Ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia

In 1992, the political situation in Abkhazia changed into a military confrontation between the Georgian government and Abkhaz separatists. The fighting escalated as Georgian Interior and Defence Ministry forces along with police units took Sukhumi and came near the city of Gudauta. The ethnically based policies initiated by the Georgians in Sukhumi created simultaneously refugees and a core of fighters determined to regain lost homes.[26] However, as the war progressed, the Abkhaz separatist have carried out same policies of violent displacement of ethnic Georgians from their homes in greater proportions which has left 250,000 people being forcefully evicted from their homes.[5] Under the alleged aid from Russia, they managed to re-arm and organize militants from North Caucasus. According to political analyst Georgy Mirsky, the Russian military base in Gudauta was, "supplying the Abkhazian side with weapons and ammunition." [18] Furthermore, he adds that, "no direct proof of this has ever been offered, but it would be more naïve to believe that the tanks, rockets, howitzers, pieces of ordnance, and other heavy weapons that the anti-Georgian coalition forces were increasing using in their war had been captured from the enemy." [18] This anti-Georgian military coalition were made up of North Caucasian Group "The Confederates of Mountain People of Caucasus", Shamil Basaev's Chechen division "Grey Wolf," Armenian battalion "Bagramian," Cossacks, militants from Transnistria and various Russian special units.[27][28][29][30][31][32] According to Political Scientist Bruno Coppieters, "Western governments took some diplomatic initiatives in the United Nations and made up an appeal to Moscow to halt an active involvement of its military forces in the conflict. UN Security Council passed series of resolutions in which is appeals for a cease-fire and condemned the Abkhazian policy of ethnic-cleansing." [33]

Confronted with hundreds of thousands of ethnic Georgians who were unwilling to leave their homes, the Abkhaz side implemented the process of ethnic cleansing in order to expel and eliminate the Georgian ethnic population in Abkhazia.[34]

The exact number of those killed during the ethnic cleansing is disputed, according to Gergian data 5,000 civilians were killed and 400 were missing.[35] Roughly 200,000 to 250,000 ethnic Georgians were expelled from their homes.[2] The campaign ethnic cleansing also included Russians, Armenians, Greeks, some Abkhaz and other minor ethnic groups living in Abkhazia. More than 20,000 houses owned by ethnic Georgians were destroyed. Hundreds of schools, kindergartens, churches, hospitals, historical monuments were pillaged and destroyed.[21]

The 1994 U.S. State Department Country Reports describes scenes of massive human rights abuse, also supported by Human Rights Watch based on their own findings. According to U.S. State Department Country Report on Conflict in Abkhazia (Georgia):

The [Abkhaz] separatist forces committed widespread atrocities against the Georgian civilian population, killing many women, children, and elderly, capturing some as hostages and torturing others ... they also killed large numbers of Georgian civilians who remained behind in Abkhaz-seized territory ...

The separatists launched a reign of terror against the majority Georgian population, although other nationalities also suffered. Chechens and other north Caucasians from the Russian Federation reportedly joined local Abkhaz troops in the commission of atrocities ... Those fleeing Abkhazia made highly credible claims of atrocities, including the killing of civilians without regard for age or sex. Corpses recovered from Abkhaz-held territory showed signs of extensive torture[36]

After the end of the war, the government of Georgia, the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the refugees began to investigate and gather facts about the allegations of genocide, ethnic cleansing and deportation which was conducted by the Abkhaz side during the conflict. In 1994 and again in 1996 the OSCE during the Budapest summit gave its official recognition of ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia and condemned the "perpetrators of war crimes committed during the conflict."[37]

In March 2006, the Hague War Crimes Tribunal announced that it had reviewed all the documents submitted by the Georgian side. After a full-scale investigation, the Tribunal concluded that it would prosecute and start hearings against the campaign of ethnic cleansing, war-crimes and terror inflicted on ethnic Georgians in Abkhazia.[38]

According to Catherine Dale from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:

In a former tourist camp in Kutaisi, a large gathering of displaced people tell of the "common practice" called the "Italian necktie", in which the tongue is cut out of the throat and tied around the neck. A woman tells of a man being forced to rape his teenage daughter, and of Abkhaz soldiers having sex with dead bodies. A man tells how in Gudauta, Abkhaz killed small children and then cut off their heads to play football with them. These themes are repeated in many separate accounts.[39]

On June 18, 2001, Russian President Vladimir Putin, while on summit in Ljubljiana, Slovenia, confirmed the fact of the atrocity, remarking that, "Georgian authorities seem to have forgotten how Chechen terrorists used the heads of Georgians as footballs during the Abkhazian crisis. Yes, unfortunately, that is a fact."[40]

On September 3, 1992, the Russian mediated agreement was signed between Georgian and Abkhaz separatist sides which obliged Georgia to withdraw its military forces from the city of Gagra. The agreement forced Abkhaz separatists from Gudauta to hold their attacks on the city. Soon after, the Georgian forces which included Shavnabada, Avaza and White Eagle battalions (along with their tanks and heavy artillery) left the city. Only small pockets of armed groups (made up of volunteers units of the ethnic Georgians of Gagra) remained. However, on October 1, the Abkhaz side violated the agreement and launched a full-scale attack on Gagra. The attack was well coordinated and mainly carried out by the Chechen (under the command of Shamil Basaev) and North Caucasian militants. Meantime in Gagra, Georgian small detachments lost the control of the city suburbs (Leselidze and Kolkhida) and eventually were destroyed in the city center by the end of October 1. With the fall of the city, the Georgian population of Gagra was captured by the separatists and their allies. The first major massacres and ethnic-cleansing were committed during the fall of Gagra.[43]

People of all ages were rounded up from Gagra, Leselidze, Kolkhida and killed. When the separatist militants entered the city, civilians became a target of mass murder. The main targets were young people and children. According to the witness account:

"When I returned home I was surprised to see a lot of armed people on the street. They were quiet. I mistook one of them for my Georgian neighbour, and I said, "How are you?" in Georgian. He grabbed me by the wrist and said, "Keep quiet." I wasn't afraid for myself; I thought they had killed my family. He asked me in Russian, "Where are your young people? We won't kill you, we'll kill them." I said they weren't here, that there were only old people left."[44]

Women and young girls captured by the militants became the victims of rape and torture. One elderly Georgian woman who lived through the October attack in Gagra recounted the following: "They brought over a blind man and his brother, who always stayed with him. They began to beat the blind man, his brother and his wife with a gun butt, calling him "dog!" and kicking him. He fell over. I saw blood. One soldier said: "We won't kill you, but where are the young girls?" I said there weren't any."[45]

{{quotation|My husband Sergo was dragged and tied to a tree. An Abkhaz woman named Zoya Tsvizba brought a tray with lots of salt on it. She took the knife and started to inflict wounds on my husband. After that, she threw salt on to my husbands exposed wounds. They tortured him like that for ten minutes. After, they forced a young Georgian boy (they killed him afterwards) to dig a hole with the tractor. They placed my husband in this hole and buried him alive. The only thing I remember him saying before he was covered with the gravel and sand was: "Dali take care of the kids!"[46][47]

After the fall of Gagra, the victors started to pillage, rape, and torture followed by summary executions of everyone who was captured and failed to flee the city in time. At 5:00 pm on October 1, civilians (approximately 1000–1500 people) were rounded up and placed under the guard at the soccer stadium in downtown Gagra. On October 6, close to 50 civilians had been found hanging on electricity poles. Soon after, children, elderly, women and men who were detained on the soccer stadium were gunned down and dumped in mass graves not far from the stadium.

A Russian military observer Mikhail Demianov (who was accused by the Georgian side of being the military advisor to the separatist leader Ardzinba) told Human Rights Watch:

When they [Abkhaz] entered Gagra, I saw Shamyl Basaev's battalion. I have never seen such a horror. They were raping and killing everyone who was captured and dragged from their homes. The Abkhaz commander Arshba raped a 14-year-old girl and later gave an order to execute her. For the whole day I only could hear the screams and cries of the people who were brutally tortured. On the next day, I witnessed the mass execution of people on the stadium. They installed machine guns and mortars on the top and placed people right on the field. It took a couple of hours to kill everybody[7][48]

UN observers started to investigate and gather all the facts concerning the war crimes during the fall of Gagra. Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia Mikhail Jinjaradze was dragged out from his office and executed.[49]

After the failed attempt of the separatist forces and their allies to storm Sukhumi on March 14, 1993, Abkhaz diverted their main forces to the northern side of the front line which divided Georgian held Sukhumi and separatist controlled territories. On July 4, the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus militia, Abkhaz formations, and Armenian Bagramyan battalion transported by allegedly Russian naval forces to the city of Tkhvarcheli began their offensive on the northern Sukhumi district. Georgian forces and local volunteer units (including Ukrainian nationalist organization members (UNA-UNSO)) stationed in the villages of Shroma, Tamishi and Kamani were taken by surprise. On July 5, after intensive fighting, Georgians lost as many as 500 people in a couple of hours.[50] The village of Kamani fell into the hands of separatist formations and their North Caucasian allies. Kamani was populated mainly by Svans (a sub-ethnic group of the Georgian people) and by Orthodox nuns who had been living in the church of St George located in the center of the village.[51] The local villagers (including women and children) were massacred while the church of St George became the scene of a blood bath.[51] The nuns were raped and killed in front of the orthodox priests, father Yuri Anua and father Andria. Both priests were taken outside of the church and questioned about the ownership of the land in Abkhazia. After answering that Abkhazia was neither Georgian nor Abkhaz land but God's, they were shot by a confederate soldier. Another priest was killed along with father Yuri Anua and father Andria, an ethnic Abkhaz who was forced to shoot father Andria before he was killed.[52] Approximately, 120 inhabitants of the village were massacred.

