A Story by Witnesses to a Bloody Special Operation

Irakli Managadze

The government carried out the next special operation. Gia Krialashvili, wanted for the uprising in the military base in Mukhrovani, is killed; Koba Otanadze and Levan Amiridze are gravely wounded. They are in the intensive care clinic of the Ghudushauri Hospital in Tbilisi. Investigators cannot interrogate the wounded people yet. The accident is still unclear to the people.

A Special Operation started at 1:00 AM on May 20 in a house located between the sport school and the training base of “Ameri” in the Tianeti central motorway. The aim of the Special Operation was to arrest the people wanted for the uprising in the military base of Mukhrovani. The witnesses reported to the Human Rights Center that a mini-bus was moving toward Tskhvarichamia along Kerchi Street. At the site of the Special Operation IDPs from Abkhazia are living in crowded buildings.. Young people, among them girls, were sitting in the street. Suddenly officers of the SOD got out of a car and opened fire at the mini-bus. “We could not realize what was going on. One our friend cried out to lie down and we, 6 people, fell down on the ground; the girls were with us too. We reached the yard by crawling because we were afraid to raise our heads,” said one of the witnesses.

Journalists were categorically forbidden to approach the place of the special operation. Police blocked the street and did not allow anybody to come near the scene. Journalists were in an unclear situation because we did not know what was going on. Before TV Companies arrived at the scene at 2:00 am Vano Merabishvili, Minister of Internal Affairs, examined the scene and left the area in 10 minutes. After that three ambulances arrived and doctors took away the wounded and dead. Together with the young people several local residents also were in the street during the operation.

“The shooting started suddenly; I only saw the policemen shooting at the mini-bus. Since I was standing close to the door, I entered the house immediately; the shooting lasted for 15 minutes,” said an old woman to the Human Rights Center.

A watchman of the sport school provided the Human Rights Center with interesting information. He personally witnessed the entire operation: “A white mini-bus was driving along the road when suddenly several cars approached it from behind and opened the fire at it. Officers of the SOD got out of the cars, followed later by officers from the Criminal Police. As I found out five men and two women were sitting in the mini-bus. After the wheels of the minibus were damaged the women jumped out and got into the car in front of the mini-bus.”

One other eyewitness is an IDP from Abkhazia. He said the officers from the SOD opened fire first and then the criminal police also started shooting. The firing lasted for 10-15 minutes. At about 4:00 am everything was finished. Only patrol policemen stayed in the area and they were patrolling there. On the same night the wounded Koba Otanadze and Levan Amiridze were taken to Ghudushauri hospital. The body of Gia Krialashvili, who had been killed, was taken to the dissecting room. Before the special operation in the morning of May 20 people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs had kidnapped family members of Koba Otanadze.

The uprising in the Mukhrovani military base occurred on May 5. The MIA had declared Koba Otanadze, Gia Krialashvili and Levan Amiridze to be wanted. The MIA provided 200 000 GEL as an award for the person who would provide the Ministry with information about the whereabouts of Otanadze. For Krialashvili and Amiridze .the informer was promised 50 000 GEL.