Videotape Reportedly Sheds Light on Chechen Activities in Pankisi Gorge

Video footage shot by a British cameraman, who was reportedly killed during a firefight between Chechen separatists and Russian troops, is prompting greater scrutiny of Chechen activity on Georgian territory. The video has embarrassed Georgian leaders, apparently by belying Tbilisi's denials that large numbers of Chechen fighters have used Georgian territory as a safe haven. It is also compelling Georgia to take measures, including the extradition of alleged Chechen fighters, to appease Russia.

Roderick Scott, a freelance journalist working on a project for the Frontline News agency, shot the videotape. Scott reportedly linked up with Chechen fighters in the Pankisi Gorge and the video apparently provides a picture of separatists' activities in the region that contrasts with official Georgian accounts. It goes on to show that Scott accompanied the Chechen separatist group as it crossed the Georgian frontier into the Russian autonomous republic of North Ossetia and then on to Ingushetia. In late September, Russian troops surrounded the Chechen group in Ingushetia, and Scott was among those reportedly killed in the engagement.

Khizri Aldamov, the unofficial representative of separatist Chechnya to Georgia, told EurasiaNet shortly before the fighting in Ingushetia that there were no Chechen fighters present in Pankisi but only refugees.

Chairman of the Russian State Duma's international affairs committee Dmitri Rogozin commented that Scott's videotape "is evidence that Chechen rebels can move freely through Georgian territory."

Georgia and Russia have long been at odds over the presence of Chechen fighters in Georgia. Moscow has repeatedly demanded that Georgia take steps to control its border. In early September, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Russian troops might pursue unilateral military action on Georgian territory, if Tbilisi failed to take action to contain Chechen fighters. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Scott's videotape supposedly provides incontrovertible evidence concerning Chechen activities in Georgia – making it more difficult for Georgian officials to continue to resist Russian pressure. Indeed, in recent days Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has taken steps to mollify Russian concerns about Chechens in Georgia.

During a meeting between Putin and Shevardnadze on October 6, the Georgian leader consented to joint Russian and Georgian military patrols of the border. At the same time, Putin announced that the two countries would work to formulate a new political framework for management of the border issue, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. Shevardnadze additionally announced that Tbilisi would extradite all 13 Chechens in Georgian custody who are wanted in Russia on terrorism charges. Russian officials had been seeking the extradition since August. The Russian president described his meeting with Shevardnadze as a "very frank conversation with all the cards on the table," ITAR-TASS said.

Overall, Chechen movements on Georgian territory are coming under increasing scrutiny. Russian and Abkhaz officials, for example, have alleged that about 100 Chechen fighters are in the Kodori Gorge, the only area in separatist-minded Abkhazia that remains under Georgian control. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The Georgian Minister for Special Assignments, Malkhaz Kakabadze, says such claims are "misinformation."

"We are ready to allow the command of the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Forces in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone, high-ranking Abkhaz officials and accredited diplomats to visit the upper part of the Kodori gorge and make sure that there are no Chechen guerrillas," added Avtandil Ioseliani, the chairman of the Georgian Intelligence Department.

Chechens are also alleged to be in South Ossetia, another separatist-minded autonomous republic within Georgia. South Ossetian leaders deny that Chechens are operating in the region. "The forces of international terrorism appearing on the borders with South Ossetia, after moving there from the Pankisi Gorge, are a pretext for the resumption of military action in the territory of the republic," South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoyev was reported as saying.

Meanwhile, Georgian authorities are exploring a possible Chechen connection to the abduction of British banker Peter Shaw. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Georgian television reported October 5 that several suspects in the kidnapping are now in custody. According to a reliable law-enforcement source, authorities later decided to interrogate Aldamov, the unofficial Chechen representative in Tbilisi, "to verify calls made to Aldamov's mobile phone by Peter Shaw's possible abductors," the Kavkasia-Press news agency reported. Officials stressed that Aldamov is not a suspect in the case.