Border Attack Spurs Fresh Tension Between Georgia, Abkhazia

For many Georgians, May 21 was as much about a mysterious armed incident near the border with the breakaway region of Abkhazia, as it was about electing a new parliament. While details remain murky, the incident is stoking tension between Georgia and the renegade territory.

Various versions of the attack story exist. According to the official Georgian version, rocket-propelled grenades struck two buses in a Georgian-controlled village on the Inguri River, which forms the border with Abkhazia, in the early afternoon of May 21. The buses were being used to ferry approximately 20 villagers across the river into Georgia's Zugdidi district to vote. The village, Khurcha, is situated between Georgian and Abkhaz territory, with bridges leading to either side.

Located less than a kilometer from the Abkhaz border, the buses have since been cordoned off pending an investigation. Journalists were not allowed to examine the buses on May 21.

Two women from Khurcha were reportedly wounded in the attack. One woman was hit by a bullet or piece of shrapnel that penetrated her lung; the second suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. Both have been hospitalized.

The incident was followed by a round of heavy gunfire, although between whom and where precisely remains unclear.

An official Georgian government statement affirms that the identity of the assailants is unknown, and states that the gunshots came from the Abkhaz side of the line of control.

At a May 21 news conference in Moscow, Abkhaz de facto leader Sergei Bagapsh claimed the gunfire occurred within Georgia proper, in the Zugdidi region, and denied any responsibility for the incident. He went on to characterize the episode as "a Hollywood show."

"For what reason would we blow up a bus? So, a bus came, or two buses, they came to vote -- that's what?