User:Alaexis/Abkhazia losses

Originally from Talk:War_in_Abkhazia_(1992–1993)#Losses

Losses

War in Abkhazia (1992–1993)
Location {{{place}}}
Casualties and losses
2,220 combatants killed  Verified ~8,000 wounded  Verified 122 missing in action  Verified 1,820 civilians killed (Abkhaz claim)  Verified	2,600 combatants killedN 10,000 wounded  Verified 1,000 missing  Verified 20,000–30,000 Civilians killedN 200,000–250,000 ethnic Georgians displaced Verified

The losses are all over the place and I hope to sort it out. I'll start checking the provided references here, please let me know if I miss something. I will be marking the numbers I can confirm by  Verified and the ones I cannot by N.

Losses

Source	Georgian losses	Abkhazian losses	Displaced	Comments
HRW report (1995)	4,000 military and civilians killed, 10,000 were wounded, and 1,000 are missing	4,040 killed (2,220 combatants, 1,820 civilians); approximately 8,000 wounded; 122 missing in action	200,000 (all displaced)	-
The Guns of August 2008 by Svante Cornell, p. 27	-	-	250,000 (Georgian)	-
Managing Conflict in the Former Soviet Union: Russian and American Perspectives, p. 388	-	-	140,000 (in Georgia) by July 27, 1993	-
Parliamentary assembly recommendation (1996)	-	-	250 000 and 300 000 displaced persons in Georgia	-
Durable Solutions for the Long-Term Displaced (2011)	-	-	250,000 internally displaced persons	-
European commission press release (2011)	-	-	some 250,000 Internally Displaced People in Georgia	-
In Georgia, Tales of Atrocities Lee Hockstander, International Herald Tribune	-	-	some 200,000 Georgians	-
The Myth of “ethnic conflict” politics, economics, and “cultural” violence by Beverly Crawford, Ronnie D. Lipschutz (eds). THE TALE OF TWO RESORTS: ABKHAZIA AND AJARIABEFORE AND SINCE THE SOVIET COLLAPSE, p. 263	-	-	-	25,000-30,000 total casualties
Crossroads and Conflict: Security and Foreign Policy in the Caucasus and Central Asia, p. 158	-	-	180,000-240,000 displaced persons	-
U.S. Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices 1993 - Georgia	-	-	230,000 to 250,000 displaced persons in Georgia	-
Gamakharia, Jemal (2015). INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY TO BRING A VERDICT ON THE TRAGEDY OF ABKHAZIA/GEORGIA (PDF). p. 7. ISBN 978-9941-461-12-5. Retrieved 31 January 2021.	5,000 civilians killed and 400 civilians missing	-	267,345	-
Andrew Andersen's site	up to 30,000 slaughtered on the spot	-	-	looks like a self-published source

Sources that do not report casualties

• The Human Rights Field Operation: Law, Theory and Practice, Abkhazia Case, Michael O'Flaherty. I've looked at the pages where Abkhazia is mentioned (49–50, 54, 93, 94, 96, 130–1) and haven't found any casualties or refugee numbers.
• On Ruins of Empire: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Former Soviet Union Georgiy I. Mirsky, p. 72 No mention of casualties on pages 70-75.
• Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties by Roger Kaplan, p 564. Freedom House release their reports annually and frustratingly, the year of the report is not specified. I've checked reports from 1993 to 1999 and none of them has anything related to Abkhazia on page 564. The 1994 report says this "At least 500 Georgian soldiers were killed during the two-week siege and more than 2,000 wounded. Scores of Georgian officials, policemen and citizens were executed, thousands more were evacuated by Russian ships, while tens of thousands fled toward Tbilisi through rugged, snow-covered mountains" which doesn't help with total casualty figures.
• Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus, p 174. No mention of casualties on pages 174-181.
• Anatol Lieven, "Victorious Abkhazian Army Settles Old Scores in An Orgy of Looting, The Times, 4 October 1993 [1]. No casualty figures.
• The Politics of Religion in Russia and the New States of Eurasia p. 237–238. No casualty figures.

Sources I couldn't verify

• Chervonnaia, Svetlana Mikhailovna. Conflict in the Caucasus: Georgia, Abkhazia, and the Russian Shadow. Gothic Image Publications, 1994. Can't get my hands on it. However I did check her book Abkhazia. 1992. The Post-Communist Vendee and it does not contain casualty figures. Also there are some concerns about her bias: she is criticised for treating "Abkhaz movement as blind adherent of and champion of the Soviet system."

Suggestions

The two numbers I wasn't able to confirm are Georgian military and civilian losses (2,600 and 20,000-30,000 respectively). The HRW report gives a total of 4,000 based on Georgian sources but does not provide a break-down. Out of 10 (!) sources which were supposed to back up the 20-30 thousand figure, I've been able to check 9 and none of them contains these numbers - or any other casualty numbers, for that matter.

Derluguian says that the total number of casualties was 25-30 thousand in The Myth of “ethnic conflict” politics, economics, and “cultural” violence by Beverly Crawford, Ronnie D. Lipschutz (eds), p. 263 but he does not provide military/civilian or Georgian/Abkhaz breakdowns.

I managed to find one source that gives the 30,000 Georgian killed number: [2]. It looks like a self-published and therefore unreliable data source per WP:RS even though the person behind it is a real scholar. The about us page says "this project was founded in 2002 as a support resource for my political science students enrolled in various courses that covered international security and politics in Eastern Europe and Asia. It has developed later into what it is right now involving the expertise of a number of other experienced specialists including but not limited to political and computer scientists, criminologists, geographers, translators and journalists."

Therefore my suggestions are:

1. Remove sources which do not mention casualties at all (see above for the list)
2. Add {{Better source needed}} tag to Svetlana Chervonnaya's book considering that she has been criticised for her bias.
3. Change the Georgian losses estimate to 4,000 per the HRW report and add the 30,000 total casualties figure separately. Alaexis_¿question? 14:26, 28 January 2021 (UTC)