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“What Shall I Do? Maybe He Is Still Alive?”

September 30, 2010
People Easily Disappear in Gali District

Tea Topuria

According to the current statistics there are 907 missing people in Georgia. Particularly difficult situation is in the conflict zones where the human rights are not protected at all. The number of missing people in Gali district is 54; most of them disappeared soon after the war.

(Photo: The head of the organization “IDP Women for Their Rights” Nona Ubilava)

“What shall I do? Maybe he is still alive? I do not want them to do more harm to him because of my speaking up?” a middle-aged woman and her mother-in-law are looking at each other in confusion. They could not decide to give an interview. The person who disappeared in Gali district four months ago is the husband of the middle-aged woman and son of another woman. Unidentified people took the man out of the house at night and the family has not seen him since then. They do not know who the strangers were – Georgians, Russians or Abkhaz people. They neither know the reason of kidnapping. Nobody has requested the ransom money from the family.

The family has looked for the man with their own sources and with the support of relatives but in vain.

“Several Abkhaz people we know sent us a message to keep silence or we will not see him alive. So, I am sitting silent,” said the mother.

“Keeping silence” means that they should not speak up with journalists too. The family has appealed only to the Red Cross for help but nothing has changed for better yet.

The local people remember that one missing person returned home two years later. He was compelled to work somewhere in the mine. So, the family still hopes.

This occasion is not an exception. Nobody is surprised at disappearance of people in Gali district. However, they say the number of missing people has reduced in the district recently.

The head of the organization “IDP Women for Their Rights” Nona Ubilava said that a person might disappear in Abkhazia for several reasons. Mostly they disappear for the extortion of money. Initially the amount of the ransom money is unreal – it might be 100 000 USD and even more. However, finally kidnappers agree on 6-10 000 USD. The family collects the money among the friends and relatives or takes a loan. The parties settle the problem with the support of mediators who might be criminals or common acquaintance. There were cases when the family could not pay the money and the kidnapped person is still missing; supposedly the kidnappers killed him. 

Who Can Be a Kidnapper?

Nona Ubilava: “Mostly they are masked people and cannot be recognized. If they come from the Abkhazian de-facto structures, they have nothing to hide from. They come, detain people and put them in de-facto detention settings. Another point is whether the detained person has really breached the law or not. As for criminals, they are Abkhazian gangs or Georgian criminals who act together with Abkhaz criminals; mostly those Georgian criminals fled from the Georgian police and sheltered in the uncontrolled territory. The kidnappers might be Russian criminals too.”

Nona Ubilava said the second reason for the disappearance might be refusal on obligatory work. Every village has its own “supervisor” who controls the situation in the village. Every family is obliged to send one member to the plantations (of tangerine, nuts…) to work for the estimated period of time. The labor trafficking has become a very common occupation in Gali district for a long time. If somebody dares to hide from the work, a punitive unit will visit him at home. The unit takes the person out of the family and s/he might never return back.

Nona Ubilava: “Sometimes the neighbors also denounce people about not working in the plantations. As a result, the person is taken away and might be even killed. Nowadays, similar accidents rarely happen. There was an Abkhaz criminal – Otar Turamba. His gang used to kidnap people and chain them like dogs. It was a ten-meter-long wire and the men and women were chained to it. He did not mercy even Abkhaz people; his former co-warriors.”

Otar Turamba was riddled in the car two years ago.

Director of the South Caucasus Institute of Regional Security Aleksandre Rusetski said Gali district is a very complicated one in the view of criminal situation. It is a gathering spot for criminals. A criminal might be of any ethnicity.

Aleksandre Rusetski: “The main problem is nut-harvesting when people are disappearing not only in Gali district but in Zugdidi district too. Many people live in poverty in Samegrelo region and they travel to Gali district to get some seasonal job. Then they are not paid for the job or are not allowed to go back at all. There are cases when people with psychic problems go to Gali district to work there and they become victims of trafficking. However, it is not the problem of Gali district only. Similar incidents occurred in Svaneti region and in the Eastern Georgia too. Very often, when something happens in Gali, people accuse Abkhaz people in it. In fact, it is not right.”

Aleksandre Rusetski said the government does not have corresponding strategy to look for the missing people and it results into the mistrust towards the authority.

Aleksandre Rusetski: “I cannot say they are inactive but their policy is – to do everything in silence without the support of any non-governmental or international organizations.”

The representation of the Abkhazian government in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region provided us with the list of the people who disappeared in Gali district. The document shows that most people disappeared in 1994 soon after the Georgian-Abkhaz civil war finished. There were occasions when two people disappeared from one family. For example, in 1994 the father and son Ambako and Jimsher Golandzias disappeared. In 2000, the brothers Khvicha and Jilver Dzandzavas disappeared.

“Many people disappeared in Gali district and mostly they were kidnapped for ransom money,” said Salome Samushia, chief specialist of the press-center of the representation of the Abkhazian government in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region.

The officials of the representation of the Abkhazian government in the region state that the relatives of the missing people do not often inform the government about the incidents. Consequently, the real number of missing people might be larger.


The article was prepared within the project -  Investigation of the facts of the Enforced Disappearances in Georgia with Financial Support of the Eurasian Partnership Foundation within the EU funded project - Strengthening the Media’s Role as a Watchdog Institution in Georgia
The contents of this article report are the sole responsibility of the Human rights Centre and cannot be taken as to reflect the views of the European Union and Eurasian Partnership Foundation.

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