Criminals Raid Conflict Zone

Criminals Raid Conflict Zone
7th July - One More Georgian Killed in Gali

Nobody has heard a gun shot in the Gali district for a long time, except for 9th of July fireworks celebrating the Italian victory in the Football World Cup. A person, fully aware of the matter, knows that peace in the Gali district is temporary and illusive.

The district cannot be effectively controlled by Abkhazian law enforcers. Thousands of kinds of criminals find shelter in the rainforest of the territory. The population possesses a lot of weapons, but Abkhazians cannot take them away. The Georgian-Abkhazian-Chechen-Russian gangs, or as natives call them - ‘international gangs’, carry out raids there.

In March and April of this year, special operations commenced by Abkhazian militia resulted in the deaths of 5 criminals. Abkhazians were overwhelmed by their victory, weakened their attention there and the results are stark.

On the 7th July, in the Gali district in the village of Rephi, gun shots rang out for quite some time in the woods. Later it became clear that Georgian Manuchar Phanculaia, from the village of Barghebi in the Gali district and born in 1981, was killed.

Information received shows that Phanculaia and Alania had an argument with some Abkhazians. The Abkhazian killed Phanculaia on the spot with an automatic weapon while Alania was wounded with four bullets. The gun shots attracted Georgians who arrived at the scene immediately. Achigvari inhabitant Ramin Gogokhia was among them and they opened fire on the attackers.

The Georgians killed Phanculaia’s Abkhazian killer, but they were laid siege to themselves. The Georgians tried to escape the siege through a hail of gun fire and moved towards the Enguri River. They could not escape and three of them were badly wounded.

On 8th July, the Abkhazian side, more precisely Ruslan Kishmaria, the personal representative of self-proclaimed Abkhazian President Baghabsh, categorically denied these facts.

On the same day, ambulances congregated in the Zugdidi district village of Khurcha and local law enforcers and relatives of the murdered Phanculaia arrived there. They expected the dead body and the wounded Alania to be handed over. After several hours waiting it transpired that the Abkhazian side refused to hand over the men and had broken their promise given earlier. They explained by the Gudauta unit entrance in Gali who controlled the situation.

On the 9th July, Phanmcualia’s father and relatives of the wounded man tried to carry their bodies to Zugdidi, but somehow the Abkhazians discovered them and placed the dead, the wounded and their relatives, all together in the Sukhumi Jail.

Russian Peacekeepers were informed about these facts and two Russian military helicopters flew around the Zugdidi district on the 8th July at 12:10. The heads of the Gali and Zugdidi sectors of the UN military observer mission and the International Committee of the Red Cross are fully aware of what happened. The incident should be discussed at the 10th July Georgian-Abkhazian negotiations in Chuburkhinji.

Nato Berulava, Zugdidi