A mass round-up of Chechens in Georgia marks a new policy shift by President
Shevardnadze's government.
By Giorgy Kupatadze and Beslan Makhauri in Tbilisi (CRS No.159, 12-Dec-02)
Dozens of Chechen families living in Tbilisi had a rude awakening on the morning
of December 7. Before dawn, at around 5 or 6 am, large groups of armed policemen
burst into apartments and homes in different parts of the Georgian capital.
"They
hammered on the door, got people straight out of their beds and took them away,"
Mamed Ediev, a Chechen writer detained in the raids, told IWPR. "And imagine
how embarrassed we felt in front of our neighbours, who came outside because
of the noise - and there we were looking as though we'd been exposed as bandits
and terrorists."
A few hours later, the Georgian interior ministry said that the detentions were
part of a planned anti-terrorist operation that was not specifically aimed at
Chechens.
"Work is going on in the country to expose foreign citizens who are illegally
living here and it is complete disinformation to suggest that we are in any way
singling out Chechens," Paata Gomelauri, head of the ministry's press service,
told journalists.
Intelligence service chief Avtandil Ioseliani said the security forces were moving
to thwart plans by resident foreigners
to "destabilise" Georgia. He said the threat remains, despite the raids.
Relations between Georgia and the separatist government in Chechnya, once excellent,
have deteriorated in recent months. Georgia took in 4,000 refugees fleeing the
second Chechen campaign that began in 1999 and turned a blind eye to the presence
on its territory of rebel fighters.
But after the Moscow theatre siege in October, the Georgians closed down the Tbilisi
office of separatist president Aslan Maskhadov.
Under pressure from Moscow, Georgia also decided to extradite to Russia eight
of 13 Chechen fighters whom its border guards detained, as they attempted to cross
the frontier in August. Five were sent to Russia in October and two weeks ago
the Georgians announced that a further three were being extradited.
Since then Chechen rebels have hinted they may retaliate. On December 6, the day
before the security swoop, the 24 Hours newspaper received a letter from Chechen
field commander Doku Umarov, in which he warned of violence in Georgia if any
more fighters were sent to Russia.
On December 9, President Shevardnadze said, "Threats against Georgia come as a
big surprise, when this country has done more than anyone for refugees from Chechnya,
even though Chechens fought against Georgians in Abkhazia."
The president said the night-time arrests had been carried out because "extremist
groups were planning large-scale acts of terrorism in Tbilisi".
However, Akhmed Zakayev, Maskhadov's envoy in London, told IWPR by telephone "there
can be no question of any threats from the Chechens against Georgia".
Zakayev said he called on all his compatriots "not to give in to provocations,
always to remember that it was in Georgia that several thousand Chechens found
salvation and refuge and that that, despite colossal pressure from Russia, Georgia
is continuing to give what help it can to Chechen refugees".
The police announced that the 97 foreigners arrested in the December 7 sweep were
found not to have Georgian visas. Most of the detainees were Chechens, although
they also included citizens of Pakistan, Somalia, Laos and the Philippines.
Interior ministry spokesman Gomelauri said most of those detained had been released,
until a decision was made on whether to grant them refugee status or deport them.
He said that 12 wanted criminal suspects had been apprehended, 38 crimes solved
and a large quantity of weapons seized.
According to human rights activists however, many of those arrested were officially
registered as refugees in Georgia or even had Georgian citizenship and included
several children.
"The claims by leaders of the law enforcement agencies that the wives and children
of the detained Chechens followed them voluntarily to police stations is nothing
but a lie," said Nana Kakabadze, head of the NGO Former Political Prisoners for
Human Rights.
Kakabadze said that all those arrested, including small children, had their fingerprints
taken, as if they were suspects in major crimes. Echoing this, commentaries in
several Georgian papers the next day wondered whether Georgia was returning to
the Stalinist era.
Monitors who investigated the detentions said the police had violated their own
procedures in making the arrests. In many cases, they burst into houses with weapons
and made searches, without showing arrest warrants. In the Saburtalo district,
they physically threatened a television cameraman from the Caucasia channel and
confiscated his camera.
Many Chechens are worried about what will happen next. "Chechen refugees are worried
that Georgia's next step could be their mass deportation to Russia," said Surkho
Yediev, a journalist who has worked with Chechen migrants.
Some see the crackdown as a deliberate attempt to curry favour with Russia after
months of tension between Tbilisi and Moscow.
Hours before the mass arrests, the Georgian authorities said that in an operation
in eastern Georgia they had killed four militants from Karachai-Cherkessia in
the North Caucasus, who were suspected of involvement in the apartment bombings
in Moscow and Volgodonsk in 1999, in which more than two hundred people died.
The Georgians also said they had wounded Yusup Krymshamkalov, a suspect in the
bombings.
Some observers alleged that the Russian security services actually took part in
the Tbilisi round-up. The Georgians deny this, but the interior ministry did admit
to US help and receiving "appropriate recommendations from American colleagues".
Washington has several hundred military officials in Georgia training Georgian
special forces.
Interior ministry spokesman Gomelauri said that the passport and registration
operation would soon be extended to the rest of the country, although the focus
of their attention would remain on the capital where, he said, the bulk of illegal
residents are concentrated.
"There is information that several of them are linked to international terrorist
organisations," Gomelauri said.
For their part, human rights groups say they are determined to monitor further
police operations. "The way this is being done proves once again that we are not
living in a law-based state," Gia Bokeria of the Liberty Institute told IWPR.
Giorgy Kupatadze is a correspondent with Black Sea Press in Tbilisi. Beslan Makhauri,
originally from Grozny, is an independent journalist based in Tbilisi