Foreigners in the volatile Caucasus mountain republic of Georgia say they are living in a state of fear because of an epidemic of kidnappings and violent robberies which many believe are carried out with the collusion of the country’s police forces.
In the most recent case two months ago, British banker Peter Shaw was abducted in broad daylight in the capital, Tbilisi, by gunmen dressed in police uniform. Nothing has been heard from him since.
Even before that three western businessmen had been kidnapped — they were released unharmed though no one has been prosecuted — and German diplomat Guenter Beuchel was murdered in Tbilisi last December.
Stories are regularly swapped on the expatriate grapevine of foreigners being robbed at gunpoint or beaten with knuckledusters.
But what sets Georgia apart is the widely held belief that in this staggeringly corrupt republic, officials are either carrying out the crime themselves or being paid by criminal gangs to turn a blind eye. ”Georgia is the Sicily of the Caucasus,” said one observer.
Fady Asly, a Lebanese businessman in the food distribution trade, knows all too well the dangers of doing business there. His Lebanese assistant Charbel Aoun was one of the three foreigners kidnapped last year, Asly’s office has been attacked with a rocket propelled grenade, and he now goes nowhere without a posse of armed bodyguards.
”The climate is poisoned. Foreigners are very scared because these crimes are just increasing in number,” said Asly. ”No one wants to come here. Foreign businessmen all have bodyguards now just to feel comfortable.”
Embassies are also taking measures to step up security. ”We are putting alarm systems into the houses of our staff,” said a senior western diplomat.
”We will have panic buttons installed and roaming security teams who will respond in one or two minutes….It is never a pleasant feeling when (the abduction of a foreigner) happens.”
That the police, and probably people much higher up in the government, are involved in the crime wave is no longer doubted by anyone. Two government ministers have admitted that interior ministry officials were most likely linked to the abduction of 57-year-old Shaw.
”The way they do it: in broad daylight, with Kalashnikovs and police uniforms. Who are they then if they’re not the police? The peace corps?” asked Asly who is also president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia.
Another businessmen with a multinational company said it was not the level of crime that created fear — it was no worse than in many western cities — but the fact that the law offered no protection.
”The Georgians do not want to investigate anything,” said the businessman who did not want his name to be published. ”They usually know what is going on and who is doing the kidnapping anyway.”
”It is so offensive that the government does not make any attempt to follow up on crime and punish people. There is no respect for the law.”
Shaw’s kidnapping though, could be a turning point. He was working under contract to the European Union, which in 2002-3 is due to give Georgia just over 40-million euros ($39,35-million) in aid.
Stung into action by the threat of having this financial lifeline cut, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has ordered troops into the country’s Pankisi Gorge, a lawless mountain redoubt for kidnappers and mobsters.
”I say to foreign businessmen they should not be afraid. The situation will definitely get better,” Interior Minister Koba Narchemashvili, dressed in combat fatigues as he prepared to go into the gorge, told AFP last week.
”Sorting out the situation in the Pankisi gorge will definitely help bring under control the situation in the whole of Georgia.”
Asly, for one, is sceptical. ”The Peter Shaw kidnapping is not the first and not the last,” he said. ”Up to now all kidnappings have ended happily but there is no guarantee that this will happen in the future.” – Sapa-AFP