Tbilisi refutes Taliban mercenaries' sending via Georgia

Friday, January 21, 2000 9:42 AM EST

TBILISI, January 21 (Itar-Tass) - The Georgian Border Department describes as canard the press reports claiming that the Taliban leadership, Afghanistan, has sent about 200 mercenaries to Chechnya. According to the press reports, the mercenaries will come to the Northern Caucasus via Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey and Georgia.

A statement of the Border Department's press service circulated on Friday said that no mercenaries had crossed the Georgian border for the Northern Caucasus since the beginning of the hostilities in Chechnya.

"What is more, Chairman of the Georgian Border Department Lieutenant-General Valery Chkheidze announced that the border regime was enhanced by Georgia, the arrival and the departure of citizens of a number of foreign countries was taken under a special control which excluded a possibility of mercenaries' getting to Chechnya via the territory of Georgia," the statement says.