WASHINGTON - Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and former Chairman of the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission) is scheduled to arrive in Tbilisi, Georgia, Tuesday, August 19, 2008. 

    Smith has been working for the past several days with Joe and Tea-h Evans, his constituents from Howell, New Jersey, to secure the safe return of the Evans’ two young daughters, Ashley (7) and Sophia (3), who were visiting their grandparents in Georgia when hostilities broke out. 

    “Congressman Smith left this evening to be on the ground in Georgia to aggressively push every conceivable option to effectuate the release and safe return of Ashley and Sophia Evans, and other American children who are trapped in Georgia,” said Smith spokesperson Mary McDermott Noonan. 

    “Since receiving an e-mail from Joe Evans last week, Rep. Smith has been in constant contact with US Embassy officials including Ambassador John Tefft, key State Department officials and others. Still, proximity enhances ones ability to have a positive outcome,” Noonan said. “He will meet not only with US officials in Georgia but also with Georgian Foreign Ministry and Interior Ministry officials,” she said. 

    Smith has long been active on a variety of human rights issues in Europe and expects to meet with human rights monitors as well as other nongovernmental organizations while in Georgia.