Georgia pays respects to victims of Abkhazia War

Seventeen bodies were taken to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi for memorial service today. Photo from the Prime Minister's office.
Agenda.ge, 14 Sep 2016 - 18:29, Tbilisi,Georgia

The bodies of over a dozen victims who fought and died for Georgia's territorial integrity in the 1992-1993 war in breakaway Abkhazia region will be buried with military honours at a Tbilisi cemetery tomorrow.

The ceremony will pay homage to 17 individuals killed during the conflict that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of military service members, paramilitary combatants and civilians.

These 17 victims were among 60 people identified through DNA analysis over the past two years after their remains were recovered from various graves in Abkhazia since May 2014.

The 17 bodies were taken from the DNA analysis bureau to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi earlier today for memorial service before being buried at Dighomi Cemetery in the capital on Thursday.

A gravestone of one of the victims of the Babushera Airport tragedy, which remained unidentified as recently as 2015.

The other 43 bodies identified using DNA testing were recovered earlier from the Babushera Cemetery and buried.

They were all identified as victims of the September 22, 1993 incident when their civilian airliner was shot down by Russian-backed rebels while attempting to land at Babushera Airport in Abkhazia's regional capital Sokhumi.

See Agenda.ge's multimedia story about the victims and survivors of the Babushera tragedy here.

Since 2014 more than 40 unidentified bodies have been recovered from the region during search and recovery missions facilitated by the international humanitarian aid group Red Cross.