25 Abkhazia war bodies identified, returned to families
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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 PM made the statement in response to the recent identification and transportation of 25 bodies to Georgia from the country’s breakaway Abkhazia region.
Among those identified and returned to their families are top figures of the 90ies’ Georgia: Colonel of Georgia’s Security Mamia Alasania, Georgian hero Guram Gabeskiria, Deputy Heads of Council of Ministers of Abkhazia Arik Shengelaia and Vakhtang Gegelashvili.
All of them had a chance to save themselves. However, they decided to fulfill their roles until the end of their lives and fight for Georgia’s independence,” Refugee Minister Sozar Subari said.
Georgia’s Prime Minister stressed that more than 2,400 people have no information about their loved ones in the wake of the armed conflicts.
More than 2,000 people are in search of their loved ones. Photo by N.Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
Hundreds of families have been still searching their loved ones for more than 20 years. Thus, I want to appeal to all who may have any information over the disappeared to share what they know with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Organization has an office is in Tbilisi, on Moseshvili 24 and they keep such information provided to them confidential,” Kvirikashvili stated.
Key facts about the conflicts and the people missing
- The War in Abkhazia from 1992 to 1993 was fought between Georgian government forces for the most part, and Abkhaz separatist forces, Russian armed forces and North Caucasian militants. The separatists received support from thousands of North Caucasus and Cossack militants and from the Russian forces stationed in and near Abkhazia.
- Between 13,000 to 20,000 ethnic Georgians and approximately 3,000 Abkhaz have been reported killed, more than 250,000 Georgians became internally displaced or refugees and about 2,000 are considered missing.
- Among the missing about 1,500 are ethnic Georgians, up to 200 are ethnic Abkhazians and about 100 are ethnic Ossetians.
- 101 bodies have been identified and transported to Georgia over the course of last years.
- The Russo-Georgian 2008 War was a war between Georgia, Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
- The war displaced 192,000 people and while many returned to their homes after the war, 20,272 people, mostly ethnic Georgians, remained displaced.
- 35 Georgians and 6 Ossetians remain missing since the war.
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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.
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.
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.
25 Georgian heroes who lost their lives in the Abkhaz war in 1993 who have been recently identified and transported to the capital of Tbilisi were buried today. Georgia’s Prime Minister thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Abkhazian side for their support in finding and identifying the people who died in the war.
The body of Mikheil Jincharadze who died in the fight in the town of Gagra, Abkhazia in 1992 was brought home 25 years after his death thanks to the efforts by the Georgian government and his own relatives living in Abkhazia.
The Government of Georgia has proposed legislative changes for improving the humanitarian, social and economic conditions of the populations in Georgia’s Russian-occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).
The aim of the initiative is to improve cooperation across the occupation line.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced today that the remains of another 22 people who went missing due to the 1992–93 armed conflict in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region have been identified and will be handed over to their families shortly.
The remains of 22 fighters who went missing due to the 1992–93 armed conflict in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region were buried today at the Digomi Brothers’ Cemetery.
Georgian civic activist Giga Makarashvili, 33, is walking to the country’s occupied Abkhazia region to protest the Russian occupation of Georgian historic lands.
On this day 25 years ago hundreds of thousands of Georgians were forced to leave their homes in Georgia's western breakaway Abkhazia region, thousands of people died and Tbilisi lost control of Abkhazia region.
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 International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) chaired a meeting regarding the search for people who went missing during the 1992-93 armed conflict in Abkhazia on December 4, in Yerevan.
Thirty-six graves are planned to be opened in Georgia’s occupied Abkhazia region, in western Georgia this year to take DNA samples and try to identify the individuals.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry says that Babushera Airport in the city of Sokhumi in Georgia’s Russian-occupied Abkhazia region will not be used for international flights, contradicting the information released by Russian media. Russian media outlets report that the Russian government is trying to open the airport for international flights.
De facto Foreign Minister of Georgia’s Russian-occupied Abkhazia region Daur Kove says that Babushera Airport in Sokhumi will open for international flights anyway, despite the resistance of Tbilisi.
A "ground-breaking" exhibition will bring photographs, videos and other material from both sides of the Georgian-Abkhaz divide to explore the devastating early 1990s conflict in a Tbilisi display starting this Friday.
Monuments of Zhiuli Shartava and Guram Gabeskiria, former officials who were killed by Abkhaz separatist groups in 1993, will be placed in Tbilisi, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze has stated earlier today.
Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandre Khvtisiashvili says that Russia is taking active steps to persuade Asian, African and Pacific Ocean countries to recognise the Georgian occupied Abkhazia region as an independent state.
Twenty-eight years have passed since the armed conflict in Georgia’s Russia-occupied region of Abkhazia. The Abkhaz war lasted 13 months and 13 days and ended with the loss of the capital of Abkhazia, Sokhumi, on September 27, 1993, which was preceded by negotiations between Georgia and Abkhazia with the mediation of Russia. On July 27, 1993 the Sochi agreement was signed but Abkhaz forces violated the terms and opened fire while Georgian troops were withdrawing from the region.
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.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Saturday said Guram Gabiskiria, the former official who had been killed by Abkhaz separatist groups in 1993 during the armed conflict in Abkhazia, was an “immortal example of devotion to the motherland, persistence and fighting spirit”.