Saakashvili: We Can Prove Georgia did not Start War

President Saakashvili claimed that Tbilisi possessed “solid” evidence proving that Georgia did not start the war, as well as rebutting allegations that Georgia went into the Russian trap.

Speaking at a news conference after talks with his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, after midnight on September 9, Saakashvili said he had handed over to President Sarkozy; President of European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Tbilisi “very strong proof.”

“I know people have been asking questions: who started the hostilities?” he said. “Everybody knows now that [charges of] genocide were fake; there was no genocide [a reference to Russian allegations that Georgia committed genocide of the South Ossetian population].”

“I gave President Sarkozy, President Barroso and Javier Solana, I think, very strong proof that the Georgians had responded to a large-scale Russian invasion before the hostilities had begun,” he added, without going into the details of the evidence.

“We can prove this; it is very solid proof and you will be able to assess it for yourselves,” he continued. “From now on, I don’t think there will be any more speculation on whether Georgia started it or whether Georgia fell into a [Russian] trap; we did not fall into a trap; we did not start it. They [Russia] started it; they invaded us in a classic 19th and 20th century manner, and unfortunately it has happened again in the 21st century.”

He also said that Georgia was willing to agree to an international investigation of what led to the war.

“Any international commission to investigate it would be welcomed,” he told journalist in separate remarks after the news conference with Sarkozy.  “We are in favor of a serious international investigation… I’ve heard [German] Foreign Minister [Frank-Walter] Steinmeier speaking about it; I was the first one to say that; we want maximum transparency; we are for transparency.”