Eurasia Daily Monitor

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 — Volume 3, Issue 148

GEORGIA DEMONSTRATES POLITICAL, MILITARY SKILL IN KODORI GORGE

by Vladimir Socor

Georgian authorities are beginning to restore normal conditions for
daily life in the upper Kodori Gorge, following the successful law-and-order
operation on July 25-27 that forced the Moscow-manipulated rebel chieftain
Emzar Kvitsiani to flee the area. The upper Kodori Gorge is the only part
of pre-1992 Abkhazia’s territory not controlled by the secessionist
authorities.

Conducted jointly by Georgia’s Internal Affairs and Defense
Ministries, with ministers Vano Merabishvili and Irakli Okruashvili
personally in charge, the operation turned out to be remarkably clean. It
has entailed only one civilian death, two policemen injured, and no known
casualties among Kvitsiani’s followers, a small number of whom have
apparently made their way into Abkhaz-controlled territory. Russian
propaganda clearly failed in its attempt to build up Kvitsiani into a
spokesman for the Svan ethnic group that inhabits the Kodori Gorge.

Most Defense Ministry personnel are already being withdrawn from the
high-altitude gorge in the wake of the successful operation. An Interior
Ministry unit, reinforced by a small military element, is to be permanently
stationed in Kodori in order to provide security for the population and
prevent organized crime. Substantial arms caches have been found and
continue to be discovered on a daily basis. According to intelligence data,
Russian and Abkhaz special services had delivered weapons to Kvitsiani’s
group in March, presumably in preparation for the rebellion he had launched
on July 22 against the Georgian government. At least some of the weapons
apparently originated from Russia’s base at Gudauta in Abkhazia, where the
arms stockpile of the `Baghramian’ Armenian battalion was ostensibly
`robbed’ and its rifles and grenade launchers sent up the gorge to
Kvitsiani’s group.

Kvitsiani and his nephew Bacho Argvliani, who operated criminal
rackets in the area, are being sought for investigation and trial. Russian
television has twice interviewed Kvitsiani at an undisclosed location,
presumably in Abkhazia. He used the interviews to urge Georgian soldiers and
policemen to turn their arms against their commanders, ministers, and the
Georgian president; and he continued urging `Mingrelians’ to rise against
the Georgian government — a line intermittently used in Russian
psychological warfare operations against Georgia since the early 1990s and
that always fell flat. Reverting, moreover, to one of Moscow’s themes
familiar from the two anti-Chechen wars, Kvitsiani alleged in these
interviews that `Arabs’ and `Chechens’ participated in the Georgian
operation and that he also "tore the mask off a Negro,’ presumably proving
American involvement (Russian TV Channel One `Vremya,’ July 27; Imedi TV,
July 30).

Georgian authorities are currently distributing flour, sugar,
vegetable oil, and other staples to Kodori residents as well as 200 lari
($115) in cash per household. The authorities are bringing construction
materials into the gorge for an urgent program to rebuild schools, roads, a
medical clinic, and a disused airfield, as well as restoring bus service to
Kodori from the rest of Georgia.

The Tbilisi-backed legislative assembly and government of the pre-1992
Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia is now moving from Tbilisi to the Kodori
Gorge. It shall be headquartered temporarily in the village of Azhara,
pending the construction of an appropriate building. These pre-1992 bodies
represent Abkhazia’s entire population, including its Georgian population,
which had formed 45% of the total (to 17% Abkhaz) prior to the Russia-aided
mass ethnic cleansing of Georgians. The relocation of these institutions
from Tbilisi to the Kodori Gorge, within the pre-1992 Abkhazia’s territory,
amounts to a strong political signal that Georgia intends to reverse the
outcome of that war, albeit through a political process. Georgia will
probably support the participation of representatives of these two
institutions in some role in the negotiations toward a political resolution
of the conflict.

In Sukhumi, delegations from Russia’s North Caucasus and southern
Russian regions held talks with the secessionist leadership in recent days,
promising to send `thousands of volunteers’ to support Abkhazia in the event
of hostilities with Georgia. They declare that they would in that case reach
Abkhazia and Georgia itself not only or not necessarily through Sukhumi
(which would expose the Russian political authorities’ complicity), but
rather via Kabardino-Balkaria or Karachay-Cherkessia. In that case, however,
the hand of Russia’s secret services would be exposed. Although Tbilisi is
determined not to initiate any such hostilities, Russian military
intelligence may well use its experience at provoking clashes so as to
discredit Georgia.

In the wake of Georgia’s successful operation, President Mikheil
Saakashvili told the nation that a retreat from Kodori or negotiations with
Kvitsiani (as the latter’s handlers were seeking) `would have been the
beginning of the end of Georgian statehood.’ Thanks to the skillful
operation, however, Kvitsiani seems set to join the `brigade of political
corpses’ in a Russian safe haven.

(Rustavi-2 TV, Imedi TV, Kavkas-Press, Apsnypress, Interfax, July
26-31; see EDM, July 25)

–Vladimir Socor