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| Caucasus |
| Afghan fighters rumoured to be hiding in Georgia |
| 2003-02-09 |
| As attention shifts away from Afghanistan and its network of terrorist camps, the former Soviet state of Georgia finds itself increasingly the focus of an unwanted spotlight. Georgian officials have dropped their earlier denial that Chechen guerrillas found shelter in an area called the Pankisi Gorge. Moscow has long accused Tbilisi of allowing safe haven for rebels. The Kremlin's complaints are accompanied by a subtext that if the Georgians cannot get their house in order, then perhaps Russia should come do it for them. As soon as they get their own house in order... Now comes the further assertion that among the foreign fighters, who have been long suspected to be among the Chechens, are some Afghan mujahideen who maintain tentative links to Osama bin Laden. Philip Remler, US charge d'affaires in Tbilisi, said in an interview to a Georgian newspaper: "According to our information dozens of Afghan mujaheedin escaped from Afghanistan and came to the Caucasus. We know that some of them found shelter in the Pankisi gorge and have contacts with an Arab terrorist called Khattab, who is linked to Osama bin Laden," he said, as reported in Reuters and other agencies. Uh... Philip? He's been dead since last April... Valery Khaburdzania, Georgian state security minister, was reported as saying that Saudi and Jordanian nationals had been detained who were planning to set up a terrorist base in the gorge for attacks within Russia. He did not say if these included fighters from Afghanistan however. The Soddies and Jordanians are enough, aren't they? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |