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If the Abkhazian drive succeeds, it could mark the beginning of the ultimate dismemberment of Georgia as other ethnic minorities, bent on fulfilling their own dreams of independence, followed suit. Equally menacing to stability, an Abkhazian victory would demolish Shevardnadze's credibility as the only leader capable of holding the country together. That danger prompted him to issue a televised call to arms, appealing "to all men with guns to go to defend Sukhumi." Together with his physician, cook and the rest of his personal staff, Shevardnadze headed for the embattled city, pledging to remain with the defenders "until the last drop of my blood."

While Sukhumi should be basking in the special autumnal softness that those who live along the Black Sea call the velvet season, the walls of Shevardnadze's headquarters in the city's only building with electricity reverberate day and night from shells that land 50 ft. from his office. So ) close has the fighting come that the Georgian leader's American-trained guards have at least once flung their bodies over him in protection as missiles slammed into nearby buildings.

Through it all, Shevardnadze has displayed a steely, pig-headed courage. His wan smile, snowy head and immaculately pressed suits, trademarks of the emissary of international statecraft he once was, offer a jarring contrast to the bearded and increasingly desperate commanders who surround him. With only three hours' sleep a night, he speaks in a voice so hushed that aides must strain to hear him; and yet, when he finds it expedient, the Georgian leader summons a fierce eloquence, all the more surprising in his tattered circumstances. "I am addressing you from besieged Sukhumi not knowing if my words will ever reach you," he wrote last Sunday in a worldwide appeal for help. "The city is being shelled. There is no water, no bread, no light and hope is dwindling. Regardless of what happens, I will not leave this town."

Ironically, the principal architects of Georgia's predicament may be the same Russian military commanders who are supposed to be enforcing the U.N.-sanctioned cease-fire. At least that's what Georgian officials and CIA sources charge. A minority of only 17% in their own homeland, the Abkhazians have turned to Russia for help. Georgians are convinced that vindictive Russian army officers, bent on taking revenge for the role Shevardnadze played in the collapse of the Soviet empire, are providing battlefield intelligence plus Russian Grad missiles and SU-25 fighters to the Abkhazians, who previously were armed with shotguns and hunting rifles. Outside observers suspect that assistance comes from free-lancing local commanders without the approval of political leaders in Moscow. But the distinction makes little difference to Georgian soldiers.

The principal targets of the shelling are civilians, many of whom had previously fled the city but returned during the cease-fire. Now they are frantically trying to escape again. Streets are clogged by women and children who walk the 15 miles to the airport with whatever possessions they can carry. They storm the planes that fly in at irregular intervals, laden with ammunition and volunteer reinforcements from Tbilisi.


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