviet republic. Crowds were shown placing flowers in front of the Georgian Government building — where the killings occurred as soldiers dispersed a large crowd shouting nationalist slogans. Many of the protesters had been calling for Georgia to leave the Soviet Union and denouncing Russian influence on Georgian culture. The official Tass news agency said post-second-ary colleges were closed and kindergartens had difficulty securing

day, but returned to their garages around noon because of threats against drivers. The Government daily, "Izvestia,” described the city centre as relatively calm, but said tension was building in outlying districts. It reported ■ that 464 people were detained for violating an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew imposed after the violence. Mr Shevardnadze, accompanied by a junior Politburo member, Georgy Razumovsky, and Georgian Communist Party chief, Dzhumber Patiashvili, met workers, academics and other officials who inundated them with demands for an explanation of the killings)!

food. Buses, trams and taxis began operating yester-