From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 9/15/2007 2:11 AM
13-Sept-07
Abkhazia: Searching for the Missing

Official mistrust hampers Georgian and Abkhaz parents in their search for the remains of their missing sons.

By Koba Liklikadze in Tbilisi and Anahid Gogorian in Sukhum (CRS No. 410 13-Sept-07)
Bella Zaldastanishvili has been dressed in black for the past 14 years. On September 22, 1992, just four days before the war in Abkhazia ended, she lost four people dear to her - two sons and her twin brothers.

An Abkhaz missile hit a plane carrying Bella's sons and brothers along with other Georgian soldiers as it was landing at Babushera airport in Abkhazia, killing everyone on board.

Despite all her efforts, Bella has failed to find the remains of her loved ones so she can give them a proper burial.

Guli Kichba, an Abkhaz woman, lost her son Arzamet at the very start of the conflict. On September 27, 1993, the day Abkhaz forces recaptured the city, the first thing the broken-hearted mother did was to start searching for her son's grave.

Soldiers from the Abkhaz military told her that her son had been buried in the courtyard of a green-painted house in a village called Achadara near the Abkhaz capital, Sukhum (which the Georgians call Sukhumi).

Guli has yet to find her son’s resting-place. She now heads a group called Mothers of Abkhazia for Peace and Social Justice, who are dedicated to finding out what happened to their loved ones.

The experiences of Guli and Bella are just two of the thousands of similar stories from the three conflicts of the South Caucasus - Abkhazia, Nagorny Karabakh and South Ossetia.

According to data provided by an information centre set up by the European Union, a total of 7,538 people are still registered as missing from these conflicts. All, or almost all, are presumed dead.

Up to 2,000 of the missing are from the conflict in Abkhazia, the majority of them ethnic Georgian civilians and soldiers whose fate was unknown after the Abkhaz victory in 1993.

The fate of more than 100 Abkhaz combatants, mainly from the first phase of the conflict, also remains unknown. Mothers of Abkhazia for Peace and Social Justice recently published a book containing an incomplete list of 131 missing people.

When fighting ended in 1993, the issue of missing combatants and civilians was low on the political agenda. No efforts were made to compile lists of the dead, or information on burial sites.