Thomas Goltz, a war correspondent who visited Abkhazia during the war, recalls that Russian MIG-29s dropped 500 kilograms of vacuum bombs which mainly targeted the residential areas of Sukhumi and villages on Gumista River.[53] The Russian journalist Dmitry Kholodov remained in Sukhumi before it fell to separatists and wrote a couple of reports from the besieged city,

The shelling of Sokhumi is the most disgusting thing in this war ... All the residents of Sokhumi remember the first shelling. It took place on 2 December 1992. The first rocket fell on Peace Street. They struck at crowded places. The next strategic 'target' was the town market which was hit with great precision. Eighteen people were killed that day. There were always lots of people in the market.[54]

On July 27, 1993, a Russian-brokered trilateral agreement on a cease-fire and principles for the solution of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict was signed. Once again Georgian military started to withdraw all of its heavy artillery, tanks, and a significant number of its troops from Sukhumi. The Abkhaz separatists along with their allies were bound by the agreement to hold their offensive and heavy bombardment of the city. In return, the Georgian side was reassured by Russia that Sukhumi would not be attacked or bombed if Georgian army would complete its withdrawal. The Georgian troops along with their tanks were evacuated by the Russian military ships to the city of Poti. The city was left without any significant military defense. A large number of civilians stayed in Sukhumi and all schools were re-opened on September 1. The large number of IDPs returned to their homes and the normal life resumed in Sukhumi. According to Shevardnadze he trusted Yeltsin and the Russian guarantees and therefore, asked the population to return.[55] However, the Abkhaz separatists, North Caucasian Volunteers, Cossacks and Russian special forces attacked Sukhumi on September 16 at 8 a.m.[56]

It marked the beginning of 12 days non-stop fighting around the besieged Sukhumi with intensive fighting and human loss from the both sides. Georgians who stayed in the city with only rifles and AK 47s were left without any defense from artillery or mechanized units.[57] The union of theater actors of Sukhumi joined fighting along with other civilians who decided to fight. The city was mercilessly bombed by Russian air forces and separatist artillery.[58] On September 27, the city fell as Abkhaz, Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus (CMPC) and Russian units stormed the House of the Government of Abkhazia. One of the most horrific massacres of this war was waged on the civilian population of Sukhumi after its downfall. During the storming of the city, close to 1,000 people perished as Abkhaz formations overran the streets of the city. The civilians who were trapped in the city were taken from their houses, basements and apartment building. In Tamaz Nadareishvili's book, Genocide in Abkhazia, the eye witness interviews of the IDPs includes the following account by the elderly Georgian refugee who survived the war:[59]

... They captured a young girl. She was hiding in the bushes near the house where they killed her parents. She was raped several times. One of the soldiers killed her and mutilated her. She was cut in half. Near her body they left a message: as this corpse will never be as one piece, Abkhazia and Georgia will never be united either.[59]

The separatists and their allies captured the Chairman of the Supreme Council Zhiuli Shartava, the Mayor of Sukhumi Guram Gabiskiria, Mamia Alasania and other members of the Abkhaz government including the members of Sukhumi police. Initially they were promised safety,[60] but eventually killed, in case of Shartava after having been tortured.[36] A Georgian woman who survived Sukhumi massacre, recalls her ordeal in an interview with Russian film director Andrei Nekrasov,

When the Abkhaz entered my house, they took me and my seven year old son outside. After forcing us to kneel, they took my son and shot him right in front of me. After they grabbed me by hair and took me to the nearby well. An Abkhaz soldier forced me to look down that well; there I saw three younger men and couple of elderly women who were standing soaked in water naked. They were screaming and crying while the Abkhaz were dumping dead corpses on them. Afterwards, they threw a grenade there and placed more people inside. I was forced again to kneel in front of the dead corpses. One of the soldiers took his knife and took the eye out from one of the dead near me. Then he started to rub my lips and face with that decapitated eye. I could not take it any longer and fainted. They left me there in a pile of corpses.[61]

According to the findings of a Georgian committee the massacres continued after the fall of Sukhumi for about two weeks; Georgians who had failed to flee the city had been hiding in abandoned apartment buildings and house basements; neither combatants, nor civilians nor medical personnel (most of them female) were spared.[62] Upon discovery by the militants, they were killed on the spot. One of the most brutal massacres of the war was committed during this period. Video materials show a 5-year-old child being brutally killed by Abkhaz militant in front of his mother on the streets of Sukhumi.

