Georgia: Conflict Toll Confusion

Lengthy list of missing in action suggests official death toll may be under-estimated.

By Natia Kuprashvili in Tbilisi (CRS 461, 25-Sep-08)

“Unknown soldier” reads the inscription on a long line of graves in Tbilisi’s Mukhatgverdi cemetery. Those who died in Georgia’s five-day war in August are buried here, but some have gravestones not with names but with two-digit numbers, which does not stop mourners from putting bunches of fresh flowers on the tombs.

“Parents of the dead or missing soldiers, as well as soldiers who survived and just ordinary people come here every day to mourn over the graves,” said Otar Meparishvili who works for the cemetery. “I have never seen so many men crying before.”

The Melia family, who are refugees from the 1992-3 war in Abkhazia, come to the cemetery to weep for their lost son, lieutenant Sergo Melia. Some of his comrades told them he had been killed. Later they saw Sergo’s body in footage shot in Tskhinvali and shown by the Russian channel NTV, but they have not been able to get hold of the body.

The Melia family and parents of other missing soldiers are waiting impatiently for the results of the DNA tests, so that names can be put to the 53 unidentified bodies in the cemetery.

Georgian expert Paata Zakareishvili, who worked in commissions for finding people reported as missing both during the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict and the war over Nagorny Karabakh, said, “Fifty-three unidentified soldiers is an incredibly large number for a war that lasted just a few days.

“These were fewer [missing] than that after the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, when the fighting dragged on for years. What’s more, the Georgian army is much better equipped today than it was then. This time all Georgian soldiers should have at least two fire-proof ID badges. Besides, all people, who go to fight in a war, always carry something that is dear to them – icons, for instance, photos or letters. Considering all this, I am surprised that there are so many unidentified soldiers.”

Georgian officials give different figures for the number of missing in the conflict and there is no one official number.

Givi Targamadze, who coordinates the Georgian parliament’s commission for searching for dead and missing, said that he had information about 70 soldiers and hundreds of civilians still missing.

“The interior ministry suffered no such losses,” he said. “As for the toll among the civilian population, the numbers can be counted only after the Russian occupiers have pulled out from Georgian villages and towns.”

The number of casualties from the August war, as reported by the government’s commission, rises every day. In its first report, the commission spoke about 1500 wounded and 215 dead soldiers, including 13 interior ministry troops, 133 defence ministry soldiers and 69 civilians. Its most recent report sets the death toll at more than 300.

Targamadze said false “rumours have been spread deliberately”.

“They say we have lost thousands of our citizens, which is a lie,” he said. “We must put a stop to these rumours, because as it is the losses that we have are very painful to us.”

Critics say that the government itself is contributing to the rumours. “They talk figures, not names and surnames,” said Zviad Dzidziguri leader of the opposition Conservative Party, which is not represented in parliament. “The identities of those killed are still not established. I think they do it to give some hope to the families of missing men. This is how they are concealing the actual death toll.”

Dzidziguri said that opposition parties had asked for lists of the dead soldiers, but with no success.

Levan Berdzenishvili, one of the leaders of the opposition Republican Party, has another line of criticism for the government commission on the missing. “Why, when it talks about casualties, does the commission never say anything about the death toll among residents of the Tskhinvali region, who are also citizens of our country?” he asked.

Responding to the accusations, deputy state minister for reintegration Elene Tevdoradze said, “I agree with the opposition that those casualties are also ours. Our heart aches equally for each citizen. Unfortunately, we are unable at the moment to establish the number of casualties on the territory that is not under our control. That is why we cannot give any specific figures.”

The government has set up a hotline for relatives to inform them about the missing.

“According to our database, 1122 people lost during the August events are still being searched for, but the number of the calls we’ve received is far greater,” said David Chachnidze of the parliamentary defence and security committee. “Among the missing, there are 188 soldiers, 22 policemen and the rest are civilians.”

In Gori, thousands of displaced people are still living in tents in a camp. Almost every family here has a story to tell about lost relatives. It has never occurred to most of them to call the hotline.

The family of 25-year-old Lasha did not turn to the government to find him after he’d gone missing in Akhalgori. With help from Ossetians in Tskhinvali and after paying a ransom worth four thousand dollars, they got him back safe and sound, from four days of captivity. Lasha’s father says he was given only a few hours to secure the release of his son, which is why he chose not to seek the help of the government.

People like Lasha and the missing relatives of those now living in tent camps have not been included in official lists.

The ministry for refugees and resettlement is also compiling lists, which will entitle the families of missing persons to receive social benefits. The ministry has recorded around 1800 people as missing, although to be officially registered as missing requires a more complex legal procedure.

Many of those whose loved ones have been killed or went missing during this conflict, are too depressed to apply for the social aid promised by the government. The only thing they want is to find out the truth, however painful it may turn out for them, says expert Paata Zakareishvili.

“As long as I’ve worked in this field, I’ve rarely met parents, who did not want to know the bitter truth but preferred to wait for their children forever,” he said.

Zakareishvili believes that the government is trying to prepare society slowly for the appalling outcomes of the war. “As time goes by, it will become increasingly difficult to carry out the search for the missing,” he said. “I think the casualties are not as great as we hear from the rumours, but they are definitely not as low as the government says they are. The rumours will persist as long as the authorities do not give the names of those who were killed.”

The defence ministry says that matching DNA samples to dead soldiers will be a lengthy process. That means that the soldiers lying in graves of honour at the Mukhatgverdi cemetery who died in August are likely to remain nameless for some time.

Natia Kuprashvili is an IWPR-trained journalist in Tbilisi.