EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - Georgia's Pankisi Gorge Still Seems Less Than Secure

EURASIA INSIGHT

GEORGIA’S PANKISI GORGE STILL SEEMS LESS THAN SECURE
Daan van der Schriek 2/05/03

Georgian officials insist that the Pankisi Gorge was cleared of Chechen rebels and Arab extremists during a security sweep last summer. A visit by a EurasiaNet contributor did not find evidence that could contradict Tblisi’s claims. At the same time, the visit appeared to confirm that the region is still not completely under government control.

The desire to visit the Pankisi was stoked by Western media reports that Islamic radicals possibly had established training camps and a biological weapons lab in the Pankisi. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Georgian officials have consistently sought to downplay such reports. For example, Security Ministry Spokesman Nika Laliashvili insisted on January 14 that while al Qaeda had used the area until February 2002, the entire gorge was again "under absolute [government] control."

Journalists no longer need a permit to visit the region. Yet, the numerous military checkpoints indicate that the region is not entirely secure. After passing three checkpoints, the news that a foreign journalist was independently visiting the gorge caused the local interior ministry commander to intervene. (This commander had evidently not known about the end of the permit regulations.) "You could be going to the separatists [in Chechnya]," he explained, as he ordered me out of the vehicle in which I was traveling and returned under escort to the local interior ministry headquarters.

The commander later explained that his actions were dictated by safety concerns. "If anything would happen to you, I’d be held responsible," he said. "Well, no � it’s safe. But it’s not completely safe."

He went on to explain that the main source of danger was "normal criminals" and added that anyone looking for Islamist or rebel fighters was out of luck. All, he claimed, had been arrested. He also said terrorist training facilities had been destroyed. "There’s nothing left to see," the commander assured this EurasiaNet contributor.

The commander also said that any investigation of claims that poisonous substance ricin was manufactured at a facility in Pankisi would be a waste of time. He seemed remarkably assured in making this assertion. When British authorities arrested men in connection with the discovery of ricin in a London apartment in January, some Western government representatives had pointedly declined to rule out a Pankisi connection to the incident. [For background, see the Eurasia Insight archives.] It seemed noteworthy that the commander was denying the presence of ricin at the same time that he refused to let a visitor tour the area.

Eventually, he permitted an escorted look around Duisi, the largest village in the gorge. During that tour, it was clear that the Pankisi Gorge remains a potentially dangerous place. At one point, during a snatched conversation with a local woman, she acknowledged that "sometimes, of course, nasty things happen."

Perhaps the most notable structure in Duisi is a new-looking, rather tall red brick mosque. An attempt to take a snapshot of the mosque sparked a prolonged debate among locals over whether photography of the structure should be permitted. At one point, a man who introduced himself as Dato, and who was wearing a soft-green camouflage uniform without insignias, arrived seeking to take charge of the matter. Shortly thereafter, a dozen or so people wearing the same uniform as Dato appeared.

One of them, who called himself Soso, explained that they were "some security guys," but would not or could not elaborate about whether they worked for the Georgian military, for a local militia or for another entity. Eventually, the consensus view formed that photography would not be permitted.

As the tour of Duisi was drawing to a close, an interior ministry escort quietly tried to explain to me why the issue of photographing the mosque had been so sensitive. "Sometimes � not often � they use the mosque to accommodate Wahhabis," he claimed. "That’s why they don’t like its pictures being taken."

Editor�s Note: Daan van der Schriek is a freelance journalist based in Tbilisi.

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