War in Abkhazia (1998)

The May 1998 War in Abkhazia took place in the Gali district of Abkhazia after ethnic Georgians launched an insurgency against the Abkhazian secessionist government. The conflict is sometimes referred to as the Six-Day War of Abkhazia, although that name takes in account only the Abkhazian May 20, 1998 - May 26, 1998 offensive, hostilities and insurgent attacks had already occurred before that date.^[3]^[4]

Background

At the height of the 1992-1993 war in Abkhazia, Abkhazia's Georgian population was subjected to systematic ethnic cleansing at the hands of Abkhaz militias and their allies from Russia's North Caucasian republics. By November 1993, most of the Gali district was controlled by the secessionists with the exception of a few isolated enclaves evacuated by the Georgian forces according to the Russian-brokered ceasefire accord of 1994. Since that time, some 40,000 - 60,000 Georgians had returned to the Gali district.

Sporadic guerrilla attacks

The fruitless five-year Georgian-Abkhazian peace talks goaded Georgian refugees into taking up arms out of frustration. Small guerrilla units gradually united and in 1996 formed the White Legion. The Legion had taken responsibility for subversive actions in Abkhazia since that date. A new unit, the Forest Brotherhood, was created some time later.^[5]

Sukhumi claimed that about 300 Georgian guerrillas had intruded into the Gali district of Abkhazia and started preparations for a large-scale subversive mission. According to Abkhazian sources, they were encouraging Georgian residents of the district (especially children and women) to leave their homes temporarily and stay for some time in hideouts in case new hostilities began.^[6]

The spring brought a worsening of the situation in Abkhazia. The White Legion, Forest Brotherhood and other Georgian groups stepped up their attacks on the Abkhazian army, which finally lost control of the Gali region. In the heaviest attack, on May 18, 1998, ethnic Georgian guerrillas raided an Abkhazian militia station in the village of Repi, in the Gali district killing 17 militiamen.^[7]

The "Six-Day War"

On May 20, 1998, a heavily armed Abkhazian punitive force consisting of about 1,500 servicemen with T-72 and T-55 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and 122-mm artillery systems entered the Gali district. Georgian guerrillas armed with only submachine and machine guns and grenade launchers began trench warfare to defend Georgian villages. The most severe fighting occurred near the villages of Khumushkuri, Zemo Barghebi, Sida and Saberio.

By May 26, Abkhazian forces had taken control of almost the whole Gali district. Georgian and Abkhazian delegations reached a truce on May 25 in Gagra. According to the agreement, both parties had to withdraw their armed forces from the Gali district beginning at 6 a.m. on May 26. A special commission made up of representatives of the United Nations and other international organisations was set up to supervise the ceasefire.^[8]

Casualties

According to the Procurator's Office of Georgia, during the conflict in Gali the Georgian side suffered the following casualties: 6 missing, 35 civilians and 17 servicemen killed, 24 wounded and 56 POW. In addition 1,695 houses of local Georgians were burned down. Georgian sources claim Abkhazia's losses to be much greater, saying that at least 300 were killed and dozens wounded.^[9]

The hostilities resulted in hundreds of casualties on both sides and displaced an additional 30,000 - 40,000 Georgians. Although many families quickly returned, the clashes left some 1,500 homes and some infrastructure, including some that had been recently rehabilitated with international funding, in ruins. The United Nations Joint Assessment Mission to the Gali District confirmed in 2000 that homes and infrastructure were deliberately burned and looted during the Abkhazian offensive.^[10]

Georgian involvement

The Georgian government stated that it had no connections with the guerrillas.^[11]

At an extraordinary session of the Georgian-Abkhazian talks in Tbilisi on May 22, 1998, Georgia and Abkhazia endorsed a draft protocol obliging Sukhumi to withdraw its forces from Gali and Tbilisi to stop guerrilla warfare in the region. Thus, experts claimed, Georgian authorities indirectly acknowledged that they had certain control over guerrillas. However, the next day Eduard Shevardnadze, the President of Georgia once again stated that the Georgian government had nothing to do with guerrillas in Gali. ^[12]

References