Saakashvili Steps up Military Rhetoric

President Saakashvili said, while addressing servicemen of the 11th brigade of the Georgian armed forces on April 1, that Georgia will soon acquire new helicopters and military vessels “to increase country’s combat readiness.”

“Our troops should be ready for carrying out operation in any part of the country if necessary to curb the illegal armed gangs and feudal lords,” Mikheil Saakashvili said.

“Besides national armed forces, three private armies, three illegal groups made of armed bandits, are operating on Georgian land, and some of their members speak Georgian,” he said.

He gave no further details, but no one doubts that Saakashvili was referring to the security forces in the defiant Autonomous Republic of Adjara.