CALL FROM YEREVAN FREED HOSTAGES SEIZED IN ABKHAZIA

Without any preconditions Georgian guerrillas released 17-year-old Arakelian and 19-year-old Sichinava seized hostages in Abkhazia July 30. As “Yerkramas”, the newspaper of Armenians of South of Russia informs, the representative of the Georgian guerrilla movement acting in the Abkhazian conflict zone denied that the guerrillas had shot the third hostage – 76-year-old Andranik Arakelian. In his words, when their group was fired upon from the Abkhazian side a hostage named Mamashev was killed with a stray bullet. As for the release of the other two hostages, in the guerrilla’s words, an Armenian doctor being ex Abkhazian resident and seized Arakelian’s uncle contributed to it. The fact was that this doctor had once performed an operation on the heart of the guerrilla group captain’s father. “This man called me from Yerevan and asked to release his nephew. We could nothing but free the hostages. Immediately after the call we took them to a bus and sent back home”, – the guerrillas’ representative said.