Georgia rebel leader flees country
From CNN correspondent Ryan Chilcote
(CNN) -- President Mikhail Saaskashvili has announced on Georgian state television that Aslan Abashidze, the controversial leader of the country's Adzharia province, has resigned and left the country.
Abashidze is alleged to be flying to Moscow.
He left the country in the company of Igor Ivanov, head of the Russian Security Council who once served as Russia's foreign minister.
"Georgians: Aslan has fled! Adzhara is free!" a beaming Saakashvili told a televised news briefing from his office, Reuters reports.
"Today a new era has started. I congratulate everyone on this victory, on the beginning of Georgia's unification. Georgia will be united.
"No one could oppose the will of the people today and no one will do so in future."
Abashidze earlier this week ordered all bridges connecting the province with the rest of Georgia to be destroyed to prevent Georgian forces from coming to remove him.
"If it's raining and a man knows where he lives, he'll protect himself with an umbrella," Abashidze said at the time.
Abashidze's departure is seen as a major victory for Saaskashvili.
On Tuesday, Saaskashvili announced that Abashidze had "hours to leave" or face charges of human rights abuses in Adzharia.
In addition to demolishing the bridges into the province, forces loyal to Abashidze had armed themselves with rocket propelled grenades, assault rifles and had set up anti-aircraft guns.
However, in the wake of Abashidze's departure, confrontation with these forces has not materialized and in Batumi, the provincial capital of Adzharia, crowds were flooding the streets in celebration.
Saakashvili, elected in January after leading a bloodless revolution to oust veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze last year, had vowed to bring Adzhara and other unruly Georgian regions back under central control.
Adzhar has been a semi-autonomous republic within Georgia for 10 years, and Abashidze had ruled it virtually without challenge.
He was on the losing side in the so-called "Rose Revolution" that led to elections that brought Saakashvili to power last year.
