Chechen refugees worry about their future in Georgia

Natalia Antelava 10/11/02

Tension among Chechen refugees in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge is rising following Tbilisi's decision to extradite suspected Chechen rebels to Russia. Georgian officials have warned the Chechen refugees against meddling in migration matters. Meanwhile, a Chechen representative in Tbilisi is reportedly exploring the possibility of getting another country to accept the refugees now in Georgia.

The Chechens are upset at Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze's recent decision to extradite 13 Chechens wanted by Russia for suspected terrorist activities. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Georgia handed five of the suspects over in early October. Georgian officials are refraining from extraditing the remaining eight suspects following an appeal from the European Court for Human Rights. Moscow sent a diplomatic note to Tbilisi demanding that the eight be immediately handed over, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said October 10.

Hundreds of Chechen refugees have participated in sit-in protests in Duisi, the largest town in the Pankisi Gorge. The demonstrations have rankled some Georgian officials. "It is inadmissible to let someone impose their conditions on authorities," the Kavkasia Press agency reported Georgian Minister for Refugees and Accommodation Valery Vashakidze as saying.

Georgian authorities detained the 13 Chechen suspects in August for allegedly crossing the border illegally. Russia immediately demanded the suspects' extradition, but Tbilisi for weeks resisted. Throughout September, Georgian-Russian tension escalated, especially after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow might initiate unilateral military action unless Georgia took immediate steps to improve Pankisi security. Ultimately, Georgian leaders decided to proceed with handing over the Chechen suspects in an apparent effort to ease Russian pressure on Tbilisi.

"Of course it was a tough and delicate decision. But we went through every necessary legal procedure of the extradition and reaction from the European Court just proves that process of extradition is very complex and very delicate," Tedo Japaridze, chairman of Georgia's National Security Council, said in an interview.

The Pankisi Gorge is approximately 25 kilometers long and comprises five small villages. Virtually all of the area's estimated 9,000 inhabitants are Kists, ethnic Chechens who have lived in the area for hundreds of years. Over the past three years have been joined by an estimated 6,000 refugees, mostly women and children, seeking to escape the warfare in neighboring Chechnya.

Russian officials have long claimed the Pankisi to be a hotbed of rebel activity and a haven for drug-traffickers. Georgia has consistently denied such allegations, but, bowing to intense Russian pressure, Tbilisi in late summer launched an offensive to curb the lawless conditions in the gorge.

During a recent visit to the Pankisi, Georgian troops participating in the security sweep told me that the operation had so far proven successful. "When we came [to the Pankisi Gorge], there were certainly terrorists here, but now there are only peaceful refugees and maybe some criminals, said Captain Zaza Kavtaradze. "We are monitoring checkpoints, looking out and making sure no one gets in. We are also participating in the anti-criminal operation inside the gorge."

Accounts provided by local residents seemed to confirm that the Georgian stabilization operation has succeeded in containing criminal activity. Many of Pankisi residents say that at first they welcomed the Georgian forces. They add that just few months back grenades and Kalashnikov automatic rifles were normal accessories for nearly every Pankisi male. Today, at least in the streets, the only people bearing arms are Georgian soldiers, who continue to carry out house-to-house searches in the gorge.

However, many Chechens are starting to view the Georgian presence with suspicion. They complain that the behavior of Georgian security forces is increasingly reminiscent of the treatment they experienced at the hands of Russian troops in Chechnya. "They must make a distinction and treat us with some respect. Not everyone who is male is guilty of something, why don't they understand?," said Ayabar Usupova, a refugee from Grozny.

Usupova says her son, 25-year-old Hussein Usupov, was arrested in September at the checkpoint outside Duisi. The reason: a two-year-old video tape reportedly depicted Usupov in the company of Chechen fighters in Pankisi. "Those guys left long time ago, way before Russia said it would strike. And my son never fought. But they were his friends, of course as a Chechen, as any other Chechen male he associated with their cause. But my son never did anything illegal," Usupova said.

Officials told Usupova that her son was released after two weeks in detention in Tbilisi. But Usupov never returned home. "I waited for hours outside the [Security] Ministry, but he never showed up. The Ministry is claiming to have released him, and they have all the release documents, but he never stepped out from the building. This is like the NKVD [secret police] in Soviet times – when people just vanished without any trace," says Usupova.

"From one nightmare, to another," she sobbed, recalling the horrors of the warfare in Chechnya. Feeling increasingly hopeless about the fate of her son, and the possibility of finding peace in Pankisi, Usupova says that Chechens need to look for a new home. A growing number of Chechens, like Usupova, are getting the impression that they have overstayed their welcome in Georgia.

The Tbilisi-based Prime News Agency reported October 10 that the unofficial Chechen representative in Tbilisi, Kizhri Aldamov, met with officials from several foreign embassies to explore relocation possibilities for Chechen refugees in Georgia. So far, Aldamov has received no concrete response from a foreign government.

"People in Pankisi are asking for a third country, we have no other choice," said a Chechen refugee in Pankisi, who declined to give her name. "As long as Russians are in Chechnya we can't return there, and it is becoming dangerous for us here too. "

Editor's Note: Natalia Antelava is a freelance journalist based in Georgia.

Posted October 11, 2002 © Eurasianet