PART ONE
Background on the Region
The former Soviet republic of Georgia is a country spanning some 26,911 square miles in the Transcaucasus region to the south of the towering Caucasus mountain range.1 In 1989 the population of Georgia, which then included the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, stood at 5,443,359. The ethnic composition of the republic‹situated between Russia to the north, Turkey and Armenia to the south, and Azerbaijan to the southeast‹is a mosaic depicting its rich and turbulent history. The Black Sea provides Georgia's economic and cultural gateway to the West. Significantly, the Abkhaz region occupies half of this spectacular and fertile coastline.
The ethnic composition of pre-war Georgia was 68.8 percent Georgian (including several regional subgroups speaking distinct languages in addition to Georgian, e.g. Mengrelians, Gurians, Svanetians); 9 percent Armenian; 7.4 percent Russian; 5.1 percent Azerbaijani; 3.2 percent Ossetian; 1.9 percent Greek; and 1.7 percent Abkhazian. Most of the population is of the Christian faith (followers of the Georgian Orthodox church) but Islam is professed by the people of Ajaria in southwestern Georgia, by Azerbaijanis in southeastern Georgia, and by the small population of Kurds.
In the northwestern corner of Georgia lie the 3,300 square miles of snow-capped mountains and subtropical coastline that form the territory of Abkhazia. Prior to the war, the total population of Abkhazia was roughly 537,000, with just under 100,000 people of ethnic Abkhaz origin. Historically, the Abkhaz people allied themselves with the Russian-speaking population (notably Russians and Armenians). Together, these groups comprised roughly half of the region's population. Ethnic Georgians comprised some 46 percent of the population.
During the 1920s, Abkhazia enjoyed the status of a full Soviet Socialist Republic, only to see itself reduced a decade later to an "autonomous republic" within Georgia. With the decline of Soviet central power in the late 1980s, Abkhazia intensified its demands for more cultural, linguistic, and political autonomy from Tbilisi. Georgia rejected these demands and, under the controversial leadership of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, mounted a nationalistic campaign to crush secessionist tendencies in the region. From August 1992 through September 1993, Tbilisi waged an unsuccessful war with Abkhazia. Thousands of civilians were killed, and hundreds of thousands fled the fighting. As of April 1995, some 250,000 people from Abkhazia, mostly ethnic Georgians, were internally displaced in Georgia.
The status of Abkhazia is still the subject of negotiation between the warring parties, with participation from the Russian Federation and the United Nations. In November 1994, the Supreme Soviet of Abkhazia adopted a constitution declaring Abkhazia an independent state, but the UN Security Council has reaffirmed its commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Georgia. Meanwhile, a CIS peacekeeping force (PKF), comprised mostly of Russians, and a 136- member international military observation force from the United Nations have helped to prevent the resumption of full-scale fighting since the agreement on a cease-fire and separation of forces was signed in Moscow on May 14, 1994.
The Abkhaz Capital of Sukhumi
Sukhumi's pre-war population was roughly 122,000. Today, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) estimate the population to be between 30,000 and 40,000, of which roughly 10,000 are reportedly ethnic Georgians who remained behind. These are mostly elderly people whose precarious existence depends on their relations with the ethnic Abkhaz. The heavy combat in the city largely ended with the retreat of Georgian forces in October 1993. Fleeing with the soldiers over the craggy mountains, tens of thousands of ethnic Georgians were eventually rescued and transported to the central city of Kutaisi. Others fled southeastward across the Inguri river to Mengrelia in western Georgia.
Though buses run sporadically, very few cars rumble through Sukhumi's somber streets due to the scarcity and expense of gasoline. Electricity is still provided by a huge power plant in the mountains, but gas supplies from Georgia ended long ago when Georgia's own gas supply from Russia was cut. Factories are operating, if at all, at about 20 percent of capacity. The central market is full of food and household goods but at prices few people can afford. The enthusiasm which accompanied the ouster of Georgian troops at the close of 1993 has dissipated, and the city remains littered with the rubble of blasted houses and gutted government buildings.
In Sukhumi, as throughout Abkhazia, two overriding problems have prevented any significant post-war reconstruction: economic collapse and the widespread possession of automatic weapons among thousands of young, idle Abkhaz men. Following the outbreak of the Chechen war in December 1994, Russia sealed its border with Abkhazia, virtually choking off all trade, reconstruction, and potential economic development. With the increasing economic desperation, armed bands have taken to the streets, robbing cars and looting apartments with impunity.
Earlier this year, lawlessness throughout the coastal republic became so acute that President Vladislav Ardzinba appointed a tough war veteran to head Sukhumi's police force. The new chief soon deployed a force of special officers known ominously as the Black Masks (so called for the masks that conceal their identities to prevent revenge attacks). Local residents say that the streets are quieter and safer. But in the villages surrounding Sukhumi, representatives of NGOs report that Abkhaz bands continue to loot houses and evict people from their homes, targeting the Abkhaz as well as their ethnic Armenian allies.
