Georgia - Shevardnadze says Russia and US in Pankisi Gorge roundup of Chechen militants

Associated Press | September 16, 2002

[HAL9000]

Shevardnadze Vows Gorge Crackdown

TBILISI, Georgia, Sep 16, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Facing threats of Russian military action, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said Monday he had ordered new security sweeps in the lawless Pankisi Gorge and will hand suspected Chechen militants over to Moscow.

Shevardnadze said in a weekly radio address he had ordered troops to arrest terrorists and free hostages in and around the gorge. Russia says Chechen rebels and foreign terrorists have turned the area into a base for attacks into the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya.

Shevardnadze said the early phase of Georgia's security operation, which began late last month, was complete. He promised to bring order to Pankisi within two to three weeks and warned militants that "resistance is pointless."

"The gorge will be forever cleansed of the remnants of illegal armed formations, criminals and drug traffickers," Shevardnadze said.

Shevardnadze's comments came after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Sept. 11 that Russia reserves the right to military action if Georgia doesn't rid the gorge of Chechen rebels.

Russian officials have repeatedly derided the Georgian operation in Pankisi as ineffective and urged Georgia to let Russian forces into the area.

Georgia has refused, saying it can handle the problem on its own. Shevardnadze repeated that Monday, but he also said that both Russian security agents and American representatives are in the gorge. He also suggested that suspected Chechen rebels could be turned over to Russia without proof of guilt, softening his resistance to Russian demands.

U.S. officials have said terrorists with links to al-Qaida may be in Pankisi but have criticized Russia's threats of action there. U.S. military personnel have trained Georgian forces for several months as part of the campaign against terrorism.

Georgian and Russian critics of Moscow's policy allege that the real aim of the anti-terrorist rhetoric is to get rid of Shevardnadze, who has cultivated close ties with the United States and the West, and to annex two separatist regions in Georgia with close ties to Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In an interview published Monday in the Russian business daily Kommersant, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov denied Moscow was trying to destabilize Shevardnadze's rule by threatening to use force in Georgia.

Another official, Col. Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said that Putin had not given Georgia a deadline to deal with the alleged terrorists.

"There was no ultimatum, and the president's words should not be portrayed as an ultimatum from the Russian side to the Georgian side," Baluyevsky told a news conference Monday. He said Putin was simply "reminding" Georgia that it has not fulfilled its obligation to fight terrorism.

Baluyevsky said Russia is not considering invading Georgia but that Russian forces could enter Georgia to seek militants who cross the border and carry out attacks in Chechnya.

By MISHA DZHINDZHIKASHVILI Associated Press Writer

Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved

[Destro]

Kill them where ever you find them! Go Ivan!

[spetznaz]

Unleash the Russian Spetsnaz forces to hunt these jehadis down and chop of their heads (they are good at cutting off terrorist heads and stuffing them in bags as the PLO very well knows).

[chemainus]

I prefer Vladimir Putin as an ally over Edouard Shevardnadze.