Georgia wallows in security crisis

TBILISI, Georgia -- A vacation paradise in communist times, Georgia has spent much of its post-Soviet life in hell.

Separatists in two regions defeated the army, leaving the areas essentially independent. A coup laid waste to the capital. And police failure to stem banditry in the Pankisi Gorge has purportedly made that area a terrorist haven, raising alarm from Washington to Moscow.

The security breakdown has brought Georgia to the breaking point it faces today: The United States is planning to train and equip Georgian troops as a new front in the anti-terrorist campaign. Russia said Friday it will support the American operation, but remains wary of U.S. military action on its southern border, its most sensitive and volatile flank.

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze helped end the Cold War peacefully as Soviet foreign minister under Mikhail Gorbachev, but has spent the last decade trying to save his South Carolina-sized country from anarchy. An imposing 74-year-old, he has survived two assassination attempts and is clearly weary, but determined to keep trying.

Blaming Moscow

Shevardnadze blames Moscow for its most pressing security problem -- the troubles in the Pankisi Gorge, which is next to Russia's breakaway Chechnya region. Tens of thousands of refugees from the Chechnya conflict have flooded into the gorge since 1999 and the impoverished area has plunged into lawlessness.

Ordinary Georgians agree they are suffering unfairly for Chechnya's woes. But they also say Shevardnadze has failed to protect them from destitution, kidnappers and separatist violence in other areas.

Russia resents Shevardnadze for wooing the West and snubbing Moscow. Russian officials have accused him of turning a blind eye to Pankisi's troubles to annoy Russia.

Russia's military claims its opponents in Chechnya are Islamic terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, not freedom-minded separatists. Washington recently said rebels with al-Qaida ties are operating from Pankisi.

But Georgia's security forces have been unable to deal with a host of troubles, from Pankisi to the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the impoverished area has plunged into lawlessness.

Shevardnadze hinted Thursday that his country was in danger of crumbling.

Threat from Abkhazia

Outside Pankisi, Georgia's biggest security threat is Abkhazia, a lush Black Sea province where Muslim separatists believed to have Russian backing fought off the Georgian army in a 1992-93 war. Abkhazia was left with de facto independence but scattered violence continues.

Across a mountain range to the east is South Ossetia, where rebels pushed out government troops in 1991-92 and tensions still simmer.

Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia border Russia and have cultivated ties with Moscow. They were buoyed Thursday when Russia's lower house of parliament suggested Russia could recognize them as independent.

Shevardnadze dismissed the possibility. "The Abkhazians have nowhere to go. Abkhazians and Georgians should live together," he said. "That goes for the Ossetians, too."