Is Georgia Ready for the U.N.?

Georgia's perpetually strained relations with Russia have deteriorated sharply after two weeks of daily clashes over Russian bombings within Georgia and Russian demands for Georgia to release several groups of Chechen rebels captured as they tried to flee into Georgia.

This new crisis in relations comes shortly after signs of apparent progress in late July, when Russia and Georgia were reportedly close to completing a draft treaty on bilateral relations. The next set of talks on the treaty were due to be held on 6 August, but Russia has postponed the talks. Among the key issues under discussion are a timeline for Russia to withdraw from the two bases that it still has Georgia, in the republic of Abjaria and the principally ethnic Armenian region of Akhalkalaki.

Another bone of contention is the position of Abkhazia, a republic that broke away from Georgia in 1992 where Russia maintains a peacekeeping force. On 29 July, the UN Security Council praised Russia for backing a UN plan for a gradual resolution of Abkhazia's status. The Abkhazian government in Sukhumi has consistently rejected the plan, and Russia's endorsement appeared to mark a change in Russia's supportive attitude towards the republic.

The first indication of a new crisis came on the day of the UN resolution, 29 July, when Georgia claimed that Russian military planes had bombed unpopulated areas just inside Georgia's border within the breakaway republic of Chechnya. Russia denied the claims. In the past week, Georgia has reported six bombings, all of which Russia denied. However, on 3 August, observers with the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) confirmed, in a public statement, that "a bombardment of Georgian territory took place ? in the area of Girevi, south of the Chechen part of the Georgian-Russian Federation border." The bombings followed Russian claims that Chechen fighters managed to cross over into Russia from Georgia's troubled Pankisi Gorge and engaged Russian troops on 27 July in the mountainous Itum-Kale region of Chechnya.

Georgian Foreign Minister Irakli Menagharishvili labeled the bombings an "the act of military aggression." In the meantime, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov stepped up long-standing criticisms of Georgia by saying that Georgia is providing a haven to Chechen rebels, Arab mercenaries, and members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network and that Georgia had known of planned operations within Russia but had failed to inform Moscow.

In February, Georgia acknowledged long-standing claims by Russia that some Chechen rebels have taken refuge in the Pankisi Gorge, a largely lawless area of Georgia that borders Chechnya. Reports that some al-Qaeda fighters might have fled from Afghanistan to the gorge prompted the United States to offer to send anti-terrorist troops to Georgia to help train the country's border guards. Georgia accepted the offer, and U.S. trainers arrived in May. On 21 May, Georgian Defense Minister Valeri Khaburdzania put the number of armed rebels in the gorge at 700, including 100 of Arab origin.

Over the past week, attention has been focused on the capture of two groups of Chechen rebels on the border with Georgia. Border guards say that the men had been trying to slip into Georgia illegally and were carrying guns and explosives. Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed their capture as "a first sign that the Georgian authorities are concerned with the need to fight international terrorism," before calling on the Georgian authorities to extradite them to Russia, saying that the Kremlin would judge the seriousness of Georgia's commitment to fighting international terrorism by how fast "these criminals" ended up "in the hands of Russian justice" in a former KGB prison in Moscow.

Speaking on 5 August, after the seizure of the first group of Chechens, Georgian President Eduard Shevarnadze vowed to resolve the Pankisi Gorge problem by disarming Chechen rebels and making them stand trial in Georgia. Under Georgian law, the men face 10 years in prison for illegal weapons' possession and border crossing. However, he added that the Pankisi problem was not created by Georgia but was "one of the tragic consequences of the Chechen conflict."

Tbilisi responded to subsequent demands for extradition, including a visit by Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, by saying it would hand the Chechens over only once it had been provided evidence linking the detainees with terrorist acts or crimes inside Russia. The Chechens have admitted to crossing the border illegally and carrying arms. However, the men, who hid their faces from television cameras, have asked to be tried in Georgia and claim that their "families and brothers in Chechnya will appear in concentration camps" once their names are released.

Other Georgian officials have accused Russia of engineering the crisis, saying that Russian troops have deliberately pushed Chechens towards the borders. State Security Ministry spokesman Nika Laliashvili claimed that one group of seven Chechens had crossed a section of the border "particularly well-manned by Russian border guards."

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For their part, Moscow appeared to suggest that the Georgian authorities are obstructing efforts to extradite the men. Vladimir Ustinov, Russia's chief prosecutor, said in Tbilisi on 6 August that "even the information concerning the names of detainees we received from the Internet and not from our [Georgian] counterparts."

Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the Federation Council — the upper house of the Russian parliament — has advocated the use of cross-border attacks to wipe out rebel bases within Georgia. Mironov further suggested that Russia should now propose the creation of an international United Nations force to establish control over the Pankisi Gorge. The chairman of the Federation Council's foreign affairs committee, Mikhail Margelov, subsequently suggested that the force should include Russian and U.S. troops.

On 10 August Sergei Ivanov, Russia's defense minister, said that only military action would resolve problems within the Pankisi Gorge, contrasting the success of the anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan with the lack of progress in the gorge. Shevardnadze dismissed the possibility of a UN-led international force. "That will not happen," Shevardnadze said at a news briefing on 5 August, "? and the Security Council will reject the proposal, as it would be interference in Georgia's internal affairs."

According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Georgia has sent more troops to guard the border. It reports Valeri Chkeidze, head of the border-guards service, as saying that full border security had not been possible before, as "only 300 border guards had previously been on duty in that particular area." Despite this admission of deficiencies in border checks, Chkedidze, in a television interview on 30 July, also suggested that Russia's aim "is to crush a sovereign and independent state and put it under their heel, under their jackboot."

The other major strategic issue involving in Georgia is the planned construction of a pipeline between Azerbaijan and Turkey, which is supposed to run through Georgian territory. The official ceremony to begin work is due soon, and it is unclear whether Russia, which has long advocated the use of Russian pipelines, will be involved in some way.

The serving chairman of the OSCE, Portuguese Foreign Minister Antonio Martins da Cruz, has expressed serious concern over the current escalation of tension between Georgia and Russia, while U.S. State Department in its latest statement on 31 July said that "the United States strongly supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia. We would therefore be seriously concerned to learn of any violations of that sovereignty."

*This article was edited and adapted from Transitions Online. A longer version is available at: www.tol.cz

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