Banker kidnappers 'make contact'

Peter Shaw had been working in Tbilisi for six years

A Welsh MP has reported a new development in the search for kidnapped banker Peter Shaw.

Vale of Glamorgan member John Smith told BBC Radio Wales he had been told telephone contact had been made with the kidnappers.

Peter Shaw, 57, from Cowbridge, was abducted near his home in the capital Tbilisi on 18 June.

Facts: Peter Shaw

Originally from Maesteg

Home in Cowbridge

Worked on EU project in Georgia

Previously a Midland Bank manager

Kidnapped on 18 June

He was taken just hours before he was due to return to the UK at the end of a six-year contract working with an agricultural bank.

No word has come from his kidnappers, who some officials believe are separatists from neighbouring Chechnya.

A rescue operation on the streets of capital Tbilisi last week failed to find the banker at his expected basement location.

The Georgian government indicated the abduction could be the work of trained, senior law enforcement officials.

President Eduard Shevardnadze has pledged 15,000 lari, or £5,000, reward for information about his whereabouts.

European fear

Mr Shaw was working as a project director for Abgrobiznesbank under the Tacis development programme sponsored by the European Union (EU), which has pressed Georgia to find its man.

Ministers last week said they feared the EU could freeze crucial aid programmes in the country if they do not find Mr Shaw - something commissioners said had not been decided on.

President Shevardnadze has demanded swift action

Before 27 June's search operation in Tbilisi, Georgian police authorities issued identikit images of the kidnappers.

But the Rustavi-2 television channel said it was far from clear how accurate the images were, the point being to illustrate four of the men were wearing balaclavas.

The network said a controversy had erupted between the Georgian Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

It noted the lack of action by police officers who arrived at the gun shoot-out scene during Mr Shaw's abduction.

'Slightly encouraging'

And it said the prosecutor had only received information about the kidnapping six hours after the incident.

A special session of the Georgian National Security Council which was supposed to discuss the abduction was cancelled last week for unspecified reasons.

John Smith MP - whose constituency includes Mr Shaw's home town - said the news was "slightly encouraging", because it indicated that Mr Shaw was alive.

But he warned: "We have to be careful and should not speculate too much. It's still a very worrying situation."