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Sunday
May 12, 2002 Observer Worldview
Nick Paton Walsh in Tbilisi finds
that pipeline protection is a key motive behind a US operation training
Georgia's army to fight terrorists
Captain Kelly Smith's eyes widened with horror as he entered the
control tower. Standing in the ruins of a Georgian army firing range,
he sighed. 'I was hoping to see some electrical equipment here,'
he muttered, amid the debris.
Smith is one of 26 American soldiers who arrived two weeks ago in
Tbilisi, the first of a 150-strong force designed to train and equip
the crumbling Georgian army. Washington and Tbilisi have said Georgia
is under threat from 'terrorists' in the Pankisi Gorge on the border
with war-torn Chechnya. They say the Georgian military needs Western
help to prevent the gorge's terrorists - some reportedly al-Qaeda
- from moving farther inland.
The £44 million deployment is still at the 'surveillance stage',
but within a month US troops hope to run a 'terrorism school' here
at the Vaziani base. For now they are staying at a five-star hotel
in Tbilisi until the lights at the base work.
When the Soviet army pulled out 10 years ago, it left devastation
behind.
Half the windows in the barracks are missing, and every building
on the firing range has been gutted. The Georgian army has had to
dig new trenches at the range by hand as the Russians removed the
plans explaining the complicated wiring system that runs under the
base.
'A mechanical digger might damage it,' said Mirian Kiknadze, spokesman
for the Georgian army. While Smith, 32, said the exact nature of
the training was 'still under negotiation', it will be more about
improving 'infrastructure than anything else'. 'Train and Equip'
is expected to last 21 months. The Georgian army needs to be able
to defend itself before it can tackle the terrorists who the Pentagon
says live on its borders.
The focus of these operations will be the Pankisi Gorge, a series
of hamlets in the mountains infected by the bloody anarchy of neighbouring
Chechnya. It is now guarded by Georgian special forces, backed up
by America with £100m in aid and 10 Huey helicopters. Local
police maintain the area has been calm for a month, despite confirming
that 10 days ago three men were kidnapped from their car in broad
daylight, reportedly by Chechens.
Police blockades have been installed on the road into the gorge.
Soldiers mill around the outposts, or sit nervously behind sandbags,
each carrying half a dozen spare magazines for their AK-47s. Outsiders
are officially unwelcome.
Last week a man's body washed downstream to the soldiers' base camp.
These huge men are permanently armed, on edge.
David, from the Georgian Secret Service, smiled as he spoke of the
days he spent being trained in San Antonio, Texas, but stiffened
when he admitted 'there is no guarantee that any of us are safe'.
He added: 'We don't know when we can leave.'
Matters have deteriorated in the past weeks. A Chechen warlord,
Gulayev, was in the gorge a week ago, informed sources said. Refugees
have strained the local villages. 'Life here is terrible,' said
Shota Shalisu, a farmer. 'Every day we hear gunfire. There are many
Arabs here.'
Few doubt Pankisi is home to drug-runners and banditi from the Chechen
war. America maintains the bandits have to be kept in check or they
could destabilise the country.
But Kakha Katcitadze, a senior government adviser, told The Observer
that the gorge would not create 'vital dangers for Georgia'. America
has other goals.
'There are some problems in Pankisi, but I think it is mostly a
social issue. I am not so worried about it. Anti-terrorism is not
the only reason for the relationship between the United States and
Georgia. Georgia is also the shortest route between the [oil reserves]
of the Caspian Sea and Turkey.'
An international consor tium of oil companies including BP, America's
Chevron, Russia's Lukoil and France's Total considers Georgia the
ideal route by which oil from Azerbaijan and Central Asia can reach
Turkey and the West.
The present single pipeline is soon to be joined by two others,
more than doubling the network's capacity. American training helps
protect the pipeline - and its steady supply of oil to Western cars.
BP recently sent a risk analyst to the area to explore opportunities
for expansion. 'The pipelines will of course benefit from the military
presence,' said a BP spokeswoman.
'It is in British interests that the pipeline works. BP is a major
sponsor,' Katcitadze said. The British military has been giving
the Georgian army English language courses, for years, he added.
'We understand ourselves as a nation as part of the West, and want
to go back to where we were before Soviet times.'
But above all, increased Western support will protect Georgia from
Russian interference. 'Ninety per cent of Georgians hope that the
Americans will stay here,' he said. 'There is an old proverb, "You
can choose your friends but not your neighbours".'
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