"According to reports arriving from Batumi /capital of Adzharia/, arrests of persons accused of disloyalty to the central authorities have begun there. Simultaneously, preparations are under way to confiscate enterprises and economic entities owned by 'unreliable elements', the communique says.
"Such actions cause natural concern, more so that they are contrary to the repeated assurances of the Georgian leadership that it would not allow whatever persecutions or repressions in Adzharia after the events which happened in the autonomous republic, it stresses.
The leader of Adzharia, who tried maximally to cut the influence of the Tbilisi leadership in the territory of the autonomy, resigned on early May 6 after crowds of his opponents inundated the streets of Batumi. Igor Ivanov, secretary of the Russian Security Council, arrived from Moscow to persuade Abashidze to voluntary resign. In Ivanov's plane Abashidze flew to the Russian capital.
