Demonstrators hold old Georgian flags during a protest rally outside the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi. Georgian President Shevardnadze warned that the round-the-clock protests in the Georgian capital could spark a civil war. Photo by AP
Thousands of protesters marched on the offices of Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze to press demands that he step down, ignoring a warning from the leader that their action could drag the former Soviet republic into civil war. By late Friday evening, the protesters had retreated to the parliament building in the capital, Tbilisi, where they have been protesting almost daily since a disputed parliamentary election unleashed a wave of discontent with Shevardnadze's rule. But for a few tense hours as darkness fell, riot police and special forces troops armed with automatic weapons were scrambled to defend the presidential administration building as several thousand demonstrators headed in their direction. The marchers were stopped a few hundred yards short of the building by a security cordon, and instead they briefly linked arms in nearby streets to form a human chain around the complex.