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A brief history of Russians torturing and killing Georgians during the War in Abkhazia

The Russian law will suppress independent media and civil society organizations in Georgia, as it happened in Putin's Russia.

When you are oppressed, there will be no one to cover your problem and stand by you.

Mtis Ambebi will resist the Russian intention of the Georgian Dream to the end!

Tuesday, 05 April 2022 17:47 hits 11742 times

Ana Mariamidze, 19, was raped in front of her father. Later both of them were tied to a tree and burned alive. Kajaia Leri was tortured to death in Gagra. His killers played football with his severed head. Abramishvili Giorgi had his wounds covered in salt. Russians cut off his flesh, put it in his shoes, and sent it to his wife. Razmadze Petre, 59, was killed with his wife. Russians fed their decapitated bodies to pigs. Jokhadze Iza had her eyes blinded; her breasts cut off, and she was dead. Father Andria (Kurashvili), 26, was killed in Kaman Monastery.

The Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia has records of 4321 people tortured and killed by Russians during the War in Abkhazia. In addition, 268 people are considered missing. 

According to the information, separatists and occupiers forced victims to dig holes and buried them alive. Families and large groups of people were gathered and burned alive, sometimes even in their own houses. Before execution, occupiers would cut off victims’ eyes, limbs, noses, tongues, breasts, and sex organs. Male captives were forced to watch their mothers, wives, and daughters raped. Neighbors and relatives were prohibited from burying the bodies and feeding them to dogs and pigs. 

Irodion Pipia was killed on October 10th, 1993. His cut-off heart was fed to dogs. Russians often used different methods of genocide and ethnic cleansing. 

Labartkava Shota, 70, saw a body hanging from the hook with the writing “Georgian meat for sale.” So he entered a nearby gas equipment factory located responsible soldiers and created an explosion, killing himself with them. 

Khomasuridze Vladimer, 68, was executed and thrown in his draw-well.

Occupiers and separatists mercilessly executed critically ill locals in their beds. Duru Tabagua, 103, Marine Gogua, 96, Lusha Tsaava, 90, and many others were burned alive.

Victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing were mainly Georgians, but separatists and occupiers executed others. For example, Meri Anastasiadi from Greece was accused of helping Georgians. She was executed and then burned in her house with 13 people she gave shelter. Among executed also were Abkhazians, Russians, Armenians, Jews, Ukrainians, and others. 

Separatists and occupiers executed Zhiuli Shartava, Head of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, and members of the government Raul Eshba, Sumbat Saakian; the mayor of Sokhumi Guram Gabeskiria, and his accompanying people. They showed no mercy to the clergy either. 

