Bodies of Georgians found in Abkhazian grave return home
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It's been 21 years since the Babushera tragedy in Abkhazia and the bodies of thirteen Georgians who died in the crash are finally being returned home.
A plane carrying more than 120 people from Tbilisi was shot down while landing at Babushera Airport in Sokhumi on September 20, 1993, during the Abkhaz war. The event happened a few days before Tbilisi lost the battle for Sukhumi on September 27, 1993.
The Minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia said the remains of the 13 Georgians who died on that fateful day would be sent to a medical examiner’s office in Zagreb, Croatia. There, the remains would go through an anthropological analysis, while family members of the 13 heroes would have their DNA tested by the Levan Samkharauli National Forensic Bureau.
"After comparison of these two data, the bodies will be identified and returned to the families,” Minister Davit Darakhvelidze stated.
He said Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili would personally observe the process.
"The history of the war in Abkhazia and this particular tragedy has been an unhealed pain for our society and this wound could be reopened today but it is important that families and future generations have their heroes' graves buried according to traditions and rules," Minister Darakhvelidze added.
In addition, he expressed gratitude towards the International Committee of the Red Cross for its support in the process of recovering the bodies.
Minister Darakhvelidze said the international humanitarian aid group helped facilitate cooperation between de-facto Abkhaz authorities and Georgian officials.
Excavation of Georgian remains found in a mass grave in Abkhazia at Sokhumi’s Babushera Airport in September 1993 has begun, with authorities hoping to identify the remains and return the bodies’ home to Georgia.
The bodies of 31 Georgians who died in a plane crash in Abkhazia have returned home, 21 years on from the tragedy.
Georgian officials from the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia are heading abroad to speed up the process of returning the bodies of the victims of the Abkhazia crisis(1992-1994) back to Georgia.
A meeting between Georgian and representatives of the de-facto Government of beakaway Abkhazia met face-to-face and agreed to excavate cemeteries in Georgia and Abkhazia and return victims of the Abkhaz crisis to their hometowns.
Four bodies unearthed at Babushera’s mass grave in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region have been identified, enabling a Georgian woman who has dressed in black for the past 21 years to finally give her loved ones a proper burial.
Four soldiers who died in a plane crash while on a military mission 21 years ago have been buried with full military honours at the Digomi Brothers’ Cemetery today.
Georgian Ministry of Refugees officials and representatives of the de-facto Abkhazian government met today under the auspices of the International Red Cross Commission where they discussed issues relating to the searching and transferring of bodies of those missing since the Georgia-Abkhazian conflict in the early 1990s.
Five bodies unearthed at Babushera’s mass grave in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region have been identified and returned to their families.
Eleven mass graves in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region and nearby territory will soon be opened to find and identify bodies of those missing since the Abkhazian conflict in the early 1990s.
Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has appealed to anyone having information on people who went missing due to the 1992-1993 war in Abkhazia region and 2008
Russia-Georgia war to inform the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The Moldovan border service did not allow the representatives of the so-called government of Georgian Abkhazia region enter the Chisinau airport, Russian and Moldovan media have reported today.
The remains of 23 individuals who had been missing since the 1992-1993 armed conflict in Georgia’s now Russian-occupied Abkhazia region were handed over to their families on Wednesday, in the latest stage of the process involving the Government and the International Committee of the Red Cross.