Poor Planning, Failure of Host Blamed for Presidential Convoy Shooting Incident

A report issued by the Polish Government on November 27, concluded that shots fired near a motorcade carrying the Georgian and Polish Presidents at the breakaway South Ossetian border was not an assassination attempt, The Associated Press and the Polish media sources reported.

The report blamed poor planning by Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s office for his trip to Georgia and faulted Georgian security service for a failure to ensure a proper security, according to these reports.

The Associated Press reported quoting Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, that “hosts did not fulfill their obvious duties” to provide appropriate security.

The report does not say who fired shots.

In an interview with the Russian daily, Kommersant, South Ossetian officials have acknowledged that the breakaway region’s border guard fired “warning shots” into the air to prevent the motorcade from entering inside the breakaway region.

On November 23 when Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, was visiting Georgia, he and President Saakashvili, as it was envisaged by the schedule, traveled to the Shida Kartli region to visit one of the settlements for internally displaced persons. Before arriving in the village of Metekhi in the Kaspi district, the presidential convoy turned in direction of Akhalgori – a move which was not pre-planned.

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