Peoples of the Caucasus
After the failed attempt of the separatist forces and their allies to storm Sukhumi on March 14, 1993, Abkhaz diverted their main forces to the northern side of the front line which divided Georgian held Sukhumi and separatist controlled territories. On July 4, the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus militia, Abkhaz formations, and Armenian Bagramyan battalion transported by allegedly Russian naval forces to the city of Tkhvarcheli began their offensive on the northern Sukhumi district. Georgian forces and local volunteer units (including Ukrainian nationalist organization members (UNA-UNSO)) stationed in the villages of Shroma, Tamishi and Kamani were taken by surprise. On July 5, after intensive fighting, Georgians lost as many as 500 people in a couple of hours. The village of Kamani fell into the hands of separatist formations and their North Caucasian allies. Kamani was populated mainly by Svans (a sub-ethnic group of the Georgian people) and by Orthodox nuns who had been living in the church of St George located in the center of the village. The local villagers (including women and children) were massacred while the church of St George became the scene of a blood bath. The nuns were raped and killed in front of the orthodox priests, father Yuri Anua and father Andria. Both priests were taken outside of the church and questioned about the ownership of the land in Abkhazia. After answering that Abkhazia was neither Georgian nor Abkhaz land but God's, they were shot by a confederate soldier. Another priest was killed, along with father Yuri Anua and father Andria, an ethnic Abkhaz who was forced to shoot father Andria before he was killed. Approximately 120 inhabitants of the village were massacred.