Eduard Shevardnadze said on 2 September during his traditional Monday radio address that the situation in the Pankisi Gorge is under control. He added that all but a "few dozen" armed Chechen and Arab militants previously encamped there have already left. Some 1,000 Georgian Interior Ministry troops entered the gorge on 25 August to launch an anticrime and antiterrorist operation, which has already yielded several arrests. On 31 August, Interior Minister Koba Narchemashvili warned that the operation could last for some time and that casualties are unavoidable. On 2 September, the Georgian authorities restricted journalists' access to the gorge. (Caucasus Press)