Abkhazian war reawakening
Caucasus: After seven years, conflict flares anew in a former Soviet republic - with five sides, a U.N. helicopter down and no clear idea of who did it, who's fighting whom or if there's a con
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By Will Englund
Sun Foreign Staff
Originally published October 12, 2001
MOSCOW - Anyone still looking for evidence that the world is a dangerous place need only consider what's happening in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia, where an especially vicious war that sputtered out in 1994 is suddenly coming to life again.
There are five sides with a stake in this war. And whether the renewed fighting could be best described as a provocation, a feint, a double-cross, an explosion waiting to happen or, just possibly, a tactical move backed by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist organization to help throw the world off balance, what's certain is that a United Nations helicopter was shot down this week, unmarked warplanes bombed a couple of villages and at least nine people are dead.
Russia has announced a troop buildup along its border with Georgia, and Georgia decided last night to send army units into the valley where the fighting occurred.
Each country has accused the other of provoking the clashes. And each has suggested that the fighting is related to the U.S. war against terrorism - but they come at it from opposite perspectives.
The Georgian government in Tbilisi has accused Russia of trying to take advantage of world turmoil to re-extend its reach south of the Caucasus Mountains. Moscow sees Islamic rebels behind the hostilities, suspecting Chechens of trying to move their war westward toward the Black Sea with Georgia's connivance, possibly with backing from Afghanistan.
Every side blames someone else for shooting down the helicopter. The Abkhazians blame the Georgians for the bombing raid. The Georgians say it was either the Abkhazians or, more probably, the Russians. They even disagree over who's fighting whom.
Skirmishes that appear to involve irregular bands continued yesterday in the mountainous borderland between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia. Georgian President Eduard A. Shevardnadze called for the removal of Russian peacekeeping troops who have separated the Abkhazians and Georgians since 1994.
On one side of the dispute are the Russians and the Abkhazians, who had covert backing from Moscow when they broke free of Georgia a decade ago. Russia stopped the fighting seven years ago when it reached an agreement with Georgia to send in 1,600 peacekeepers, who are still there, under U.N. auspices.
On the other side stands the government of Georgia, although it claims all the fighting has taken place in areas under Abkhazian control.
But there are two other parties to this fight. One is an irregular group of Georgian mountain guerrillas who call themselves the Forest Brothers. The Abkhazians call them terrorists, and the Georgian government calls them bandits. But they've become a force to be reckoned with, and one that may have an agenda all its own.
And there are, apparently, Chechens - although the spokesman for the rebel Chechen government said this week that any who are there are unaffiliated with the regular Chechen rebel force.
"Their aim, as a prisoner of war told us, is a jihad," Raul Khadzinba, head of Abkhazia's security service, said from the provincial capital of Sukhumi. "They want to capture Abkhazia, which is basically a Christian country, but they will fail."
On the sidelines is the United States, which until Sept. 11 was Georgia's best friend, largely because a vital new oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea will run nearly the length of the country. The Georgian government had looked upon the United States as its chief protector. But now America has a big new ally in Russia, and that changes the picture.
"Washington and Moscow won't quarrel over Sukhumi," said Sergei Kazennov, an analyst at the Institute of National Security and Strategic Studies in Moscow.
And the Georgians are convinced that the Russians, believing they now have a free hand, are doing their best to provoke a conflict that would allow them to reassert their influence.
Someone's trying to make trouble, but who?
Ten years ago, Georgia was on the verge of disintegration. Bandit warlords fought for power, and when Abkhazia - a coastal province that was once the Soviet Union's premier holiday destination - attempted an armed secession, the government in Tbilisi was ultimately unable to keep it from going.
The Russian military, which had bases in Georgia then and still does - separate from the peacekeeping units - did what it could surreptitiously to help the Abkhazians. A number of Chechens fought on the Abkhazian side, with Russian backing. Later, when they returned home, they would turn their guns against Moscow, with devastating effect.
Shevardnadze was eventually able to restore stability to Georgia, but a tremendous resentment against Russia lingered on, particularly after three attempted assassinations that the Georgians said had been plotted in Russia. The Russians were also supposed to have shut down their bases by last summer, but have not.
In 1994, and again in 1999, wars broke out in Chechnya, which borders Georgia. The Russians have accused the Georgians of giving refuge to Chechen fighters and access back and forth across the border. Tbilisi has always denied it.
Skirmishing began in August. A village was attacked in September, the Abkhazians say. On Monday, the U.N. helicopter was shot down by a missile as it flew over the Kodor Gorge, which runs from the mountains toward the Black Sea, and crosses the line between Georgian and Abkhazian territory. All aboard - a Ukrainian crew and a group of international military observers - were killed.
"The accident and the preceding events undermine the peace process," said Alexandra George, political affairs officer for the United Nations in Tbilisi. "Since August, there has been general lawlessness in the valley. Dieter Boden [head of the U.N. mission] would like to stress that both sides are responsible for the current situation and that both sides are responsible for the safety of the U.N. mission."
The Russian defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, said that Russia recognizes the integrity of Georgia but that "there can be no double standards in the fight against terrorism."
"It is becoming obvious," he said, "that either the Georgian leaders do not control the situation on their own territory or they manipulate the terrorists to further their own aims."
That pronouncement, said Nina Sturua, press secretary to the Georgian defense minister, "is provocative and far from the truth. His accusations are groundless because Georgia cannot be responsible for a territory over which it has no control. Georgia insists that there are no regular army units in this territory. We also deny that there are Chechen fighters anywhere in the territory controlled by Georgia."
Russia has been arguing that Chechen fighters were holed up in the Pankisi Gorge - which is well within Georgia - and that they appear to be moving westward, attacking their one-time allies in Abkhazia. Some suspect that they are planning a thrust on the Russian resort town of Sochi.
"I'm sure that it's Chechen militants who started the latest fighting," said Tatyana Sulitskaya, a senior researcher at the Oriental Studies Institute in Moscow. "Possibly they are trying to break through, maybe to Russia. As to why now? This might be linked to the tragic events in New York. It is no secret that international radical Islamic circles support the war in Chechnya both financially and morally. Considering that an alliance of Russia with the West is being formed now, it may be that these circles are trying to divert Russia's attention to the Caucasus to keep Russia from becoming involved in Afghanistan."
Or, said Nikolai Bezborodov, a member of the Russian parliament's defense committee, Georgia may be trying to throw a wrench into the new Russian-American friendship by stirring up the fighting.
"Georgia's leadership is either very cunning," he said, "or they've lost control of the process."
Shevardnadze said yesterday that he wants to see the Russian peacekeeping force removed and replaced by an international unit. His supporters question how the Chechens could have gotten to the Abkhazian side of the gorge, past the Russian peacekeeping force, unless there was collusion.
After the villages were bombed Tuesday, the Georgian Foreign Ministry lodged a formal protest with Russia over what it called the violation of Georgia's sovereignty. It said the mystery planes were observed flying from Russian territory and then back into Russia. Yesterday, the defense minister said he had tapes of the pilots' radio conversations that prove they were Russian.
It appears there were no casualties.
Abkhazia has gone on full alert and reported yesterday that its forces had captured 10 guerrillas. The region's leader, Vladislav Ardzinba, appealed to Russia for help.
"The people and leadership of Abkhazia," he said, "believe that Russia is the main guarantor of peace and stability in the Caucasus." |
