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Georgia against Abkhazia: The intelligence war

Law enforcement agencies of Abkhazia have reported arrests and criminal charges against people suspected of collaborating with the Georgian special services. Judging by all the previous events, the situation on the border between Georgia and Abkhazia is again heating up.

A criminal case against a citizen of Georgia Zurab Toradze became known only yesterday, although the prosecutor’s office of the Ochamchire district of Abkhazia instituted it on August 15. The court has already elected a measure of pretrial detention for two months, that is, until October 15.

Zurab Toradze is suspected in preparing an attempt on the chief of the operational direction «East» of the Defense Ministry of Abkhazia Colonel Lizbert Potskhor-oglu. He was preparing the murder on the instructions of the Georgians, whose data were not disclosed in the interest of the investigation.

Around mid-August, in one of the villages in eastern Abkhazia, there were arrested three residents — a father and his two sons. Detention was preceded by the raid to disarm a militant from Georgia, during which he was killed. These activities were carried out within a special operation conducted by the Abkhaz security services.

 

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Let us continue the chronology of unfortunate events at the Georgian-Abkhazian border. In late May this year, in the city center Gal, located 12 kilometers from the border with Georgia, in a cafe there were killed two local police officers — Leonid Kvitsinia and Davie Buava, and a resident of the border village who was with them in the cafe. Then the Abkhaz law enforcement agencies reported that the attack had been organized by Georgian special services.

Gali police officer Davie Buava could not know that the security forces from the other side of the border river Inguri had been hunting him. In March this year, in the village of Rial, the Gali district of Abkhazia, the State Security agents detained a member of the Georgian sabotage and intelligence group Malkhaz Rurua. According to Rurua’s testimony at the preliminary investigation, the group consisted of four people and was sent to Abkhazia to eliminate Buava. This group was part of the gang «Forest Brothers», the head of which is now member of the official enforcement structures of Georgia. The other band members were able to escape pursuit. Rurua was detained only after he had been wounded.

All of this shows that the war between the Georgian and Abkhaz intelligence has got the second wind. Moreover, it’s doubtless that the Georgian special services have decided to return to the tactics of subversive war, familiar to them since the 90’s of the last century.

After Mikheil Saakashvili’s coming to power in Georgia, as we know, the gangs were dismissed, and some of their leaders even ended up in jail. But now their services are obviously needed again. In particular, this is proved by the fact that the former active members of criminal groups are now back in service, but now — in the ranks of the official military forces.

Recall, some time ago, the leaders of the Georgian opposition, particularly Irakli Alasania, accused the government of the fact that the fighters of some obscure groups were living in private houses in Zugdidi bordering with Abkhazia. Probably, they are those soldiers, whose task is to destabilize the situation in the border regions of Abkhazia.

Sluggish intelligence war between two warring sides, in fact, has never stopped. Nevertheless, the practice of mass terror, the killings and racketeering population, committed by Georgian forces that called themselves «partisans», in Abkhazia in the 1990s and 2000s, seemed to be the past.

Now anything can happen again. Prior to the most recent events — the detention by the Abkhaz security forces of the people suspected of collaborating with the Georgian special services — the initiative seemed to be on the Georgian side. However, it was a show to some extent. Residents of the Gali district of Abkhazia, who were later accused of attempted terrorist acts in Georgia, of course, on the instructions of the Russian special services, were detained at the Georgian border one after another.

On the one hand, while the Georgians are engaged in theatrical productions, residents of Abkhazia are suffering; a few people are still behind bars in Georgia. On the other hand, the region is calm. The events of this year show that Georgian special services have stopped playing.
 
 
The Georgia Times
 
 
05.09.2012