TBILISI. Jan 29 (Interfax-AVN) - Leaders of the Popular Movement organization established in the Akhmeta district of Georgia demanded on Tuesday that the Georgian leadership expelled all Chechen refugees from the Pankisi gorge and said they were going to set up armed militia detachments, a spokesman for the district administration said.
Earlier in the day, residents of the district holding a protest rally in Akhmeta met Interior Minister Koba Narchemashvili who had arrived in the gorge at the order from President Eduard Shevardnadze. Participants in the rally numbering over 4,000 people expressed their distrust in the authorities, saying they were incapable of establishing order in the Pankisi gorge and clearing the area from criminal formations.
The participants elaborated an appeal to Shevardnadze which is, in fact, an ultimatum. It says that Shevardnadze must arrive in the district in three days and explain to the people why the special operation involving Interior Ministry and State Security Ministry troops that has been in progress in the gorge for 20 days has brought no significant results.
The protesters rejected Narchemashvili's proposal to send their representatives to Interior Ministry troops' strong-points near and in the gorge. They said they were going to set up mobile armed groups comprising men who had undergone military service in order to patrol the district's villages 24 hours a day.
According to the spokesman, the Popular Movement leadership has announced that if Shevardnadze does not arrive in the gorge the militia will solve the Pankisi problem on its own.