Remains of 13 people missing in Abkhaz war identified, returned home
The remains of 13 individuals were recovered during excavations carried out in Sokhumi, Gulripshi, Ochamchire and Mtskheta districts. Photo: Georgian State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality press office
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The remains of 13 people who went missing during the 1992–93 armed conflict in Georgia’s Russia-occupied Abkhazia region have been identified and returned to their families.
It was possible to identify the bodies of eight military servicemen and five civilians through the joint efforts of the Georgian State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The identified remains were transported to Tbilisi from Sukhumi. Photo: Valeska Martinez LEMUS/ICRC
The ICRC announced earlier this week that the remains of these 13 individuals were recovered during excavations carried out in Sokhumi, Gulripshi, Ochamchire and Mtskheta districts.
Jerome Thuet, the ICRC's missing programme coordinator said despite obstacles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic the ICRC “deployed all efforts so that the identification of missing persons progresses”.
Local and international specialists in the fields of genetics, archaeology, and anthropology continued to analyse and reconcile all available data, producing some concrete results," Thuet siad.
He also added that "this activity is of utmost importance, as the families of missing persons have the need and the right to know the fate and whereabouts of their relatives”.
Over the past few days, 13 families have received answers. They will thus be able to end the ambiguity they have been living in and pay tribute to their deceased family members", he concluded.
The handover of the remains to the families took place at the Samkharauli National Forensic Bureau yesterday.
Georgian officials and ordinary citizens paid tribute to the deceased at the Sameba Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi today:
Minister of Internal Affairs, Vakhtang Gomelauri attended the memorial service held at Sameba Cathedral Church of 13 people transferred from the occupied territory of Abkhazia and expressed condolences to their family members.https://t.co/UM9hfyosQh pic.twitter.com/4iLo27B0VH
— MIA of Georgia (@MIAofGeorgia) August 14, 2020
Two of the military servicemen will be laid to rest at the Digomi Brothers’ Cemetery, while the rest of the bodies will be buried at their respective family cemeteries.
Last year the Georgian government created a commission to find the burial sites and identify the bodies of 2,300 individuals who went missing during the armed conflicts in Georgia in the 1990s and in 2008.