Bokhundjara incident

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2007 Bokhundjara armed incident (Georgian-Abkhazian conflict)
Date September 20, 2007 Location Foot of mount Bokhundjara, Tkvarcheli district, Abkhazia[1] Result Aggravation of tensions
Belligerents
Abkhaz military and alleged Russian instructors	Georgian military
Casualties and losses
2 killed, 2 wounded 7 captured	None

The 2007 Bokhundjara armed incident refers to a skirmish that occurred in Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia near the border with Georgia proper on September 20, 2007 leaving 2 men dead, 2 injured, and 7 detained by the Georgian forces.^[2] The United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) launched an independent investigation of the incident.^[3] On October 11, 2007, it released a progress report confirming the incident took place on Abkhaz-controlled territory at the foot of Mt Bokhundjara, thus confirming the Abkhaz version of the event.^[4][1] On October 27, 2007, Georgia released the arrested Abkhaz militiamen and handed them over to the U.N. observers as a "sign of goodwill".^[5]

Contents 1 Skirmish 2 Reactions 2.1 Georgian view 2.2 Abkhazian view 2.3 Russian view 2.4 United Nations response 3 References

[edit] Skirmish

The clash between the Georgian Interior Ministry forces and Abkhaz troopers were first reported by the Georgian side on September 20, 2007. The Abkhaz authorities confirmed the fact and casualties. However, the two reports diverged on where exactly the clash occurred and which side attacked first. In a shootout, the Abkhaz lost two dead, at least two wounded and seven captured by the Georgian force.

Both Georgian and Abkhaz sources agreed that the two officers killed in action were Russians who had formerly served in the CIS peacekeeping forces and then had trained Abkhaz military near the town of Tkvarcheli. However, the Russian military officials denied any involvement of Russian officers in the incident.^[6][7]

After the skirmish, the Abkhaz administration placed its forces on alert and began the mobilization of troops near the Kodori Gorge. On September 21, 2007, the Russian daily Gazeta reported, on the basis of eyewitnesses' accounts, the shootout occurred between the Russian peacekeeping unit and Abkhaz border guards with the resultant casualties on both sides. Neither Abkhaz nor Russian officials have ever commented on this, however.^[8]

[edit] Reactions

[edit] Georgian view

Georgia maintains that a group of Abkhaz saboteurs has infiltrated the upper part of the Kodori Valley, which is the only territory of Abkhazia controlled by the Georgian government, in order to disrupt the construction of a road, connecting Kodori to the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region of Georgia.^[9] On September 26, 2007, Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia, in his address to the U.N. General Assembly said that one of those killed in the clash "was a lieutenant colonel of the Russian military, and that he was killed during a law-enforcement operation against armed separatist insurgents... One has to wonder—what was a vice colonel of the Russian military doing on in the Georgian forests, organizing and leading and group of armed insurgents on a mission of subversion and violence?". He once again called for the U.N. to foster the international involvement in Abkhazia and accused Russia of "reckless and dangerous pattern of behavior" in Georgia's conflicts.^[10]

[edit] Abkhazian view

The Abkhaz authorities maintain that a field camp of the Abkhaz border guards, located in the Tkvarcheli district, was attacked by a group of Georgian saboteurs.^[11] Abkhazia has accused Georgia of attempting to instigate a full-scale military conflict in order to destabilize the region in the wake of the 2014 Winter Olympics, which are to be held in nearby Sochi. Later, the de facto Abkhaz government accused Georgian forces of killing the two officers after extensive torture and published photos allegedly depicting the mutilated bodies.^[12]

The Abkhaz authorities had earlier warned that they reserved to themselves the right to undertake measures at any time to gain control of the upper Kodori Valley.^[13]

[edit] Russian view

Sergey Chaban, the commander of the CIS peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia, has stated that according to a joint investigation with the UNOMIG, the incident occurred on the territory of Abkhazia, 700 meters from the border, thus supporting the claim of the Abkhazian side.^[14] However, a UNOMIG representative later stated that the investigation is still on-going. Responding to Saakashvili's allegations, Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the UN, stated that the killed men were instructors at an "anti-terrorist training centre" and died from knife wounds and head gunshots.^[15]

[edit] United Nations response

The Secretary-General of the United Nations expressed his concern with regard to the incident and called on all sides to exercise maximum restraint and to prevent any further escalation of the situation. In its 24 September 2007 press release, the UNOMIG announced that its Fact Finding Team was independently engaged in establishing facts relating to this incident, including visiting the locations as indicated by the sides, as well as meeting with witnesses.^[16] From September 21 to October 8, the team has visited the Bokhundjara area, interviewing a number of witnesses and participated in the autopsy of the two men who died in the shootout. Blood samples were taken from the men killed in the incident and from the Bokhundjara area. The German government has agreed to facilitate a DNA analysis of the samples. Having analyzed this evidence, the team has concluded, that the incident had occurred at the location designated by the Abkhaz side, on the Abkhaz side of the administrative boundary, at approximately 300 meters from that boundary.^[1][4]. Furthermore, the forensic experts have concluded that the former Russian officers were killed by automatic weapons fired at short and point-blank range.

[edit] References