Shevardnadze Blames Sabotage for Power Line Explosion

(Tbilisi. March 30, 2003. Civil Georgia) – President Shevardnadze in his Monday radiobroadcast said the explosion of the power transmitting line Kavkasioni ?was sabotage.?

Unknown persons exploded the vital high voltage power line Kavkasioni, which transmits electricity from Russia into Georgia, with anti-tank mine and TNT early in the morning on March 30 living most of the Georgia including the capital city Tbilisi without electricity.

“For all intents and purposes, this sabotage, if you like, is a terrorist act,” Shevardnadze said during his weekly radio interview. “It was carried out against the government by a bandit group, which continues unfortunately to act, secretly or openly, in several regions.”

Shevardnadze said that when Georgia abandoned plans in the 1990s to construct a hydroelectric power station under pressure from environmentalists, the country made a “huge mistake.”

He called for restarting the country’s energy program, constructing hydroelectric stations and speeding up the development of the country’s own energy resources.