Georgia’s ‘Recommendations’ to EU’s War Inquiry

Grigol Vashadze, the Georgian foreign minister, said Tbilisi wanted the EU-sponsored inquiry mission into the August war, to take into consideration number of key issues during its work.

“We have voiced several recommendations, requests towards the commission,” Vashadze told journalists after meeting with head of mission, Heidi Tagliavini, in Tbilisi on December 16. “First of all, the Russia’s August aggression should not be discussed as an isolated event; we should consider it in a broader context, in particular within those developments which have been taking place since early [19]90s, because Georgia was in permanent condition of war and Russia was sometimes turning this [condition of war] into remission and sometimes into a hot phase.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry also said earlier in December that it was important “to elaborate impartial positions about… the exact sequence of events, starting from the beginning of early [19]90s.”

“Secondly,” Vashadze said, “the commission should pay attention to those cases of mass human rights violations, which are taking place in the occupied territories.”

EU formally endorsed on December 2 to create a “fact-finding mission” to probe into “the origins and the course of the conflict… with regard to international law, humanitarian law and human rights, and the accusations made in that context.” It also says that the mission’s “geographical and time limits will be sufficiently broad to determine the possible causes.”

Vashadze also said that the Georgian side wanted the inquiry mission to look through a report that would be produced by the Georgian parliamentary commission, which studied the August war. The commission with an official name Temporary Commission to Study Russia’s Military Aggression and Other Actions Undertaken with the Aim to Infringe Georgia’s Territorial Integrity is soon to unveil its report based on extensive hearings involving two dozen of senior officials, or former officials.

The Georgian Foreign Minister also said that Tbilisi wanted the commission to also meet and listen to representatives of the Tbilisi-backed Abkhaz government-in-exile and the South Ossetian provisional administration.

Vashadze also said that the inquiry mission was not yet fully set up, as it only involved its chairperson, Heidi Tagliavini and her two deputies. The group is expected to involve at least ten “recognised experts” including historians, military, jurists and rights experts.

Vashadze said that that Tagliavini’s visit was a preparatory one and added that “it was not quite clear yet what type of report the mission has to produce and how it will work.”

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