Bokhundjara incident

2007 Bokhundjara incident

Date	September 20, 2007
Location	Foot of Mount Bokhundjara, Tkvarcheli district, Abkhazia
Result	Aggravation of tensions

Belligerents

Abkhazia

Russia

Georgia

Strength

~18 Abkhazians, 2 Russian instructors

8 commandos

Casualties and losses

2 killed (both instructors)
2 wounded
7 captured, later released

None

The 2007 Bokhundjara incident refers to a skirmish that occurred between Georgia and its breakaway republic of Abkhazia near the border with Georgia proper on September 20, 2007, between Georgian Interior Ministry commandos and Abkhaz forces. The United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) launched an independent investigation of the incident. On October 11, 2007, it released a progress report, confirming the incident took place on Abkhaz-controlled territory at the foot of Mount Bokhundjara, thus confirming the Abkhaz version of the event. On October 27, 2007, Georgia released the arrested Abkhazians and handed them over to the U.N. observers as a "sign of good will."

The clash between the Georgian Interior Ministry forces and Abkhaz border guards 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.

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 accounts of eyewitnesses, 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.

Georgia maintains, that a group of Abkhaz saboteurs had infiltrated the upper part of the Kodori Valley, which was 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. On September 26, 2007 the President of Georgia, in his address to the U.N. General Assembly, said, that one of the 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 in the Georgian forests, organizing and leading a 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.

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Wikipedia