Abkhazia in the Memories of a War Journalist from Tbilisi

"I didn’t know where I was going or what the situation would be. I had only seen war in movies. Sukhum/i is not far from Tbilisi - planes were flying, and we were there in about 35 minutes. Just 35 minutes earlier, I was here in a normal situation, and then I saw a completely different picture: dead people, zinc coffins, wounded soldiers being carried on stretchers…" (Zaira Mikatadze, Journalist, Tbilisi)

In 1992, when the war in Abkhazia began, Zaira was a journalism student in Tbilisi and worked as an intern at a newspaper. She was determined to go to Abkhazia and report on the situation from the early days of the conflict. Beyond her desire to fulfill her professional duty and create video reports from the epicenter of the hostilities, Zaira had another motivation: she wanted to uncover the truth behind troubling stories emerging from Abkhazia. Rumors circulated that Georgian soldiers were engaging in robbery and drug use. "I was interested in the truth. It would affect the image and reputation of my country, and I really didn’t want these voices and rumors to be true," says Zaira.

In December 1992, she was reporting from one of the main hospitals in Tbilisi, crowded with wounded soldiers returning from the war. There, she met the head of a Georgian battalion and asked for his help in traveling to Abkhazia as a journalist. It was not easy and took time, but in March 1993, she finally arrived in Abkhazia with Georgian soldiers.

"Where I went, the battalion unit was located by the sea, near Babushera Airport. The unit was positioned between the airport and the beach, and that first night, the shells kept coming. I was, of course, afraid - the house was shaking. I had a notebook, a pen, and a camera to document everything that was happening. It was an abandoned house; I think Greeks had lived there, but they left when the war started. I began my first journalistic piece by describing that night. I asked everyone there why they were taking part in the war and recorded short interviews. The soldiers asked me to take pictures of them as keepsakes - so they would have a photo to show on TV when they died. The program was called Eternal Remembrance. There was a column where they showed photos of those who died in the war, and, unfortunately, several of the photos I took ended up in that column," Zaira recalls.

She traveled to Abkhazia from time to time to produce video reports and brought written materials back to Tbilisi to be published in the newspaper. It is difficult for her to recall the human tragedies she witnessed in Abkhazia. “It was very hard to see people at the airport and hear them say, ‘I’m leaving to save myself, but to whom do I leave my house?’ So many years have passed, and these words still echo in my ears. I didn’t hear this phrase just once or twice, but many times. I also remember a soldier from the Lagodekhi battalion sitting at the airport, where zinc coffins were stacked on top of each other. He said, ‘What should I tell the parents of those dead soldiers?’”

After the end of hostilities, Zaira went through a difficult period, mourning the loss of many Georgian soldiers with whom she had spent a lot of time. However, as years passed, she felt a strong desire to return to Abkhazia. Zaira recalls: "I really wanted to go there and see how Abkhazia lived without Georgians. Somehow, I managed—I don’t remember exactly whether it was 2013 or 2014. I met many people, both Georgians and Abkhazians. I even met people who had taken up arms and fought against us."

During the hostilities, she did not encounter any Abkhazians, as they had left the area where she was. As a result, she did not witness the other side of the conflict or the tragedies and hardships the war brought to the Abkhazian people. Zaira met Abkhazians nearly 20 years after the war ended, during her return to Abkhazia - not as a journalist this time, but as a guest.

"I only saw our soldiers and their mothers and families grieving their deaths. But what was happening on the other side—I saw that when I went to Abkhazia, when I saw the memorials for Abkhazians. In all the places where hostilities took place in Abkhazia, there are memorial plaques, and on these plaques are pictures of the soldiers who died there—not just their names and surnames. I saw them in Tamish/i, on Gumista, even directly on the rocks. I came across these memorial plaques in many places. At every step, I could see the traces and brutality of war," Zaira remembers.

The traces of war were felt everywhere in Abkhazia. In many places, there were still traces of bombing and burned buildings. In numerous villages, she saw destroyed houses overgrown with trees and grass. "Sometimes I would see citrus trees growing in the middle of wild, untamed areas, and it made me think that people once lived here," she said.

She says arriving in Abkhazia had a great impact on her. She met many people, including those who also held weapons in their hands in the early 90s. Arriving in Abkhazia contributed to creating new impressions in her, she also reflected  on the attitudes she had regarding the war, and there was no longer a place for war in her future vision. "When we lost Abkhazia, I thought that we would enter Abkhazia again. I thought - We will probably mobilize and enter again armed with heavy equipment. I thought it was time out again. I always wanted for us to invade again with the army and take back this territory. After Zaira went to Abkhazia, her thoughts and her dreams shifted gradually. “One morning I saw children who were there going to school, Abkhaz children, and I thought: Those children want to live, those children's roots are in Abkhazia, why should one bomb, why should one shoot them? I am now fiercely against war." - says Zaira.