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.
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 bodies of seven Georgian citizens who died in the 2008 Russia-Georgia war have been transferred to their families after the National Forensic Bureau conducted studies. The transfer was implemented with the help of the State Security Service and under the aegis of the International Community of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC opened the grave near village Tamarasheni, Tskhinvali and exhumed the bodies in October, 2017.
The Georgian government has created a commision uniting 10 different state agencies 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.
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.
The Georgian national flag is flying at half-mast today as 27 years ago on September 27 more than 250,000 Georgians were sent fleeing from their homes as Georgia lost control of the region of Abkhazia, which is currently occupied by Russia.
Worship in churches of Georgia’s Russian-occupied region of Abkhazia has been temporarily suspended until the status of the Abkhaz Orthodox Church has been determined, however the churches remain open to parishioners, the head of the Abkhaz Orthodox Church Father Vissarion (Aplia) said on the air of Abkhaz television, reports Russian media outlet Ria Novosti.
The remains of 13 individuals who went missing during the 1992-93 armed conflict in Georgia’s Russia-occupied region of Abkhazia have been laid to rest. The bodies of six servicemen and seven civilians were identified through the cooperation of Georgia’s State Ministry for Reconciliation and the International Red Cross Committee.
The remains of five missing individuals who went missing during the 1992-1993 armed conflicts in the Russian-occupied Georgian region of Abkhazia have been identified and a memorial service will be held today and tomorrow at Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi, Interpressnews (IPN) reports.
The Georgian national flag is flying at half-mast today as 28 years ago on September 27 Georgia lost control over the region of Abkhazia, which is currently occupied by Russia. Paying tribute to the victims of the armed conflict, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said he believes the ‘Georgian government will be able to overcome the severe consequences of the war and will work for the common future, peace and prosperity of the Abkhaz and Georgian people’.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Wednesday said peace was “the foundation upon which a united, strong and developed country should be built” together with the “Abkhazian and Ossetian brothers”, in comments marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of Sokhumi, the capital of the Russian-occupied north-western region of Abkhazia during the war in the region in 1993.
Flags on state institutions across Georgia were on Wednesday lowered to half-mast to mark an anniversary of the fall of Sokhumi, the capital of the Russian-occupied north-western region of Abkhazia during the war in the region in 1993.
The Georgian State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality on Friday said a meeting involving Georgian and Abkhaz participants for finding and determining the fate of missing individuals from the 1992-1993 armed conflict in Georgia’s Russian-occupied Abkhazia region was hosted in İstanbul.