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TBILISI -- Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze on Thursday ordered a paramilitary group which brought him to power in the former Soviet republic three years ago to disarm its fighters.
Shevardnadze revoked an earlier decree which had granted Mkhedrioni, or Horsemen, the status of "protection force" and had allowed its members to carry firearms, his press office said.
The group is believed to have several thousand fighters.
"The need for [Mkhedrioni] to carry weapons has expired," Shevardnadze said in a decree issued Thursday. "There have been cases when this has caused harm."
Shevardnadze, the last Soviet foreign minister, came to power in the troubled Transcaucasian state in early 1992, after Mkhedrioni had teamed up with other private militias to overthrow elected President Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
The Georgian Interior Ministry said it arrested 22 Mkhedrioni members in Kakhetia on Thursday and confiscated a significant quantity of arms.
Shevardnadze Disarms Force
05 May 1995
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