DOES THE GEORGIAN-RUSSIAN RAPPROCHEMENT THREATEN CHECHENS?
Jean-Christophe Peuch: 2/15/04
A EurasiaNet Partner
Post from RFE/RL
Assessing the results of the visit Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
recently paid to Moscow, a high-ranking Kremlin official said Russia had found
a reliable partner in the newly elected South Caucasus leader.
President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Sergei Prikhodko, said on
11 February that the Kremlin saw in Saakashvili a "responsible politician
who is ready to answer for what is happening in Georgia."
The two presidents, who held a four-hour meeting at the Kremlin that same
day, vowed to work toward boosting bilateral ties and repairing what
Saakashvili described as "years of enmity and misunderstanding"
between Tbilisi and Moscow.
One of the main focuses of the Kremlin talks was the situation in Russia’s
breakaway republic of Chechnya, which borders Georgia to the north.
Approximately one-tenth of the 800-kilometer-long Russian-Georgian border runs
along Chechnya.
Talking to reporters after his meeting on 11 February with Putin, Saakashvili
said he had offered his host the opportunity to join forces in enhancing
security along the border and making it impenetrable to Chechen separatist
fighters: "I [today] summoned [Valeri Chkheidze], the head of the Georgian
border guard administration, [to Moscow] so that he could talk to his Russian
colleagues. They signed an agreement on the exchange of information. I hope we
will agree on joint border patrols so that [next] spring [Chechen] fighters
will not be able to enter Georgia or, if there are fighters in Georgia now,
they will not be able to enter Russia. All armed elements must be isolated,
arrested, and sent to court. This is absolutely obvious."
Aleksandr Manilov, the deputy head of Russia’s border-guard administration,
said that the agreement signed in Moscow would be "a real contribution to
the fight against international terrorism and transnational crime."
In comments made upon his return to Tbilisi, Chkheidze said further
cooperation would be agreed upon when his Russian counterpart Vladimir
Pronichev visits Georgia "in March or April."
Using the same word Russian officials use to describe Chechen armed
separatists, Saakashvili said in Moscow he and Putin agreed cooperation should
also include an exchange of intelligence on "terrorists."
"Our intelligence services will exchange information, in particular
information related to the fight against terrorism. These terrorists are
creating exactly as many problems for us as they do for Russia. Should there be
any terrorists left on our territory we would like to get rid of them very
rapidly. Otherwise, we would like to set up mechanisms that will prevent them
from entering our territory."
Chechen separatist leaders have not reacted to Saakashvili’s statement and
were not immediately available for comment.
Russia had long accused Saakashvili’s ousted predecessor, Eduard
Shevardnadze, of allowing Chechen fighters to use Georgian territory as a
training field and a rear base of operations. Moscow’s primary focus was on the
remote Pankisi Gorge, which lies immediately south of the Chechen border.
Pankisi is home to some 7,000 ethnic Chechen Georgians known as Kists. It
also hosts an estimated 4,000 Chechen refugees, the vast majority of whom have
been granted tentative legal status by the Shevardnadze administration.
Georgia’s outgoing government has always denied Moscow’s charges, saying
only a few dozen wounded fighters were based in Pankisi and that the area was
mainly a refuge for civilians who had fled the combat zone in Chechnya.
But Georgia’s new president dismissed those theories.
Russia’s "Vremya Novostei" daily quoted Saakashvili as saying
Chechen fighters in the past have been allowed to move freely through Georgian
territory. The Georgian leader reportedly offered Russia the opportunity to
send additional army officers to Georgia to make sure that that would not
happen again.
Although this was not the first time Georgia proposed working together with
Russia to secure their common border, "Vremya Novostei" noted that
Saakashvili told Russian leaders "what Moscow had long wanted to hear from
his predecessor."
Yielding to joint Russian-American pressure, Shevardnadze two years ago
ordered a security crackdown on Pankisi that resulted in the arrest of 13
suspected Chechen separatists whom human-rights organizations say were
refugees. Five were extradited to Russia and the remainder have been either
released or jailed in Georgia.
Moscow says this is not enough and recently reiterated claims that
separatist fighters and what it called "foreign mercenaries" are
freely entering Chechnya from Georgia.
Some fear Saakashvili’s insistence on seeking better ties with Russia might
backfire on Georgian-based refugees.
Claiming many fighters are hiding among civilians, Moscow is demanding that
all refugees scattered throughout the North and South Caucasus regions return
home.
Russian government officials have made several visits to Pankisi in recent
months in an attempt at securing the repatriation of refugees. But so far only
a handful of them have yielded to Moscow’s promises of a safe return and the
vast majority of civilians still fear for their lives if they leave the Pankisi
Gorge.
Aslanbek Abdurzakov is an ethnic Chechen campaigner who heads a
Georgian-based nongovernmental group known as the International Committee to
Protect Human Rights in the Chechen Republic. He tells RFE/RL he does not
expect the burgeoning Russian-Georgian rapprochement to herald a dramatic
change in what he describes as the "already difficult situation" of
Chechen refugees.
"For four years, Chechen refugees in Georgia have been used as
bargaining chips in political games. Naturally, this worries us a lot and,
should something unexpected happen tomorrow -- such as a decision to extradite
[refugees to Russia], for example -- we wouldn’t be surprised. We’re expecting
any kind of development. Already under Shevardnadze, five Chechens were
extradited to Russia as a gift to Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin]. In that
regard, [Saakashvili’s recent statements] just mark a certain continuity."
On 11 February, Georgia’s Caucasus Press news agency reported
Prosecutor-General Irakli Okruashvili -- who was in Moscow with Saakashvili --
had agreed with his Russian counterpart on a prisoner swap that includes one of
the 13 fighters arrested in Pankisi in August 2002.
A few days ago (4 February), Georgian human rights activist Nana Kakabadze
told journalists in Tbilisi the Saakashvili administration was considering
extraditing "dozens" of Chechens to Russia.
Kakabadze’s then said she had information showing the operation would take
place before the Georgian leader goes to Moscow.
Although there has been no report of any recent deportation, the
Tbilisi-based "Mtavari Gazeti" opposition daily says Saakashvili
could give his consent to the extradition of an unspecified number of Chechen
prisoners in hope Russia would soon ease visa restrictions it introduced more
than two years ago for Georgian citizens. The newspaper’s claims could not be
confirmed.
In comments made to RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service the day before Putin met
Saakashvili at the Kremlin, Kakabadze said Russian authorities were stepping up
pressure on the new Georgian leadership in hope it agrees to deport all male
refugees over 18 who allegedly took part in combat operations in Chechnya.
"You cannot extradite [these] refugees to the country they come from
because what awaits them there is torture and [other] inhuman treatments. Our
constitution forbids that and our country is a signatory of international
conventions against torture. We want to remind our government that they have no
rights -- neither moral or legal -- to hand over these people to Russia."
Aslanbek Abdurzakov said he had no confirmation of any Georgian plan to
extradite Pankisi-based refugees. Yet on 6 February, Russia’s Prima news agency
quoted him as saying he could not rule out such a possibility. "I would
liken the current situation to the calm before the storm," Abdurzakov told
RFE/RL. "Everyone here is expecting something to happen."