Shooting and fighting went on for many hours in the streets of Sukhumi. A man riding a bicycle and selling ice cream from a box attached to his bike, entered the road. Confused and frightened by gunshots, he froze, unable to move. For a moment the shooting stopped. From both sides, fighters dropped guns, came out and bought ice cream. They returned to their hiding places and a few minutes later, when they finished eating ice cream, the shooting continued. Sukhumi was populated with Greeks, Gypsies, Armenians, Turks, Russians, Tatars, Abkhaz and Georgians living together for centuries in peace, frequently intermarried, celebrated social events together, buried dead relatives together and toasted each other's health. Nobody would have imagined that one day, the little subtropical paradise Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast, would be engulfed in a brutal war between Georgians and Abkhaz, provoked by the Kremlin.
