Bagapsh Vows Killing of Muslim Cleric will be Resolved

The Abkhaz leader said at a meeting with the Muslim community of Abkhazia on August 23 that law enforcement agencies would spare no efforts in resolving the murder of Khamzat Gitsba, an imam at a mosque in Gudauta.

Bagapsh, according to his official website, also called upon others to refrain from making any statement ?that may hinder the investigation.?

Khamzat Gitsba was shot dead in Gudauta on August 17. A Russian citizen from the city of Ufa, Ruslan Asadulin, who was with Gitsba at the time, was also killed.

Gitsba fought against Georgian forces in the early 1990s in Abkhazia under the command of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. In 1996 he and others seized the steamship “Avrazia” in Turkey?s Black Sea port of Trabzon in a move to express support for Chechen rebels. The Russian daily, Kommersant, reported that he returned to Abkhazia in 2000 after serving a prison term in Turkey and became a Muslim cleric.

The Kommersant wrote on August 18 that Gitsba had fallen out of favor with the Abkhaz authorities as the latter feared he was ?inspiring Wahhabism.?

Bagapsh, however, said it was too early to name any particular motive behind the murder, according to the Apsnipress.

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