Georgia Diary

"That’s a real war correspondent’s chronicle of the war in the early 90s ,when Georgia lost Abkhazia, the republic that later, in 2008, finally seceded formally and was recognised by Russia. But, in reality, Georgia had lost it already in the war in 1992-3 and, of course, there was at that time chaos both in Georgia and in Russia. I was in Georgia and Russia more or less at the time it happened – but I had no chance to go to Abkhazia, unfortunately. Thomas Goltz was there, though, and he has written a fantastic chronicle of the events that really illustrates the fact that this was a tough war. He is pretty even-handed, and that’s what’s interesting; he states clearly that the Georgians tried to conquer Abkhazia, which is awkward in a way because Abkhazia was an autonomous republic inside Georgia, but after the fall of the Soviet Union everything was in chaos and Abkhazia wanted some kind of independence. So the Georgians went in there, but it wasn’t the real Georgian army. Goltz describes it as plunderers and convicts released from prison, and some honest people – a real mixture. When they went into Abkhazia they behaved very, very cruelly – like thieves, killers, murderers. That is true, but it’s also true that Abkhazia was supported by lots of funny Russian forces from the Northern Caucasus, people who said they were going to form a new Caucasian state. It was all very chaotic, and Goltz gives a perfect picture and succeeds in not being partisan."