26 March 2004, 18:06
NGO activist released in Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone
David Badjagua, a 25-year-old activist of the Georgian NGO Association of Young Lawyers and Political Scientists, has been released in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. Abductors have been holding him on the territory of Abkhazia for two months, reported a source at the Zugdidi city administration, Western Georgia.
Details and conditions of Badjagua's release have not been published yet. The only thing known is that on the night of March 25-26, people holding Badjagua transported him from the direction of Abkhazia's Gali district to a bridge across the Inguri River at Abkhazia's administrative border and left him there. David Badjagua crossed the bridge and entered the neighboring Zugdidi district. Then he got to a house where his relatives lived.
David Badjagua was taken hostage by a group of gunmen in the village of Orsantia, Georgia's Zugdidi district, at about 7 p.m. on January 27. Then the abductors escaped to the territory of the Gali district, taking him with them.
Georgian non-government organizations (NGOs) have been staging regular protest actions in front of the State Chancellery and the Russian Embassy in Tbilisi for the last months, demanding that measures to set David Badjagua free be taken.
Editors note: See also the articles "No information about abducted activist of Georgian Association of Young Political Scientists and Journalists", "NGOs stage protest action in front of Russian Embassy in Tbilisi".
Source: Novosti-Gruzia Information Agency
