Kids Trapped in Georgia

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 21, 2008
Filed at 5:11 a.m. ET
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- A New Jersey congressman met with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in hopes of arranging safe passage for two young girls stuck there, even as the girls' family worried over Russian troops only miles away.
Reached on the phone in Georgia, Rep. Chris Smith said Wednesday he was meeting with anyone he could -- Georgian officials, U.S. officials, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and contacts in the Russian parliament he knows through his work on refugee issues.
''This could break open any second,'' Smith said. ''We're trying every tool. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with diplomats and others. I keep stressing to the Russians that there are American children who are trapped.''
Smith has been trying to get the Russians to open up a humanitarian corridor that would allow 7-year-old Ashley and 3-year-old Sophia Evans to leave western Georgia, as well as others stuck in the region.
The Evans girls were visiting their maternal grandparents when Russian troops invaded Georgia two weeks ago. Russian checkpoints have blocked their paths to escape.
Their parents -- Joseph Evans, of Howell, and his Georgian-born wife, Tea-h -- have been trying to get their daughters out of the country. Joseph Evans was on a plane to Georgia on Wednesday, a Smith spokeswoman said.
Tea-h Evans' brother, Beso Tsutskiridze, flew to Armenia from New Jersey last week, crossed the border and made his way on foot around Russian troop positions to get to his parents' farm in the western village of Chiatura.
Reached on his parents' cell phone Wednesday, Tsutskiridze said he -- like other men in the area -- was staying awake through the night so he could rush his parents and nieces into nearby woods if Russian troops arrived.
The Russians, he said, have been getting closer each day.
''They are really close to us,'' he said. ''Yesterday, it was like 20 to 25 miles from us. Now it's 10 miles -- 10 to 15 miles.''
The U.S. State Department is monitoring about 30 U.S. citizens under 18 who are in Georgia without their parents. Meanwhile, Smith said he has been working on the cases of about a dozen other children stuck in the country.