Georgia War Report Set to Blame Both Moscow and Tbilisi
By MARC CHAMPION
WSJ
An international report to be released Wednesday on last year's war between Russia and Georgia will place responsibility for the conflict on both countries, according to a person close to the Geneva-based fact-finding mission.
While the Cold War-level tensions between Russia and the West that blew up after Moscow's first post-Soviet invasion of a neighboring state have calmed since the August 2008 conflict, the stakes in the detailed findings of the 900-page report remain high for all sides, diplomats and analysts say.
The report, the result of more than nine months' investigation, is expected to address major questions of the war. These include: whether Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili started the war on the night of Aug. 7, or in response to a Russian invasion as he has claimed; whether Russia broke international law by intervening militarily or through its widespread invasion of another country that followed; whether Russia's recognition of the independence claims of Georgia's two separatist territories -- Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- was legal; and whether genocide or other atrocities were committed.
According to the person close to the mission, both Russia and Georgia cooperated fully with the mission and with the 20 experts -- ex-military officers, law professors and historians among others -- whom it tasked with providing analyses of specific aspects of the conflict, from military dispositions to issues of international law. The mission, formed by the European Union in December, is headed by Heidi Tagliavini, a Swiss diplomat with extensive experience in the Caucasus region.
A senior Georgian official said Tbilisi sent fresh documents to Ms. Tagliavini as recently as Friday. The documents, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, consist of court records from a trial in Russia of a soldier caught stealing. The records suggest the soldier was sent to South Ossetia on Aug. 4, three days before the outbreak of hostilities. Georgia believes the records support its case that Russian forces were already assembling in South Ossetia before the war, in preparation for attack.
The report's publication was delayed from July and both sides have been active up to the wire. On Sept. 17, Russia finally produced Marat Kulakhmetov, the commander of the Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia when the war took place, for Ms. Tagliavini to question in Geneva. She had long been asking to talk to Gen. Kulakhmetov, who disappeared from public view after the war.
(Continued here.)
WSJ
An international report to be released Wednesday on last year's war between Russia and Georgia will place responsibility for the conflict on both countries, according to a person close to the Geneva-based fact-finding mission.
While the Cold War-level tensions between Russia and the West that blew up after Moscow's first post-Soviet invasion of a neighboring state have calmed since the August 2008 conflict, the stakes in the detailed findings of the 900-page report remain high for all sides, diplomats and analysts say.
The report, the result of more than nine months' investigation, is expected to address major questions of the war. These include: whether Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili started the war on the night of Aug. 7, or in response to a Russian invasion as he has claimed; whether Russia broke international law by intervening militarily or through its widespread invasion of another country that followed; whether Russia's recognition of the independence claims of Georgia's two separatist territories -- Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- was legal; and whether genocide or other atrocities were committed.
According to the person close to the mission, both Russia and Georgia cooperated fully with the mission and with the 20 experts -- ex-military officers, law professors and historians among others -- whom it tasked with providing analyses of specific aspects of the conflict, from military dispositions to issues of international law. The mission, formed by the European Union in December, is headed by Heidi Tagliavini, a Swiss diplomat with extensive experience in the Caucasus region.
A senior Georgian official said Tbilisi sent fresh documents to Ms. Tagliavini as recently as Friday. The documents, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, consist of court records from a trial in Russia of a soldier caught stealing. The records suggest the soldier was sent to South Ossetia on Aug. 4, three days before the outbreak of hostilities. Georgia believes the records support its case that Russian forces were already assembling in South Ossetia before the war, in preparation for attack.
The report's publication was delayed from July and both sides have been active up to the wire. On Sept. 17, Russia finally produced Marat Kulakhmetov, the commander of the Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia when the war took place, for Ms. Tagliavini to question in Geneva. She had long been asking to talk to Gen. Kulakhmetov, who disappeared from public view after the war.
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home