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Georgia: Government Closes Border Checkpoint With Azerbaijan

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  • Georgia: Government Closes Border Checkpoint With Azerbaijan

    Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
    May 31 2004

    Georgia: Government Closes Border Checkpoint With Azerbaijan, Sends
    Police Reinforcements To South Ossetia

    By Jean-Christophe Peuch


    The Georgian government in recent months has taken a series of
    measures aimed at curbing the trafficking of goods from neighboring
    Armenia and Azerbaijan. It has also ordered new checkpoints to be set
    up to stop the inflow of contraband goods through the breakaway
    Republic of South Ossetia. Tbilisi on 30 May decided to move a step
    further in its fight against smugglers.


    Prague, 31 May 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Georgia has decided to temporarily
    restrict border trade with Azerbaijan in a bid to curb illegal trade
    with its southeastern neighbor.

    New regulations were finalized yesterday by the National Security
    Council.

    They include closure of the so-called Red Bridge checkpoint, in the
    southeastern Kvemo Kartli region, where four policemen were wounded
    yesterday while trading fire with suspected smugglers.

    Addressing reporters at a press briefing late yesterday, Georgian
    security officials said illegal trade with Azerbaijan has presented
    long-standing problems for the national economy. They said closure of
    Red Bridge -- which is the main checkpoint between the two countries
    -- should help law-enforcement forces restore control over all border
    traffic.

    The chairman of the Georgian Parliament's committee for defense and
    security affairs, Givi Targamadze, said that law-enforcement agencies
    may be able to resolve the trafficking crisis within a few weeks,
    hinting that similar operations may be conducted in the near future.

    "I believe this problem could be solved within approximately one
    month," Targamadze said. "If there is a need to perform security
    operations [such as the one conducted on 30 May], we should be given
    the opportunity to do so. We must once and for all get free access to
    Red Bridge and nearby [ethnic] Azerbaijani territories."

    Authorities in Tbilisi have noted a recent increase in illegal border
    traffic through Kvemo Kartli, where most of Georgia's ethnic
    Azerbaijanis live. They say smugglers operating along the border have
    created a criminal enclave that has become inaccessible to
    law-enforcement agencies."If smugglers want to fight us with bare
    fists, we will respond in kind. But if they want to use their
    weapons, we will respond with fire." -- Georgian Interior Minister
    Baramidze

    Georgia's Deputy Security Minister Gigi Ugulava yesterday blamed
    former Kvemo Kartli Governor Levan Mamaladze for making the region
    open to illegal border trade with Azerbaijan.

    Mamaladze was dismissed from his post after President Eduard
    Shevardnadze resigned last November. Facing corruption charges, the
    former Kvemo Kartli governor fled to Russia, where he is still
    believed to be hiding.

    Yesterday's operation took place in the villages of Ponichala and
    Karajala, which Georgian law-enforcement agencies claim have become
    major regional smuggling hubs.

    Early yesterday, some 200 special police forces raided Ponichala,
    Karajala, and other nearby border villages, reportedly seizing
    weapons, ammunition, explosives, drugs, jewelry, and other contraband
    goods.

    Georgian media report the dawn security sweep also resulted in the
    arrest of an unspecified number of people.

    Authorities in Tbilisi said suspected smugglers opened fire on
    law-enforcement personnel, slightly wounding four of them.

    Local residents in return complained about the strong-arm tactics,
    saying police officers searched houses without proper warrants.

    The new Georgian government, which has vowed to put an end to
    corruption and other financial crimes, has recently taken steps to
    restore control over border traffic with Azerbaijan and Armenia.

    Soon after President Mikheil Saakashvili's election last January,
    security officials closed contraband paths leading from Armenia to
    the border village of Sadakhlo, some 30 kilometers west of Red
    Bridge.

    Located close to the point where the borders of all three South
    Caucasus countries meet, Sadakhlo has long been the site of a major
    wholesale market.

    Because of the unsolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, there are no
    direct trade links between Azerbaijan and Armenia. But residents from
    both countries come to Sadakhlo to trade goods, including products
    manufactured in Turkey and Iran.

    Armenian authorities have complained that Sadakhlo has become a major
    contraband center and that the giant open-air market there should be
    closed. But regional experts believe Sadakhlo's closure would be an
    unpopular move, since it is one of the main sources of goods for
    ordinary people in the region.

    International experts believe a substantial amount of Afghan-produced
    narcotics meant for European markets transit through Sadakhlo and Red
    Bridge.

    Other major smuggling routes are believed to pass through Georgia's
    separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

    The Georgian Interior Ministry today said it has sent police
    reinforcements into the South Ossetian area, which is formally under
    the control of Russian peacekeepers.

    Interior Minister Giorgi Baramidze explained the move today in
    comments to reporters. He said the Russian Army general in charge of
    South Ossetia's peacekeeping operations had ordered the dismantling
    of Georgian police checkpoints established there only last month.

    Nabzdorov has denied any plans to remove Georgian checkpoints, saying
    such a decision can be made only after consultations with Tbilisi.

    South Ossetia claims these checkpoints represent a threat to its
    security and testify to Georgia's eagerness to impose an economic
    blockade on the region, which it hopes to reclaim as part of its
    territory.

    Meanwhile, Baramidze today warned that Georgia would not hesitate to
    use force to defend its interests.

    "We are not planning to attack anyone. We're only fighting
    smugglers," Baramidze said. "If smugglers want to fight us with bare
    fists, we will respond in kind. But if they want to use their
    weapons, we will respond with fire. We are here to defend the
    interests of the Georgian government."

    Also today, Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania said that the
    decision to set up police checkpoints in the villages of Tkviavi,
    Pkhvenisi, Nikozi, and Eredvi has helped cut off the main smuggling
    route from Vladikavkaz, the capital of Russia's Northern Ossetia
    republic.

    Zhvania also said any attempt at preventing his government from
    fighting illegal trade through South Ossetia would be "fruitless."
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