  • Baramia Tsisia, 30, was raped in front of her parents. Later the entire family and their three visitors were executed.
  • Bzhalava Omar - a policeman in Gagra, was executed on November 2nd, 1992, in front of his wife and children.
  • Gorozia Lavrenti and Injgia Tsiala – husband and wife. Soldiers cut their heads off. 
  • Zarkua Ksenia, 70 – tortured to death, executed with a method known as Colombian necktie.
  • Katcharava Ghughuni, 50 - burned alive in his house, Gagra, on October 2nd, 1992.
  • Kobakhidze Anzor, 55 – was killed by decapitation on October 10th, 1992, in Gagra.
  • Kupreishvili Davit, 75 – tortured to death. His body was burned with his wife, Zina.
  • Kutsia-Tsuleiskiri Luba, 81 and Tsuleiskiri Ambako – executed in November 1994, in Gagra.
  • Lolua Luba 66 and Lolua Tamar – were stabbed to death.
  • Pirtskhelava Veronika, 83 - was intentionally hit by a car, causing her death.
  • Kaldani Murtaz, 32 – was executed and burned in his parents’ house village of Otkhara.
  • Shushania Goven, 45 – was executed, and the body was thrown into a trash bin.
  • An unknown woman – was tortured to death. Her body, cut in two, was brought to Gagra hospital with the letter saying – neither her body nor Georgia and Abkhazia will be one again.
  • Ashkharava Grigol – Abkhazian man, killed for helping Georgians.
  • Chachba Emzar  – Abkhazian man, executed by Abkhazian separatists because he wanted to bury his girlfriend, Mariam Chopliani.
  • Chopliani Mariam –  was raped and executed by several soldiers on October 23rd, 1992.
  • Khvistani Givi (Giusha) – burned in his house with a relative.
  • Sharia Zaur, 53 – tortured to death. Soldiers put him in the refrigerator, carved stars on his body, cut off his ears, and executed him on the beach.
  • Mogeladze Parmen, 85 – was killed by decapitation and burned in his house in October 1992.
  • Mikadze Abesalom, 70 –  killed by torture. He had his ears and nose cut off, eyes blinded.
  • Sanikidze Guladi, 29 – was killed by torture. He had his eyes blinded, limbs broken.
  • Pipia Nikoloz, 15 – was killed with a hatchet in December 1992.
  • Tchelidze Tamaz, 27 – buried alive near the Bzipi hippodrome. 
  • Khvadagiani Angelina, 52 – killed by decapitation. 
  • Shubitidze Tadeoz, 99 – burned alive in his own house.
  • Bendianashvili Mzia, 37 – was raped in front of his brother. They both were executed.
  • Sabanadze Ushangi – killed by torture. He had his head and legs broken.
  • Dzidziguri Bochia, 60, and Dzidziguri Tchitchiko – executed and fed to dogs.
  • Khurtsilava Tariel, 64 – Killed in 1992. Soldiers played football with his severed head.
  • Bzikadze Jemal – was killed by torture with his sister in 1994.
  • Petriashvili Aleksandre, 52 - was buried alive on a landfill in September 1992.
  • Tchanturia Elene, 64, and her husband, Sanikidze Solomon - were killed by suffocation. Their bodies were thrown into landfill. 
  • Tchilaia Igor –  killed by torture. He had his head and hands cut off.
  • Kvabziradze Nikoloz, 67 – was tied to a tractor and dragged until death. 
  • Gelenidze Nugzar, 40 – was killed for speaking in Georgian on July 24th, 1993.
  • Chaladze Valerian, 56 – soldiers slashed his eyes and head in front of relatives and fellow villagers.
  • Toria Avtandil, 22 – was killed by torture by members of the Rukhaia-Shmulovich family. Neighbors buried them in the yard. Later the house and yard were seized by a high-ranking official of the Russian army. Bodies were excavated and thrown into the sea. 
  • Gabrava Lamzira, 26 – was executed with her mother, Natela Topuria, Zinaida Kiria, and six other neighbors. Their bodies were burned. 
  • Mzia, 23 – members of the Armenian battalion raped and left her unconscious. Later the girl took their machine gun, killed three soldiers, and injured four. Locals hide Mzia, but a neighbor gave her away. Soldiers raped her, cut off her fingers and ears, and killed her. 
  • Naroushvili Aleksandre, 60 – died of a heart stroke after separatists took his 14 years old daughter Shornea captive.
  • Kalichava Tchitchiko, 65 – soldiers extracted his teeth and executed him.
  • Khoshtaria Shukuri, 60 – killed by torture. Pigs fed on her body in the street of Sokhumi for several days.
  • Gachechiladze Tinatin, 54 – was raped and killed by torture in October 1993.
  • Sulakadze Mariam, 87 – killed by torture. She was tied to her bed and burned alive.
  • Partsvania Natela – killed with her husband, Shalva. They were burned alive with their hands tied with barbed wire. 
  • Kalandia-Pipia Guli, 60 – was killed on October 31st, 1993, with her husband Idorion Pipia, their son Davit, and relatives Garnile, Nutsa, Lamara Samushia, and Aleksandre Zarkua. 
  • Mtchedlidze Nina, 52 – killed by torture with her daughter. On April 18th, 1993 (Easter), several soldiers were raped and burned alive.
  • Jonjua Evgenia, 70 – on September 30th, 1993, she and her relatives were crushed under the tank.
  • Tsurtsumia Zhuzhuna, 55 – was raped and burned alive in front of her husband on November 3rd, 1993.

August 14th, 2022 marks the 30th year from the start of the War in Abkhazia. On October 1st, Abkhazian separatists took the city of Gagra with aid from the Russian army. Hundreds of Georgians were killed during the ethnic cleansing in Gagra. The war ended in autumn 1993. Several peace treaties were signed during the war, using Russia as a mediator. However, Russia broke every treaty. The crucial battle took place near Sokhumi in September 1993. On September 27th, after regular bombing city fell. Russian government and army helped local criminal groups kill up to 10000 Georgians. Almost 350000 Georgians became refugees. In August 2008, after another armed attack on Georgia, Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia. 

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