Published in "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" on December 1, 1993

Dear Mr. Eltsin:

We address to you, when Russia has made its choice, and we believe it is on the way to democracy. We think it's important to attract your attention to the position of Georgian people in Abkhazia - it is directly connected with the future of the democracy. Russian mass media was giving wrong information about the facts going on in Abkhazia having the made-up reason to defend the railroad, there were discussions about the lawfulness of Georgian claims to Abkhazia, Georgians were called to compromise, to start talks, etc. But nobody nowhere mentioned genocide, which was going on under the leadership of Mr. Ardzinba. All kinds of information about it were immediately called slander. At the same time in Abkhazia there was a mass destruction of the civilian Georgian population, mockery at the bodies of tortured people.

In Gagra, according to the eye-witness account, 700 people were shot in one day.

In Sukhumi 20,000 of Georgians were killed.

There are live witnesses of the numerous facts of genocide, their names and addresses, their evidence.

The tragic list of the settings destroyed by the Nazi fifty years ago such as Oradur, Lidice, Khatyn could be increased now by many of Abkhazian villages and cities.

It's impossible to conceal any longer from the world community the truth about the fury committed by the troops of Mr. Ardzinba.

The publication in Izvestiya of October 12, 1993 named by it's author Alexei Chelnokov "Abkhazian Apocalypse. Bloody Feast Of The Winners In Sukhumi" is finished with the question to Mr. Ardzinba: "How are you going to live with such a burden on the soul?"

Such crimes at one time brought criminals to the dock at the Nurnberg Tribunal. Governments and states have the right to bring up a question at the International Trial to punish the war criminals, that's why we address to you and to the Government of Russia who was a peacemaker in Abkhazia. We think it's necessary to investigate the facts of the mass extermination of the civilian population in Abkhazia, and to punish the guilty persons as the war criminals.

The letter is signed by about 100 persons, among them:

N. KRYMOVA, O. TABAKOV, M. ZAKHAROV, O. EFREMOV, I. ATABEKOV, G. GORIN, J. MANN, L. LIBEDINSKAJA, T. BEK