TBILISI, DFWatch–Four people were found dead on the banks of the Enguri River on Wednesday. The four are believed to have drowned as they tried to cross from Abkhazia to Georgian-controlled territory bypassing Russian border guards and Abkhaz customs officers. Rescue workers found the bodies of three people Wednesday morning, and a fourth body in … Read more
GALI, DFWatch–Gali residents demand the opening of the checkpoint on Enguri Bridge and the lifting of the five-day quarantine for travelers that have been tested for Covid-19. Locals told DFWatch that because of the quarantine requirement, many people have resorted to a dangerous route, wading through the surging Enguri river at the so-called black crossing, … Read more
ZUGDIDI, DFWatch–Most of the school graduates from Abkhazia who were stuck at Enguri bridge on their way to exams eventually managed to get through on Monday, DFWatch was told by several of them. However, some teenagers are still stranded at the only point of crossing between the breakaway republic and Georgia proper. Due to the … Read more
GALI, DFWatch–Sokhumi has set a fixed price for obtaining a residene permit, a document that is required, but hard for many here to obtain. The price will now be set to 600 Russian rubles, or USD 25, which is a relatively decent amount even for impoverished Gali residents. However, local ethnic Georgians who compose the … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–A 29 year-old man has died under suspicious circumstances while in detention by separatist forces in breakaway Abkhazia. The man was detained earlier for trying to cross the administrative borderline between the breakaway republic and Georgia proper. The detainee’s death, which Sokhumi claims was a suicide, happened in a Russian military facility in the … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Traffic resumed Tuesday across the Enguri bridge, the only crossing between the breakaway region Abkhazia and Georgia proper, locals told DFWatch. However, the bureaucratic hurdles bar most of Gali residents from crossing the conflict line. January 11, breakaway authorities declared a quarantine and unilaterally blocked passage on Enguri bridge due to outbreak of swine … Read more
GALI, DFWatch–Sokhumi ponders prohibiting Abkhazians from travelling to Georgia proper for medical treatment and in search of other opportunities, because these developments undermine the breakaway region’s ‘statehood’. “Those Abkhazians who go to Georgia and receive Georgian citizenship in exchange for loans or other social benefits are actually betraying their nation. I hope the legislators will … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Due to the closure of the Enguri checkpoint, students from breakaway Abkhazia’s Gali district are unable pass their exams, which may result in their expulsion from the university. The problems come on the heel of a quarantine declared in early January by Georgia’s two breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia in order to prevent … Read more
TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s two breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on Friday declared a quarantine in order to prevent the spread of the influenza virus H1N1 from Georgia proper. The quarantine will last for two months and not 20 days, as previously reported. In practice, a quarantine means an almost total ban on entering and … Read more
GALI, DFWatch–Breakaway Abkhazia is fastening its grip on Georgian schools in Gali, local teachers told DFWatch. Sokhumi suspects that the schools in this southern district with a predominantly ethnic Georgian population are violating a relatively recent policy to only allow Russian as the instructional language up to 7th grade, and instead teaching in Georgian. “We … Read more