After 24 years Georgia farewells 25 heroes of Abkhazia 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.

• Twenty of the people were buried with military honors at Digomi Brothers’ Cemetery. One, Mamia Alasania, a former security official, father of Georgia’s ex-Defence Minister Irakli Alasania, was buried at Narikala in the yard of the St. Nicholas Church; the remaining four were buried at different cemeteries.

A day before the funeral Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili addressed President Giorgi Margvelashvili to award Mamia Alasania with the National Hero’s order and nine other with the Vakhtang Gorgasali 1st grade order for their courage and heroism in the fight for the protection of the homeland and its territorial integrity.

Georgia's Prime Minister and other top officials honoured the heroes. Photo by Prime Minister's press office. 

The nine people are: Arshavel Shengelaia, Givi Papuashvili, Aleksandre Partsvania, Genuri Liparteliani, Merab Kvinikadze, Sergo Silagadze, Vakhtang Partsvania, Shalva Nadiradze and Elguja Shartava.

Georgia’s Minister of Refugees Sozar Subari said that most of the people, then top officials among them, could have saved themselves, "but they protected the country’s territorial integrity till the end of their days.”

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 people protected Georgia's integrity will end of their lives, Refugee Minister said. Photo by Prime Minister's press office. 

I am sure, it is inevitable that we Georgians, Abkhazians and Ossetians sit together, see into one another’s eyes, speak our minds, reconcile and build our common house with the name of a united and powerful Georgia,” Kvirikashvili stated.

Georgia’s Patriarch Ilia II stressed that "no one can derange the brotherhood, built by centuries, between Georgians and Abkhazians”.

People could honour heroes at the Trinity Cathedral. Photo by Prime Minister's press office. 

• The War in Abkhazia from 1992 to 1993 was fought between Georgian government forces 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 still considered missing.

Families have been waiting for the bodies for more than 20 years. Photo by the Refugee Ministry press office. 

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.