Diplomats fear for life of banker abducted in Georgia

Date: 24/10/02

By David Cronin

DIPLOMATS in Georgia fear for the life of a kidnapped banker who was working on a European Commission contract when he was seized.

Peter Shaw, 58, was abducted on a street in the capital, Tblisi, on 18 June. The city's police chief declared the following month he had an idea where Shaw was being held.

Torben Holtze, head of the Commission's office in Tblisi, said yesterday (23 October): 'We've been told he is still alive and he will eventually be released. Unfortunately, we've no proof of that.'

Welshman Shaw, an executive director of the Georgian commercial bank Agro-Businessbank, had been providing 'technical assistance' to the Commission.

He was nearing the end of a six-year stint in the Caucasus, when he was seized by seven armed men. Press reports suggest police witnessed his capture but did not intervene.

According to Holtze, there has been no ransom demand from his kidnappers. He said the Commission is working closely with the British authorities to secure an end to Shaw's ordeal - if he is still alive.

Chris Patten, the EU's external relations commissioner, has tasked Denis Corboy, head of the Commission's delegation to Tbilisi in 1994-99, with liaising with the Georgian authorities on the kidnapping. Corboy has visited the country twice since Shaw's abduction and is due to pay another visit next month.

Shaw's ex-wife and daughter live in Cowbridge, Wales. His kidnapping is not the first time those working for the EU have been targeted by criminals in a country with rampant crime.

A staff member of the Commission's Tblisi office was murdered in December last year.

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, has been eager not to let the issue sour relations with the EU. Tblisi has offered an award of around €7,000 for information on Shaw whereabouts.

There have been reports that Shaw is being kept in the remote Pankisi Gorge area.

It borders Russia's breakaway republic Chechnya and has been the main hunting ground for Georgia's kidnappers.

Diplomats in Georgia fear for the life of kidnapped banker Peter Shaw, who was working on a European Commission contract when he was seized in the capital, Tblisi, on 18 June 2002.