Georgian Military Intelligence Operative Disappeared in Zugdidi

Nana Pazhava, Zugdidi

On August 27 at 11:00 AM Paata Kardava, 45, disappeared under what may best be described as strange circumstances. Kardava worked on the Abkhazian division of the Military Intelligence Department within the Interior Ministry forty-five-year-old. The car driven by Kardava was discovered on the bridge linking the villages of Koki and Khurcha. There are several versions about the disappearance of Kardava but law enforcers and relatives have not found him in spite of all efforts.  According to one of the versions, he is being kept in an isolator run by the security service department in Sokhumi, and he was being interrogated by representatives of the Russian FSB.

Paata Kardava was last seen by one of his friends, a friend who is a patrol policeman. Several minutes before Kardava suddenly disappeared he left his friend behind the Samegrelo-Zemo-Svaneti regional administration building. He was last seen driving in the direction of Zugdidi central market where his daughter was waiting for him to pick her up.

Lasha Kardava, cousin of Paata Kardava: “Paata left his friend near the administrative building and went to pick up his daughter.  However, ten minutes later a telephone connection with him was suddenly cut. It was only by chance that the man’s daughter had called him and asked him when he intended to come to take her. Paata said that he had just learned about some other urgent business and could not go meet her. The daughter was advised by him to take a taxi home. The girl said that during the conversation that her father seemed most anxious and even his voice was trembling. Several minutes later she called him again but all three of his mobile phones were turned off.”

Family members and relatives tried all day in vain to connect with Kardava.

Khvicha Kardava, the brother: “Paata used to call family members and relatives several times a day and to be out of reach was not a possibility. Thus, we could only guess that he had ended up in some sort of trouble. It was only natural that there was no choice left but to try to find out his whereabouts by all means possible. Initially we called his boss but nobody seemed to know anything. Then we continued searching at the Georgian-Abkhazian administrative boarder. We were told at the police station in Darcheli that a car was found on the Koki-Khurcha Bridge, and it turned out to belong to my brother’s. All documents on Paata were found in the car and all the products that he had bought that day were not even touched.”

Another car of Paata Kardava remains parked at his office. Family members and friends have gathered on that place everyday with the hope to learn some news about the missing person. However, they are losing hope and many feel that there is no hope left. Moreover, there are no witnesses who could recall or admit to having witnessed the movement of Paata’s car.

Khvicha Kardava: “Paata did not have any personal enemies, however this could be the reason for his absence. We still think that his disappearance is connected with his professional activities. So, there is doubt that a person who works at the intelligence department would never travel to the Abkhazian controlled territory alone. Maybe he was taken to the Koki-Khurcha Bridge at gun point. It is not excluded either that kidnappers did so to mislead the track. In fact he may be kept in Zugdidi area.”

Several eyewitnesses have told that Paata Kardava’s associates claim t they had seen Kardava’s car shortly before his disappearance. On August 27th before 12: 30 p.m. they saw Paata Kardava’s grey Mercedes on Tbilisi- Senaki-Leselidze Car highway near the village of Pirveli Maisi, which is only 150 meters away from Russian block post. The eyewitnesses said Kardava was standing there for half an hour. Shortly thereafter Kardava went missing.

The people who were going from Zugdidi to the village of Nabakevi, Gali District for a funeral saw Paata Kardava’s Mercedes at about 1:30 p.m. One eyewitness recalls: “A car passed us by at a high speed and this was about 100 meters-distance from Khurcha crossing.  Then the car stopped very quickly and Abkhazians started shooting. We saw that a tall, thin young man came out of the car. He was running. When he came nearer he told us to go, as they had been shooting. The shooting quickly ended and we continued on our way. The driver ran towards a hazelnut grove on the way to the village of Orsanti.”

10 minutes after the incident people who were going to a funeral saw that a Russian armored vehicle which was moving from Khurcha to Koki had approached an abandoned car, stopped there for 5 minutes and then returned to its place from where it came.

Eyewitnesses also speak about suspicious events in the village of Khurcha which is now occupied by Russian took place at the same time as the above-mentioned events. At about 1 O’ clock a man in an expensive suit and beard came in the center of the village of Khurcha. He was accompanied by 4 people in military uniforms. Assumedly they were members of his security team.  He told the village inhabitants that de-mining process was planned in the village and around it – and this was the reason for their presence in the village.

However, locals suspected that the strangers had a “more important” errand to accomplish. They seemed to be waiting in expectation of someone or something. In an hour the village inhabitants noticed a weird, ink colored Uazi car at Khurcha-Nabakevi border. This car transported five strangers to the Gali District. Paata Kardava’s associates think that the strangers might be somehow connected with the disappearance of Paata Kardava, a representative of Georgian Counterintelligence.

It is thought that Paata Kardava has been placed in an isolator cell in Sokhumi and is being interrogated by the Russian Special Forces. According to the information sources, the Russian intelligence wanted to capture at least one representative of Georgian Intelligence department in order to receive inside information.

Khvicha Kardava: “If this information is true, we must find the persons who contacted my brother on the day of his disappearance, or who was in contact even before he actually went missing. The person who was described by eyewitnesses and came out of my brother’s car does not look like my brother. My brother is not very tall, fat, and is bald and has blue eyes. As far as I know Zugdidi Police Division sent the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia an official request on the detailed telephone records from my brother’s mobile phone. However, 12 days have passed and no one has provided us with the expected answer.”
A criminal investigation is now opened at Zugdidi police department over the incident.