Brussels: Georgia sparked a five-day war
with Russia last year by attacking rebel South Ossetia, an
investigating team said today, but it also blamed Russia for
violating international law.
"In the mission`s view, it was Georgia which triggered
off the war when it attacked Tskhinvali (in South Ossetia)
with heavy artillery on the night of 7 to 8 August, 2008," the
head of the fact-finding mission said.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has long insisted
that the attack in South Ossetia was launched after Russian
tanks moved into the breakaway region.
"None of the explanations given by the Georgian
authorities in order to provide some form of legal
justification for the attack lend it a valid explanation,"
said the team head, Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavina.
"In particular, there was no massive Russian military
invasion under way, which had to be stopped by Georgian
military forces shelling Tskhinvali," she added in a statement
to coincide with a report of some 1,000 pages.
But the 19-member investigating team, commissioned last
December to look into the causes of the five-day war, also
found evidence that Russia had fomented tensions.
"The Russian side, too, carries the blame for a
substantial number of violations of international law," said
Tagliavina.
She said Moscow`s actions included conferring Russian
citizenship en masse to people living in South Ossetia and the
other separatist region, Abhkazia.
Bureau Report
