The Hague: The International Court of Justice on Friday threw out a case filed by Georgia accusing Russia and separatist militias of years of ethnic cleansing in two breakaway Georgian provinces that sparked a five-day war in 2008.
In a 10-6 ruling, President Hisashi Owada said that the United Nations' highest court had no jurisdiction in the case because Russia and Georgia had not attempted to negotiate a settlement to their long-running dispute before filing it to the court at the end of the war.
Georgia complained to the court in 2008 that Russian authorities and militias allied to Moscow murdered thousands of ethnic Georgians and displaced some 300,000 people in a two-decade campaign of discrimination in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Georgia's Deputy Justice Minister Tina Burjaliani said she regretted the case had been dismissed "on a procedural technicality" and said it left open the possibility of filing a fresh case at a later date.
"We are certainly disappointed that proceedings will not immediately lead to the examination of the case," she said.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, April 01, 2011, 16:51