Interview with UNMO Chris Payton, Deputy Team Leader, Kodori Valley Patrol, while in the Kodori Corridor, November 1997. (see CFR-TV episode 11)

Q. What is your name and where are you from?

My name is Chris Payton and I am a Royal Marine officer.  I am basically from a unit in Scotland attached to UNOMIG.

Q. What is UNOMIG?

UNOMIG is the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia.  It is here to observe a cease-fire between the Georgian side and the Abkhaz side that occurred in the 1992 conflict.

Q. Can you talk about the military component of UNOMIG?
There is a total of 106 at present, military observers, in various positions from team patrol members to team leaders.  There is a headquarters element for information and operation’s briefs. 

Q. What is your specific task?
My specific task as the deputy team leader of the Kodori patrol valley. . .  This area is potentially a route that could be used for an attack on the Abkhaz or the Abkhaz to attack the Georgians.  The main direct area is the M27 along the coast but this route feasibly could be used as a route so we are here to monitor and make sure there is no military movement up and down this road.

Q.  What of the checkpoints here in the Kodori Corridor?

The Abkhaz and the Svans, the Svanetians that are here . . . if you like, they are Georgians for all intents and purposes, are kept apart by Russians.  So along this road each side that has an interest in the road, has checkpoints basically to monitor traffic that is moving up there, people that are moving up there and to all intents and purposes so there is not an attack.  The checkpoint if you like is a small defended position is how they would refer to it that is there to protect the integrity of the national boundary but in actual fact they are there pretty much to monitor and log traffic, who is going in, who is coming out, because the Abkhaz don’t want the Georgians coming up and re-supplying the Svans, and the Svans don’t want anyone going down and re-supplying the Abkhaz with stuff from Georgia.

Q. What is your interaction with the various elements here, Russian, Abkhaz…?

Every time we come up, as you’ve seen, as we’ve been coming up today we will stop at the checkpoints, get out, we stop and talk to them basically and try and get a feel for the situation at the time.  So we will talk to them about the whole of the mandate as it were, but within a scope that they will be able to talk about.  We’ll talk about the situation locally, incidents that have happened, if we’ve heard of things that have happened or if there is rumors that have happened and its come on the news then when we come up there will be a point of discussion, just sit down and talk to them what has happened—do they know anything about it, have you heard anything about it?  Such as the road for example, even something as basic as that, how is the road?  Is the road good?

Q.  How far into the Kodori would a UNOMIG patrol normally go?

At the moment the patrol should drive all the way from Sukhumi to a team base, which is further up the valley around this corner another 30 kilometers.  The team base is actually in what would be regarded Svanetian Abkhazia.  It’s a pocket if you like that the Svans have within Abkhazia that they control themselves.  We go up there, have a team base up there, in order to patrol the higher valley and also monitor this situation here, the reaction between the two (sides). 

Q. How important is this road?

The road is obviously vital to us to be able to get up there.  If we can’t get up there we can’t fulfill our mandate because we can ensure that no military movements are occurring along this part of the road because the road is broken.  In addition, we can’t actually get to the Svans and check what is happening in their area.  We’ve heard that there have been killings and then we find out much much later that in actual fact it is not true.  If we were able to get up there we would find out like the day after this killing was supposed to have happened, that it didn’t happed, and we can start to stop any bad or adverse publicity that might cause friction between the two sides.

Q.  So what is the problem?

The road at the moment has approximately six areas that a vehicle can’t pass.  There is seven in total, but the first one you can get past.  There are two areas like this, for example where you can see here the road has been cut away by water coming down off the high ground and its cut this side of the road away.  That’s not that much of a problem because we can still drive around, but where it has actually brought stone and rock down on the road in such a large amount, as there is there, then really we can’t clear it.  There are two areas like this and there are another four areas where the water has just cut straight through the road.  There is like a crevasse in the road which needs a bridge built on it now in order that we can still pass over it.

Q. How often do you patrol?

We normally go up on patrol once a week.  If there has been a series of incidents then we might go up there a bit more often but normally we would only go up once a week for about two to three days.  We have been up there four and five days but there is no real benefit to going up for that length of time because all you’re getting is the same information the second time over you’re having to deal with the same problems they want to put to you.  So it’s better to go up there for two or three days. In my opinion its better to go up there for two or three days, get the information you want, listen to their problems, talk to them about them, and then come back down again and then maybe within another three days go back up.

Q. What is the specific aim of today’s patrol?

On a short patrol we’ve been doing two things, first of all, the patrol today is to try to ascertain whether a contractor that we have actually entered into a negotiation with us to clear the road, and as you can see he hasn’t, OK, so that was the aim of today’s patrol, just a short one up, see if anything has happened, and back down again because we are concerned with the road.  If we want to see and talk to the Svans, then we have to park up where we have, further back down the Valley, and we then use mountain bikes to come up through here, we’ll carry the mountain bikes over the slide, as you’ve seen us walking, carry on biking, and we’ll bike up to the bottom Svan checkpoint where we will talk to the Svans and get some idea what’s been going on in the Valley.  From there it is back down on mountain bikes, back down and back to the car. It is a one day patrol because we can’t stay in the Valley its too dangerous.   So we have to go up and straight back again the same day.

Q.  Can you talk about the threat to you and other UNMOs here in Kodori?

The biggest problem is that in this area it is pretty wild, there are not a lot of houses around, not a lot of accommodation around.  In order to stay up here you would be exposing yourself to any bandit or criminal that would be operating in this area and very infrequently there are people who do have a tendency to loot and steal.  They wouldn’t necessarily cause you any damage or any harm personally, they wouldn’t want to kill you, but you could lose your equipment, and to come up here and lose your equipment   obviously quite a long way from home.

Q. How long will you be part of UNOMIG?

My length of duty here is six months so I arrived here in September and I’ll be going home in the beginning of March.  Working in UNOMIG is very interesting; it opens your eyes a lot.  Until now I had a very small knowledge of the British army and the navy because I am a Royal Marine.  I had a deep knowledge of the Royal Marines but a small amount of the rest of the forces.  I knew very little about other country’s forces and what they do.  Working with other nations gives you a chance to talk to them about how they work, where they work, what they do, get an idea of their culture, how they perceive problems and what they perceive as problems and what they don’t perceive as problems.  It’s very interesting.