KEY POINTS:
Women in black headscarves stood by the open coffin, weeping quietly.
A sound system was installed on the balcony of the family home and mourners took turns at the microphone to read harrowing tributes to the young woman who had died.
Many wore badges bearing a picture of
her face. Poignantly, a new car was on display on the lawn near the coffin - the one Iveta Toria's family bought as a gift for her forthcoming wedding.
This was the sombre scene at the funeral of one of the victims of the latest upsurge of violence in Abkhazia - the picturesque Black Sea region which has become a flashpoint in an increasingly dangerous dispute between the small former Soviet republic of Georgia and its powerful neighbour, Russia.
In the Soviet era, senior officials abandoned the Kremlin each year to relax on Abkhazia's shores and in its spas. But since the break-up of the USSR, the future of this corner of the Caucasus has been bitterly contested. The former playground of Stalin and his cronies and generations of communist commissars now threatens to become a battleground.
Toria had been discussing marriage plans with her future husband in a cafe in the town of Gali when a bomb went off, killing them and two others.
"The people living here, we're like a family, and all of us feel like we've lost part of our body or spirit," said a local woman sitting in the park nearby. She asked not to be identified. "We are all afraid," she said.
In Gali these days many people fear that speaking out publicly could invite trouble. The atmosphere is tense and fearful. "Since the explosions, people are staying in their houses," said a young man, who also wished to remain anonymous. "Many people feel that there might be war again."
It has been almost 15 years since ethnic Abkhaz militias won a bloody war for independence from Georgia, in which thousands were killed and 250,000 Georgians - around half of Abkhazia's population - fled. But in Gali, the only area where some of the refugees have been allowed to return, it looks as if the fighting has only just ended.
The area used to be known for its tea plantations, tangerine groves and hazelnut crops, but now it is impoverished and desperate. Many houses were bombed into rubble or abandoned to the stray dogs who scavenge amid heaps of decaying rubbish. Russian peacekeeping troops in armoured personnel carriers cruise the potholed roads between fortified checkpoints, watchfully cradling their Kalashnikovs.
"Whenever I come back here, I feel like I'm entering a jungle," the young man said. "I can't believe that it's 2008 and we still have men driving around these streets with weapons."
This month's bomb in Gali came shortly after a series of other small explosions in Sukhumi and Gagra. Georgian officials suggested that feuding Abkhaz mafias probably caused the blasts.
But the secessionist authorities that have controlled Abkhazia since the end of the war, unrecognised by the rest of the world, disagreed. "We blame Georgia for these terrorist acts," said the deputy foreign minister, Maxim Gunjia. "Of course they've denied it, but it's clear for us that Georgia is becoming more aggressive in its attempts to get Abkhazia back."
Abkhazia's lush, subtropical climate made it the favourite destination of the Soviet elite, who built dachas and sanatoriums for their summer holidays. Stalin, a Georgian, liked it so much that he maintained a series of villas as seasonal retreats.
These days, the mansions are dilapidated or damaged and rusting debris lies amid the palm trees. But Moscow's influence remains powerful.
Abkhazia has its own flag, anthem and complex language. But its currency is the Russian rouble and Moscow is the only source of financial support for the secessionist Government.
A mosaic of Lenin's face gazes down sternly from the main gates of the large Russian compound in Sukhumi. As well as housing peacekeeping troops, the compound has holiday accommodation and leisure facilities for Russian tourists, who still return to Abkhazia because it's cheap. At night, it's the liveliest place in the city, as vodka bottles are drained and Russian techno-pop echoes across Sukhumi bay.
But since the bomb blasts, even some of the Russians have been going elsewhere. The capital's streets have been almost unnaturally quiet since its Georgian residents fled when the city fell to the secessionist militias in 1993.
Russia is Abkhazia's only political ally. In an attempt to create the trappings of statehood, the secessionist authorities have issued Abkhaz passports. But the passports cannot be used for travel abroad because the region is internationally recognised as part of Georgia. So Moscow has given most people here Russian passports and has vowed to bring its military might into play to defend its new "citizens" if fighting breaks out again.
The pro-Western Government in Georgia believes that its former Kremlin masters are using the Abkhaz secessionists as pawns in a wider geo-political game.
Supported by the United States, Georgia is hoping to take the next step towards membership of Nato - an ambition strongly opposed by Moscow, which does not want the military alliance to extend its reach farther into the former Soviet Union.
Since Nato countries agreed in April that Georgia would, at some unspecified future date, become a member of the alliance, the tensions over Abkhazia have escalated sharply.
Russia announced it would establish official ties with the secessionist authorities, then boosted its peacekeeping forces in Abkhazia, ordering in hundreds of extra soldiers and beefing up its military hardware. The Russians have also sent Army engineers to upgrade the railway which runs from the Russian border.
Georgian officials say Russia is preparing the ground for hostile action. "Russia is trying to annex Abkhazia," said Georgia's Minister for Reintegration, Temuri Yakobashvili. "Having extra troops on Georgian soil illegally, without Georgian consent, can only be described as occupation. Allowing your government to establish direct relations with the secessionist regime is a violation of the territorial integrity of Georgia and of international law. In effect, Russia is trying to redraw the eastern borders of Europe."
Many Georgians believe Moscow has been stirring up trouble in Abkhazia and in Georgia's other breakaway region, South Ossetia, to portray their country as unstable and an unworthy candidate for Nato membership.
In Abkhazia, the authorities claim Russian peacekeepers are the only guarantee of security against a potential Georgian invasion and that only Moscow has dared to lift the economic embargo which has kept Abkhazia in poverty and isolation.
Negotiations to resolve the conflict are in deadlock. A few months ago, a Georgian peace plan offering widespread autonomy and economic incentives to Abkhazia was rejected. And on Saturday a similar Western-backed initiative was also dismissed by Abkhazia's President, Sergei Bagapsh, who warned that there could be no compromise on the issue of independence.
"Every step Georgia takes is pushing Abkhazia closer to Russia," said Gunjia. "The only support we've received to date is from Russia. We're grateful. Why should we refuse it? I remember the faces of Georgian soldiers during the war and what they did here. Now they say, 'Give us a chance, we'll be kind to you.' We don't believe them."
A taxi driver in Sukhumi put it more forcefully. "Our house was destroyed and my brothers were killed. Why should we forgive?"
ABOUT ABKHAZIA
* WHAT: An autonomous republic of Georgia covering just under 8545 sq km.
* POPULATION: 250,000 (down from 550,000 in 1991).
* LANGUAGE: The official language is Abkhaz, spoken only in the north Caucasus.
* RELIGION: Three-quarters of the population are orthodox Christians. Ten per cent are Sunni Muslims.
* POLITICS: Abkhazia adopted a new constitution in 1994, declared full independence in 1999 but is not recognised internationally.
* ECONOMY: Major cash crops are tea, tobacco and citrus fruits.
* CLIMATE: Shielded by the Caucasus mountains and close to the Black Sea, Abkhazia's climate is extremely mild, with an average annual temperature of 15C.
* HISTORY: Russia made Abkhazia a protectorate in 1810 and in 1931 Soviet authorities incorporated it into Georgia. Thousands were executed in Stalinist purges. During Stalin's rule the Soviet elite holidayed on its Black Sea coast.
- OBSERVER
