Associated Press

Thousands of students rally in downtown Tbilisi outside the Georgian parliament yesterday to demand the president and his team step down. President Eduard Shevardnadze fired his entire Cabinet, officials said yesterday, as a scandal about security and media freedom erupted into a full-fledged political crisis. The Georgian Orthodox Kvashveti Church is seen in the background.

Friday November 2, 2001

TBILISI, Georgia - Georgia plunged into political crisis yesterday as President Eduard Shevardnadze fired his government over a security scandal. The conflict threatened the fragile stability of this former Soviet republic on Russia's southern border.

Thousands of protesters massed in Georgia's capital, many demanding Shevardnadze's resignation over burgeoning corruption and poverty. The president, a former Soviet foreign minister, insisted he would stay in office.

The scandal began with an attempted security raid on the country's leading independent television station. It quickly took on larger proportions, bringing to the surface tensions boiling for months.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that he is closely following developments in Georgia, which has enjoyed a fragile stability since Shevardnadze helped end devastating civil wars in the early 1990s.

Shevardnadze's government has been under pressure from political opponents at home, from the breakaway region of Abkhazia and from Russia, which accuses Georgia of providing refuge to rebels fighting Russian troops in breakaway Chechnya, across the volatile border.

Zurab Zhvania, the parliamentary speaker whom Shevardnadze has been battling politically, cheered the Cabinet's firing. Then he resigned himself, in what he called an effort to prevent the crisis from turning catastrophic.

``Our task now is to ease tension in the city and prompt the demonstrators to disperse,'' he said.

Shevardnadze also urged the demonstrators to go home, but the crowd remained past midnight.

Shevardnadze said in a televised statement he should continue to stay in office to lead the country through these ``radical changes.''

While Shevardnadze was for years Georgia's most widely respected politician, his authority has diminished in recent years as he has proven powerless against the corruption that plagues the nation.

``His reign is good for the thieves,'' said Gia Koridze, a 19-year-old biology student. He accused officials of manipulating food supplies and profiteering at the expense of poor people like his mother, who he said was living on a pension equivalent to about $7 a month.

``It's time for the old man to resign,'' Mzekala Khvichia, a law student from Tbilisi State University, said of Shevardnadze. ``If he doesn't step down of his own free will, a referendum must be held to force him out.''

But Georgia has no other politicians of Shevardnadze's caliber and his resignation would throw the nation into turmoil - something even his rival Zhvania conceded. Were the president to resign, the parliament speaker would become Georgia's leader according to the country's constitution.

``The president must keep his office,'' Zhvania told the demonstrators outside parliament. ``We are not struggling for power.''

The source of the crisis was the security service's attempted raid on the independent Rustavi 2 television station earlier this week on suspicion of tax evasion. The failed raid brought protests that the state was trying to silence critical media and demands for top security officials to step down.

Security Minister Vakhtang Kutateladze resigned Wednesday, but parliamentary members said that was not enough. They also demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Kakha Targamadze and Prosecutor General Georgy Meparishvili, setting off protests among their opponents that they were trying to engineer a coup.

Targamadze and Meparishvili both told parliament yesterday they were resigning. Then Shevardnadze announced that the entire government was out.

Shevardnadze insisted the raid on the television station was not a sign of state interference in independent media, but criticized staff at Rustavi 2 for defying a court order to open their financial records for examination.

Members of parliament say tax officials examined the station's finances two weeks ago and found no violations.