Shevardnadze Stays At Home To Avoid Coup

Eduard Shevardnadze said Saturday he called off a trip to New York for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations because he feared a coup attempt during his absence.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who like Shevardnadze was the target of a recent assassination attempt, also canceled plans to attend the gathering of leaders from the 185 countries in the U.N. General Assembly.

Shevardnadze, 67, said he had no fears for his security in New York, where meetings were scheduled with President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

But he said he feared supporters of his former interior minister, Igor Giorgadze, would try to destabilize the former Soviet republic during his absence.

“I would not exclude the possibility of a coup, which is even worse than terrorism,” Shevardnadze told journalists.

While Georgia has enjoyed stability in recent months, the government has been tense ever since Shevardnadze was targeted in a car bomb attack in August in which he suffered only minor scratches.

The government blamed Giorgadze - who now is in Russia - for the attack and several previous political killings.

In New York, U.N. spokesman Joe Sills said the Egyptian government gave no reason for canceling Mubarak’s trip Friday. Egypt will be represented by Foreign Minister Amr Moussa.

Egyptian officials initially said Mubarak never planned to attend the ceremonies, but later said no official decision was made until Friday.

The official U.N. speakers list had Mubarak listed as the third speaker on Monday.

Mubarak reduced foreign travel after escaping an assassination attempt in June in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Egyptian authorities blamed the attempt on Islamic militants trained in Sudan, which Sudan denied.

Last week, a group calling itself the Death Brigades threatened to assassinate Mubarak for his role in the Israeli-Arab peace process and ties with the United States.

The group was previously unheard of and it was unclear whether the statement was taken seriously by the government.

On Oct. 1, Egyptian Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine others were convicted in New York of conspiring to bomb the United Nations and other targets in the city. The charges included conspiring to kill Mubarak in New York.

Sills said there are always a few last-minute cancellations at U.N. gatherings.

Other no-shows include Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfara, who backed out because of political turmoil at home; German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who cited scheduling conflicts; and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, whose countries are under U.N. economic sanctions.