Georgia posthumously awards four young heroes of August 2008 war

Georgia has posthumously honoured four young soldiers who were killed in the short but brutal Russia-Georgia war in 2008.

Today Georgia’s Minister of Corrections and Legal Assistance Kakha Kakhishvili announced the four men, who had served at the Ministry’s Special Forces, would be awarded the Ministry’s highest award for Defending the Law and Honour.

The soldiers were:

1. Gocha Iluridze;
2. Giorgi Abiatari;
3. Besik Mamiauri; and
4. Ilia Shaverdashvili, the youngest of the four who had just turned 19.

Today officials from the Correction’s Ministry travelled to eastern Georgia’s Kakheti region, where the four soldiers originated, to meet their families and personally hand over the awards in honour of the young men’s sacrifice for their homeland.

Over five days the Russian aggression in August 2008 killed 170 soldiers, 14 police officers and 228 civilians.