Over 100 Georgian persons working in the cultural field were killed, among them women. Among others, there were Nato Milorava, the artistic director of the Gumista recreation centre, Vasily Cheidze, Teymuraz Zhvaniya, Guram Gelovani - actors of the Drama Theatre, and Yuriy Davitaya, the director of the Sukhumi park of culture and recreation.

Also murdered were 200 teachers, including 60 women. Massive reprisals were conducted in the neighbouring regions as well. In Khypsta/Akhalsopeli 17 Georgians were shot, the heart of a man of 70 years was cut out, another man was hacked to death by axe, a 65 year old was tied to a tractor, tortured and then killed.

Abkhaz nationals were also targeted during the Sukhumi massacres. Anyone who had tried to hide a Georgian refugee or helped in any way was condemned and killed. "Temur Kutarba, an Abhazian, was killed by an Adighe Soldier in front of his children, for not being active in killing Georgians. V. Vadakaria, 23 and his Abhazian friend, who tried to defend him, both were killed."

Approximately 400 Georgian families were killed[63] during the Abkhaz offensive on Ochamchire. Similar to Gagra events of 1992, the local inhabitants were driven to the city soccer stadium Akhaldaba.[63] Men, women and children were separated from each other. Within hours, the men were executed while women and teenagers were raped and later killed.[64] According to witness accounts, Abkhaz separatist organized detention camps where teenage girls and women were kept for 25 days. During this period they were systematically raped and abused.[65] Besides the atrocities being committed against civilians, more than 50 Georgian prisoners of war were executed. The mass killing of civilians also occurred in other parts of the Ochamchire district, mainly in Kochara (heavily populated by ethnic Georgians, 5340 persons according to pre-war estimates). Approximately 235 civilians were killed and 1000 houses were destroyed.[66]

The former resident of Ochamchire district, Leila Goletiani, who was taken prisoner by Abkhaz separatists, gave the following account of her captivity to the Russian film director Andrei Nekrasov:

I lived in Abkhazia 15 years ago, in the small town of Akhaldaba, Ochamchire district. Abkhaz attacked our village on September 16th, 1993. It was impossible to hide anywhere from the bullets which rained down on us ... The Russian Cossacks approached me and started to beat me. One of these Russian Cossacks approached me and asked me if I have ever had sex with the Cossack. He grabbed me and tried to rip off my clothes, after which I started to resist but they hit my head on the ground and started to beat me with AK47 butts. While hitting me all over my body, they yelled: We will kill you, but we will do so slowly. Then they took me to an Abkhaz school where they kept Georgian civilian prisoners. There were only Georgians there, women, children and men. There were some women who were pregnant, and children of different ages. The Battalion of Cossacks kept coming there regularly. They took young girls and children and raped them systematically. These were children aged 10, 12, 13, and 14. They especially targeted children. One of the girls there was 8 years old. She was taken by different groups of these Cossacks and was raped numerous times. I don't know how she managed to survive after so many rapes but I don't want to mention her name in order to protect her identity. They also took women but later they started to take elderly women. They raped these elderly women in the way which I don't want to go into detail ... it was horrific.

After the fall of Sukhumi, the only region in Abkhazia which maintained its large ethnic Georgian population was Gali. The ethnic composition of Gali region differed from the rest of Abkhazia. The region was mainly populated by ethnic Georgians and never experienced any military activity during the war.[63] In the beginning of 1994, Abkhaz separatists, confronted by the reality of the large ethnic Georgian presence within the borders of Abkhazia, continued their policy of ethnic cleansing and forced expulsion of ethnic Georgians.[67] United Nations observers witnessed the events of 1994 as they unfolded.[68] Between February 8 and 13, Abkhaz separatist militia and their allies attacked the villages and populated areas of the Gali region, killing, raping, and destroying houses (approximately 4,200 houses were destroyed as the result).[69] Despite the presence of Russian CIS peacekeeping forces, the massacres and mass killing of ethnic Georgians was carried out between 1995 and 1996 which resulted in 450 deaths and thousands of IDPs fleeing eastwards.[70]