TBILISI -- About 200 armed supporters of Georgia's ousted President Zviad Gamsakhurdia Tuesday captured the town of Gali in the south of Georgia's war-torn Black Sea province of Abkhazia.
It is the first time Gamsakhurdia loyalists have expanded out of their traditional stronghold of western Georgia and into neighboring Abkhazia, which has just emerged from an 11-month fratricidal war.
The crisis in western Georgia began late last month when armed units seized the towns of Senaki, Abasha and Khobi and blockaded the Black Sea port of Poti, leading to acute food shortages in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
The rebels demanded the return to power of Gamsakhurdia and summoned the old Georgian Supreme Soviet, or parliament, which was dissolved in February 1992 after the former president fled the country.
Gamsakhurdia, Georgia's first democratically elected president, came to power in May 1991 but was brought down less than eight months later by armed opponents who accused him of trying to set up a dictatorship.
It is feared the rebel attack on Abkhazia could hamper efforts to implement a Russian-brokered peace deal for the region signed by Georgia and Abkhazia in July.
