Georgia tackles Chechen conundrum

Daria Solovieva: 3/11/04

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili appears determined to crack Georgia's Chechen conundrum. His efforts so far, however, have angered many, while leaving few satisfied.

Chechen separatists remain active in Chechnya. Raids in the war-ravaged region March 10-11 left at least eight Russian soldiers and local police officers dead, according to media reports. During the 24-hour span Chechen separatists carried out up to 19 separate attacks against government facilities in the region.

The presence of Chechen refugees in Georgia, mainly in the Pankisi Gorge near Georgia's frontier with Chechnya, has been a major source of friction between Moscow and Tbilisi in recent years. Russian authorities have long charged that Chechen militants have taken advantage of Georgia's political chaos to utilize the Pankisi Gorge as a safe haven. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Moscow also assailed former Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze for tolerating the Chechen separatist presence in Georgia. [For background information see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Shortly after taking office in late January, Saakashvili characterized Shevardnadze's lack of action on the Chechen separatist question as "dangerous policy," and pledged to tighten border controls along the Georgian-Russian frontier.

During Saakashvili's early February visit to Moscow, the Georgian president vowed to work with Russian leaders to improve security along the two countries' shared frontier, offering to form joint military patrols. He also indicated he would step up efforts to extradite suspected Islamic militants. Saakashvili reportedly admitted to Russian officials that Shevardnadze's administration had turned a blind eye to Chechen separatist activity in the Pankisi Gorge, an area that has long had a reputation for lawlessness. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

After returning to Georgia, Saakashvili told reporters on February 18 that the country needed to confront the threat of "Wahabbism" – a term that is commonly interchangeable in the parlance of the Commonwealth of Independent States with Islamic radicalism. He promised to undertake "severe actions" to drive Islamic radicals out of Georgia. "They should not expect any compromise on our part," the Georgian president said.

Mysterious actions followed Saakashvili's tough words. On February 19, Russian authorities detained two Chechens – Beqkhan Mulkoyev and Hussein Alkhanov – at the Georgian-Russian border three days after the duo's unexplained disappearance in Tbilisi, Caucasus Press reported. Russian officials said Mulkoyev and Alkhanov were wanted on an Interpol warrant for suspected terrorist activity. The pair was among a group of 13 Chechens who had been detained in 2002 on suspicion of entering Georgia illegally. Just under two weeks before being taken into custody by Russian authorities, Mulkoyev and Alkhanov had been acquitted by a Tbilisi court of the illegal border-crossing charge.

Georgian officials denied any involvement in either the disappearance of the two Chechens, or their subsequent arrest. But a leader of the Chechen community in Georgia, Khizri Aldamov, disputed the Georgian official account. "No one would believe that they [Mulkoyev and Alkhanov] went to the Russian border themselves," Aldamov told the Civil Georgia web site. "They did not intend to leave Georgia."

In moving to crack down on suspected Islamic radicals, Saakashvili is striving to accomplish several political aims in one stroke: If successful, the crackdown would go a long way towards reestablishing central authority in the Pankisi Gorge; it also would serve to demonstrate that Saakashvili's administration is serious about cooperating with Russia, thus raising the odds that solutions could be found to a host of bilateral problems, including Abkhazia's political status; and it would reassure the United States on Georgia's commitment to fight international terrorism.

The shift in Georgian government policy has alarmed thousands of Chechen refugees in Georgia, most of whom are concentrated in the Pankisi Gorge. It also has caused concern among Kists, ethnic Chechens who are indigenous to the Pankisi Gorge. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Some observers suggest the crackdown could result in violations of the civil rights of both refugees and local residents. According to Civil Georgia, many Chechen refugees worry that Georgian-Russian cooperation "might threaten their security."

One Chechen advocate in Georgia, Dzhokola Acheshvili, said the Georgian government's campaign was not distinguishing between radicals and mainstream believers of Islam. He went on to suggest there was a religious motive to the crackdown, in which Saakashvili, as leader of Christian Georgia, was seeking to curb the practice of Islam in the country: "The Georgian president has said he is beginning a struggle against so-called ‘Wahabbism,'" Acheshvili said in a statement posted on the Chechen web site Kavkaz-Tsentr on February 19. "In fact, this is nothing other than a struggle against Islam."

Acheshvili accused Saakashvili of trying to "isolate Kist children" from their cultural heritage, and alleged that authorities had condoned attacks against Islamic cutural sites in Pankisi, including the desecration of a mosque in Duisi, the regional center. "The fact that Saakashvili has decided to attack religion will bring nothing good to Georgian society," Acheshvili added.

Other reports posted by Kavkaz Tsentr have made vague references to possible retaliation if what it portrays as the harassment of Chechen refugees does not cease. "Chechens are not responsible for future problems in relations that most probably could arise," said a March 7 commentary on the arrest of an 18-year-old Chechen on the Georgian-Azerbaijani border.

While Saakashvili's crackdown on Islamic militants has unsettled refugees in Georgia, it apparently has not satisfied some influential members of Russia's government. On March 6, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov complained in an interview with the French newspaper Figaro that separatists are continuing to use Georgian territory as a safe haven. Ivanov said Islamic militants from outside the former Soviet Union continued to use Georgia as a transit point on their way to fight in Chechnya.

"Neither the [Georgian] army nor the police take any measures," Ivanov said. "We have eliminated dozens of foreign terrorists, including nationals from NATO member-states, mainly Turkey. Georgian visas have always been found in their passports." According to a British Broadcasting Corporation report March 9, Russian officials had found documentation on separatists killed in action that indicates some Islamic militants are being recruited in Britain.

Saakashvili vigorously denied Ivanov's allegations, according to an Itar-Tass report March 8. Saakashvili reiterated Georgia's offer to conduct joint patrols with Russia in an attempt to seal the Georgian-Russian border. "Nothing has been done" by Moscow to follow up on the Georgian offer, Saakashvili said. Editor's Note: Daria Solovieva is an editorial associate at EurasiaNet. She is a political science major at Bard College. She is at work on a senior thesis that examines the impact of the Chechen conflict on Russian foreign policy.

Posted March 11, 2004 © Eurasianet