Abkhazia's SSS: slavery prospers in Georgia

The Service of State Security (SSS) of Abkhazia has stated that evidences of the people, who had been subjected to forced labour for some years in Georgia, should become a weighty proof for international organizations of the fact that slavery is flourishing in the territory of this country.

"The story of Ivan Kirillov, 40, a citizen of Russia, is a confirmation of the aforesaid. Early in December, he managed to run away from the Georgian slavery. According to his story, he was kept in Mestia village in Georgian Svanetia," runs the statement of the Service of State Security as quoted by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Sources from the SSS report that this was not the first case when Russian citizens who have escaped Georgian slavery are rendered assistance in Abkhazia.

Former captives used to tell that in high-mountainous settlements of Georgia practically every household employs slaves from Russia and other CIS countries; they have practically no chance to run away, since they are permanently intimidated and beaten; and the conditions in which they live are inhuman.

"According to Kirillov's assertions, one of the slaves could not withstand the conditions and hung up himself, another one was thrown down from the bridge into the river. The authorities of Georgia and law enforcement bodies know about the situation with slaves, but keep their eyes shut on the facts. Exchange and resale of slaves are quite popular in the territory of Georgia," the Abkhazian SSS has emphasized.

The "Caucasian Knot" has informed earlier that on March 6 Vladimir Obidin, a native of the Ivanovo Region, was brought to the Abkhazian Service of State Security in Sukhumi; he was detained on March 5 in the village of Saberio, Galskiy District of Abkhazia, without any identification documents.

Since 1992 he had permanently resided in the territory of Georgia, where he was kept by force as a handyman in private sector by various employers in the Gardaban and Gurdzhaan Districts of Georgia, and in Tbilisi.