The City of Gali and Its Environs
The highway running from Sukhumi to the southeast is scarred with potholes and mangled bridges. The burnt-out carcasses of armored vehicles flank the roadside, and charred, abandoned houses punctuate the miles of derelict citrus orchards and tea plantations. Drivers are at the mercy of armed highwaymen, and NGO workers in the area are warned never to hitch a ride or even to hire private local cars to travel in Abkhazia.
Located in Abkhazia along the regional border with the Georgian district of Mengrelia, the Gali region had a pre-war population of roughly 90,000, of whom 95 percent belonged to the same ethnic Mengrelian-Georgian group. NGOs working in the area estimate that following the mass flight from the advancing Abkhaz forces in September 1993, the population had climbed back to 30,000 by early March 1995.
Various international officials working in the Gali area blame the Abkhaz police, at times working in tandem with the PKF, for condoning, if not perpetrating, many of the crimes. Abkhaz authorities in Sukhumi claim that they cannot control the gangs, though international officials believe that for many months the Sukhumi authorities did not really try.
Although 30,000 people reportedly live in the Gali region, many areas resemble ghost towns. Once a prosperous agricultural district where people lived in large, neatly fenced houses adorned with flowering gardens, today house after house has its windows blasted out and its walls pocked and shattered from rifle fire and artillery shells. Hardly a roof is intact. Debris lies all around. As Georgian homes were torched, their owners took flight, losing everything they left behind.
The extent of destruction and personal loss is daunting, and must be taken into account in any plan to repatriate the displaced, who would have to rebuild their lives brick by brick bereft of financial means. Today some of the roofless houses are actually inhabited, often by owners who have quietly returned on their own to patch up a corner of the building in the back, where they hide for the better part of every day. Such was the case in early March in the area behind the shattered railway station where one family was living amid the rubble. Only two days earlier, a gang of armed Abkhaz men had barged into the battered home next door. Their neighbor recounted with terror in his eyes how the intruders threw him against the wall, stole his television and demanded "his women." He had not dared to venture out of his surroundings since. As in Sukhumi, a tough new police chief has recently been appointed in Gali, and many say that he has brought about a decline in the attacks. But others, including at least one international official, regard the police chief himself as a bandit who often turns a blind eye to the ravages of armed gangs.
Unfortunately, no respite appears to be in sight. As recently as mid-March, 400 to 600 Abkhaz militiamen swept into the Gali region, killing at least 20 people, torturing dozens, and sending hundreds fleeing across the Inguri river for refuge in Georgia. In Geneva, the UNHCR issued a statement condemning the new wave of violence.2 Southeast of Gali, the highway reaches a bridge across the Inguri river, which marks the official border between Abkhazia and Georgia. Abkhaz forces and the PKF guard separate checkpoints, allowing women and children to pass on a case-by-case basis. At any time there can be a dozen to 50 people waiting to cross the bridge, to trade cigarettes and fruit or to check on homes left behind. In March 1995, the border crossing was quiet, but skirmishes have broken out in the past.
The Georgian Cities of Zugdidi and Kutaisi
Zugdidi, too, was once a prosperous agricultural town of neat private houses, but since war broke out, virtually all of its economic activity has halted. Residents shivered through the winter with no heat or hot water, and parts of the town had no water at all. Security is relatively stable, though tensions have flared over the two years since approximately 72,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) crowded in alongside the 110,000 regular residents. Here, as elsewhere in Georgia, the majority of IDPs have been taken in by local families who have depleted their own resources to feed and shelter them.
Security ends at the city limits, however, and the road from Zugdidi to the eastern part of Georgia is often attacked by Georgian robbers, widely believed to be affiliated with the paramilitary group known as the Mkhedrioni. Translated as Horsemen, the Mkhedrioni are headed by Jaba Ioseliani, a leader during the 1991 armed ouster of Zviad Gamsakhurdia and a powerful rival of Eduard Shevardnadze. In early March, a car belonging to an international aid organization was attacked and hijacked on the road between Zugdidi and Khobi, the headquarters of the regional Mkhedrioni chief.
Kutaisi, the gateway to Georgia's west, had a pre-war population of 236,000.3 Today its schoolhouses, hotels, and grand Soviet-era resorts are overflowing with IDPs who fled through the mountains of Svanetia. Never having suffered as a battleground itself, Kutaisi is intact, though tattered after many years of neglect. Many homes have been without heat and reliable water for more than a year and, until recently, criminal gangs rampaged through town.
Security is far from guaranteed. Earlier this year, the office of a prominent international aid organization located in the center of town was attacked by robbers, who forced the staff at gunpoint to empty their safe of thousands of dollars. Kutaisi's mayor, another strongman, was recently named governor of the entire region. Although some international relief officials have found him ineffective, most Georgians interviewed in western Georgia praised the mayor's tough stand on crime.
