RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 42, Part I, 5 March 2003
On a one-day visit to Tbilisi on 4 March, Otto Schily met with Georgian Border
Service head Lieutenant General Valeri Chkheidze, Interior Minister Koba Narchemashvili,
and President Shevardnadze, Caucasus Press and ITAR-TASS reported. Topics discussed
included closer cooperation between the two countries' interior ministries in
the fight against international terrorism and a German proposal to reform the
Georgian Border Guard Service, making it subordinate to the Interior Ministry.
Comment by Norbert Strade [Chechnya Yahoo group moderator]:
This is very interesting. German "services" have earlier been involved in Georgia,
but there hadn't been much noise about them lately. The German foreign intelligence
service BND gives substantial support to the KGB/FSB in Chechnya, so their renewed
involvement on the Georgian side is an important development. Otto Schily is btw.
an absolute hard-liner and populist on the refugee issue.