TBILISI. April 17 (Interfax-AVN) - All Chechen refugees living in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, who refuse to undergo re- registration, will be checked by the Georgian State Security Ministry for their links with terrorist organizations, sources in the Georgian State Security Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency on Wednesday.
Information about Chechen refugees will be compared with the Ministry's database, the sources said.
First Deputy State Security Minister Irakly Alasania said "deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma Lyubov Sliska, who is visiting Tbilisi at the moment, is right when she says that re- registration will make it possible to determine which Chechens staying in the Pankisi Gorge are indeed rebels and which crossed into Georgia illegally."
"If it turns out that people evading re-registration are connected with criminal organizations, measures envisaged by legislation will be applied to them," Alasania said.
At the same time, the deputy minister stressed that "the Georgian authorities' position in relation to the return of Chechen refugees from the Pankisi Gorge to their motherland remains the same - none of them will be sent to Chechnya by force."
The re-registration was launched on Monday and is to be completed within two weeks, Alasania said.