In September 1993 civil war broke out in Georgia. Russian–backed Abkhasian separatists were fighting government forces for the key town of Sukhumi. I had already covered several stories on the break-up of the Soviet Union and I was keen to cover it. Colin Jacobson at the Independent Magazine gave me a commission and I set off as soon as I could with the contacts I had managed to make in the few days before I left.
On my first day in the Tiblisi I met Polish photographer Krzysztof Miller who was working for the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. We were both keen to get to Sukhumi as quickly as possible and we agreed to share our contacts. I had one with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he know someone at Georgian TV, and by the end of that morning I had a press pass for both of us and he had got us a ride with a one–man tv crew leaving the following day.
We drove all day in an old Lada estate until the early afternoon where we entered the town of Zugdidi. The streets were empty. We were stopped by soldiers at a check-point, and showed our press passes. You need passes from President Zviad Gamsakhurdia we were told, and were directed towards a local government building where, after much waiting, we met Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Georgia’s deposed ex-president. We were keen to get back on the road. The TV cameraman did a short interview, Chris and I took some pictures and we were given new press passes, signed by Gamsakhurdia himself.
I sat in the back with my short-wave radio, listening to the BBC World Service to catch any unfolding events and by the mid afternoon it transpired that Sukhumi had actually fallen to Abkhazian separatists. So instead we headed for Ochamchire which would be the new front line. It was the 27th September 1993. Within two days, Ochamchire, bombarded by Abkhazian rocket fire, was abandoned to advancing Abkhazian separatists. Everyone was on the move, using any transport they could. The troops loyal to ex-president Gamsakhurdia fled along with the refugees.
By the next day the bridge at Zugdidi had become the new frontier between Georgia and Abkhazia. People gathered in bewilderment on the south side of the bridge looking at the Abkhazian tanks.
A couple of days later in Tiblisi I got a call from Shevednadze’s press officer. He told me that that a plane would be leaving that afternoon taking food supplies to people in Gentsvishi trapped by advancing Abkhazian forces. Krzysz, myself, Shevednadze’s press officer and a French photographer all climbed aboard a small Tupulov jet and
found that the plane was completely full of loaves of bread. We arrived on the small landing strip at Gentsvishi. Some people were hoping for a helicopter to take them to safety. However, for thousands of Georgian refugees fleeing from Sukhumi and nearby villages, the only way out now was over the 2,750 meter high Chuberi Pass.
People were sleeping in abandoned cars or anywhere they could find. What made the journey so difficult for many was that this was not a planned exodus. Early winter snow made conditions on the high pass extremely difficult, and there almost no organised relief. We left for the pass at dawn the following day. Melting snow at the top of the pass has turned the track into a sea of mud. Even six-wheel drive Russian trucks became hopelessly stuck. The only way out was on foot. Many people had died on the journey, caught in a blizzard a couple of days before, or from exhaustion, and were covered by a blanket. There was great relief at reaching safety at the top of the pass.
But bandits was still active. A government soldier was shot by local bandits for refusing to hand over his weapons. Along with many other exhausted people we camped in the Chuberi forest that night, and walked into Chuberi the next day and hitched a ride in the back of a dumper truck with others back to Tiblisi.
Although holding Russia responsible for this war, President Shevednaze was forces by circumstances to meet a Russian delegation from Moscow in his offices at the Presidential Palace.
Soon after, he flew to Moscow to make a peace deal with Yeltzin and we flew with him. We arrived in Moscow and went straight to the Georgian embassy where Shevednadze prepared to do a long interview with French television before meeting Yeltin.
My photographs were published in the Independent Magazine and in Spanish magazine Blanc & Negro.
I hope that in some way these images do contribute to the collective memory of what happened during those tragic times.
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