Shevardnadze offices under siege
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Demonstrators, one holding an old Georgian flag, stand outside the parliament building in Tbilisi.
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TBILISI, Georgia -- Thousands of Georgians, watched warily by troops, surrounded the heavily guarded offices of embattled President Eduard Shevardnadze in a human chain and demanded he step down.
Up to 20,000 protesters, ignoring the veteran president's emotional appeal to stay at home, responded to opposition calls to take the dispute over the November 2 election result to the streets Friday and press Shevardnadze to resign.
The protests, the biggest in Georgia in the decade since the end of a bitter civil war, were watched anxiously by Western governments and oil firms hoping for a return to stability to permit construction of a key oil pipeline from Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean.
The protesters appeared determined but peaceful, hundreds dancing to an impromptu folk concert outside parliament square.
Opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili, stepping up the pressure on the president, demanded "total civil disobedience."
"This man stole everything from us and he is not going to take notice of his own people.... Never in Georgia were the people so mobilized against the government," he said.
"I call on the army not to act on the unlawful commander-in-chief's illegal orders," he said, and urged state workers to strike and police not to go to work.
As evening fell, thousands formed a human chain around the presidential office building, a Soviet monolith with a yellowish facade.
Interior ministry troops watched as protesters chanted "step down" and "traitor."
The ministry said earlier it would use force if the protesters switch their action to government buildings.
Shevardnadze had appealed to Georgians to stay away from the planned mass protest calling for his resignation in connection with disputed election results.
"There is not going to be anything to see and there will be no theatrical show. It might be the start of bad things to come," Shevardnadze said in a televised address Friday.
"Therefore I ask everyone to go about their own business, to return home, or to carry on studying.... I still appeal to everyone to calm down and act peacefully for the sake of your motherland, of our motherland," Reuters quoted the president as saying.
Vowing not to resign in the face of pressure from the streets, Shevardnadze warned that the protests could spark a civil war.
Saakashvili, National Movement leader, says talks have been exhausted.
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"The present situation of civil confrontation may develop into a civil war," he said.
"If the leaders of this action believe that the protesters will behave as they want them to, then they are mistaken. Some people will be drunk, some people will act as instigators, and irreparable things may happen," The Associated Press quoted Shevardnadze as saying.
Another opposition leader said earlier she favored more talks to resolve the deadlock over the election, which opposition parties say was stolen from them by the authorities.
"We are ready to meet the government, to have negotiations with them and we really want to find a solution,'' said Nino Burdzhanadze, parliamentary speaker and leader of her own bloc, which competed separately in the election.
On Friday, Shevardnadze reiterated his readiness to talk.
"I am ready to continue dialogue with the opposition leaders. It's possible to negotiate with Burdzhanadze and Zhvaniya," he said, referring to Burdzhanadze's predecessor, Zurab Zhvaniya.
"I am even ready to talk with their 'commander in chief,' Saakashvili."
Election results, still incomplete, show the pro-government bloc For a New Georgia in the lead, followed by the opposition Revival party, which tends to support the government on key issues, and the more radical National Movement.
The tally so far shows For a New Georgia getting only about 20 percent of the votes, but the National Movement and the smaller opposition Democrats claim that even that result is inflated, AP reported.
Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
