As weekly newspaper Nuzhnaya of the separatist Abkhazia reports organization of veteran fighters "Aruaa" demanded from the Sukhumi authorities extradition of former Georgian Defense Minister Tengiz Kitovani and "other war criminals" that now live in Russia to Abkhazia. Veterans of the 1992-1993 war even addressed Sergei Baga[sh with relevant letter.

And indeed what are accusations that are directed at Tengiz Kitovani by Abkhazian veterans? As it becomes clear the accusation is "participation in genocide of Abkhazian people, destruction of monuments of Abkhazian culture, killings, inhuman treatment of civilian population, violence and robbery".

Sentiments of Abkhazian separatists are understandable. Another anniversary of the 1992-1993 war (in Abkhazian understanding - patriotic war) is approaching and therefore, fighters are remembering atrocities of war which, by the way, was equally sad for fighters on both sides of the front.

Extradition or surrender by one state to another of a person charged with a crime is a common practice in the world. Every day accused or suspects are extradited in the world. We can mention the latest event – an issue of Thailand's transfer of Russian "arms baron" citizen Victor Bout to the US is in the centre of attention of the world media...

It is clear that the emotional appeal of Aruaa and the above fact are not on the samedesk with their ratings but it indeed caused more or less response at the local level.

But we should put emotions aside and analyze this in the legal context as to how real and practically realizable this appeal by Aruaa is.

According to international law, necessary conditions for the extradition are:

a) Existence of relevant legal base in this sphere between the requesting and requested parties;
b) Existence of legal act in the legislation of a state allowing extradition (constitutional act, l law, etc);
c) Accusations against a person claimed for an offence should be motivated and confirmed by relevant investigation actions, confirmed by reveling facts and proofs that are fortified by relevant documents ;

It is impossible to extradite a person if the law of the requested party does not allow prosecution of its own nationals. In addition, it is a universally acknowledged principle that extradition is not allowed to a country where a person can be prosecuted or tortured.

Let us take these theoretical postulates to practical ground:

a) On October 1st 2008 Russia and separatist Abkhazia signed an agreement about cooperation between prosecutor's offices. This agreement, as it seems, implies arrest and extradition of persons suspected of crimes. Precedent of this took place last year when Russian law enforcers arrested and surrendered to Abkhazia a citizen of Abkhazia, certain Nersesian who committed a murder in the Gulripshi district. Additionally, the Sukhumi government is officially demanding transfer of other 15 people.
b) According to the Russian Constitution, surrender of a citizen of Russia to a foreign country is prohibited;
c) According to our data, Abkhazian authorities have never instituted a criminal case against Tengiz Kitovani and no investigative actions were carried out and respectively no official accusations were issued against former Georgian Defence Minister.

Is Tengiz Kitovani a Russian citizen or not? According to various data former Georgian Defence Minister has not received and he remains a citizen of Georgia. So despite the fact that Kitovani is not protected by the Russian Constitution it cannot be a subject of the above bilateral agreement as he is not a "citizen of Abkhazia".

In addition, Kitovani is not wanted for any crimes otherwise he would have been arrested long time ago as he has been living in Russia for a long time. The former Defence Minister has quite powerful protectors in Moscow and indeed he will not be arrested at politically motivated demand of members of some "Aruaa". It is also very unlikely that authorities of separatist Abkhazia will officially address Russia.

Certainly Tengiz Kitovanui should take care of himself in any case. We are just saying that demand of the Abkhazian verterans is unrealizable.

So we can make a short conclusion for those members of Aruaa to hear – forget extradition. This conclusion referred not only to Tengiz Kitovani but also to "other war criminals" mentioned in the letter of Abkhazian veterans.

We are far from the idea that Tengiz Kitovani is blameless but members of Aruaa should take into account that when accusing Georgians they should look for criminals in their midst first. International organizations have long recognized ethnic cleansing of Georgians carried out by Abkhazians, expulsion of Georgians from their native lands blame in what is on Abkhazian veterans as well. We do not need to go far and can start with their leaders. Was not then leader of the separatist issuing criminal orders? Is today's leader of Abkhazian surrogate state - "Prime Minister" a blameless angel? Sergei Shamba personally participated in the conflict so he also took part in misfortunes of Georgian population of Abkhazia or if we use wording of the same members of Aruaa "ethnic cleansing of Georgian population, destruction of monuments of Georgian culture, killings, inhuman treatment of civilian population, violence and robbery".

Abkhazian veterans are again initiating another confrontation instead of trying to cure war-time wounds.

As we mentioned earlier the article of Nuzhnaya newspaper should be considered as a kind of response with regards to another approaching anniversary of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. Of course this is a very painful topic for both Abkhazians and Georgians as the conflict was a tragedy for both people. 17 years passed since then but wounds are still open. At the same time the more time passes unanswered question are becoming more...

Let's say honestly whether it was necessary to introduce Georgians military units into Abkhazian Autonomous Republic for protection and control of the railway communications. Were not it into power of local law enforcement agencies to fulfil the same task successfully with support of the central Georgian government? And, generally, what caused transition of "rapid railway operation" into the bloody war?

Today it is an acknowledged axiom that Tengiz Kitovani was not a shrewd strategist. Unfortunately it is not just about unprofessionalism and voluntarism of Kitovani. Tragic mistakes were made by other members of the State Council who failed to relevantly assess results of the decision and did not take into account prospective danger of the Georgian state. In any case, events of that time already had dangerous symptoms. Military units were used absolutely chaotically; there was no plan; no prognosis of the situation was made; there were just hoorays and flag-waving and calls "to Sukhumi".

We can put it all down to boundless national ardour, unbending self-confidence, unstable situation of the time and multiple authorities in Georgia but one thing is clear. The decision to defend the Abkhazian section of the Georgian railway with military units was wrong. I believe law enforcement agencies of Abkhazia themselves that were headed by Georgians could have resolved the situation in the conditions of correct organization and strict plan. They were quite competent and were familiar with the local situation. Certain sources allow us to draw such conclusions. According to these sources local law enforcement agencies had already had draft of the action plan drawn up which was approved by chairman of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia Vladislav Ardzinba himself. Unfortunately, due to various reasons plan of protection of the railway by local forces were not realized. And if that had happened we could have avoided many misfortunes.

Distrust is prevalent in the relations between Georgians and Abkhazians today. How can we cut the Gordian knot of inability to forgive each other? It is difficult to answer this question but it is obvious that hatred is a bad advisor in this case.