1st video Former UN ambassador blames Saakashvili for August war 2nd video08-11-28 Even after attack Georgian ambassador not afraid to say - Dictator of Georgia should be tried.. 3d video08-11-25 U.S. congressman - Anyone can see Georgia was aggressor in S Ossetia. Former UN ambassador blames Saakashvili for August war 21 February, 2009, Last summer's conflict in South Ossetia was caused the hasty and irresponsible policies of Georgias government says its former ambassador to the United Nations Irakly Alasania. Alasania, who recently resigned and joined an opposition party, was speaking on Georgian TV. Georgian authorities didnt analyze the situation in full, they didnt have an idea of what was actually happening in the region, he said. According to the former UN ambassador, President Mikhail Saakashvili didnt have the authority to start a military operation. In that situation talks were the only outcome, not the steps that authorities took, which led to such tragic consequences. The actions that were taken were hasty and counter-productive for instance, the military rhetoric President Saakashvili resorted to, he noted. After Georgia invaded South Ossetia with killings of hundreds of local civilians and many Russian peacekeepers, Russia was forced to step in. After the war Moscow recognized South Ossetia and Georgias other breakaway republic of Abkhazia as independent states. Georgia started war in South Ossetia Georgian diplomat 08-11-26 Georgia's former ambassador to Russia Erosi Kitsmarishvili has accused his own country of starting the war in South Ossetia. His comments almost led to a fistfight between politicians. "It was the Georgian government that launched the military action" he told the Georgian parliamentary commission analysing the August events Erosi Kitsmarishvili was one of the founders of the Rose Revolution and the former head of Georgia's Rustavi-2 TV station. This, however, didn't prevent the anger of one member of the commission on hearing his statement. He threw a pen at the former ambassador and was prevented from physical attack on Ambassador . "Today's session is a vivid example of how the Saakashvili regime is collapsing," commented Pikriya Chikhradze, a leader of the Georgian opposition party, New Rightists. "The behaviour of the commission members who assaulted Erosi Kitsmarishvili, shows that they are interested not in listening to a person who possesses really important information, but in publicly denying it." Kitsmarishvili had more revelations about his conversations with President Saakashvili. "The President told me he wanted to relocate the Georgian capital to Sukhum in Abkhazia in August," he said. "I told him there wasn't any peaceful way to reach this goal in four months and asked how we could develop relations with such plans in mind?" Kitsmarishvili's controversial comments are seen by some as evidence of a growing battle in Georgian politics. "A tough political fight is developing in Georgia between Saakashvili's team and the opposition. And the Georgian opposition consists of former allies of the incumbent president," said Vladimir Zharikhin, Deputy Head of the Institute of CIS countries. "The West knew that Saakashvili started the war. Yet there was an attempt to tell this story differently. But such distortion of the picture is possible only for a short term." South Ossetia and Abkhazia were part of Georgia during the Soviet era. After the breakup of the USSR, the two republics pushed for independence resulting in an armed conflict with Tbilisi. After several years of fighting a Russia- UN peacekeeping force was deployed in the two conflict zones. The growing tensions erupted into a war between Georgia and South Ossetia in August 2008. The mainly Russian peacekeeping mission in the region deployed troops to push Georgian forces out of South Ossetia. The republic's authorities claim Georgias actions caused the death of more than one and a half thousand civilians. Despite criticism from the West, on August 26 Russia recognised the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Georgian parliamentary commission investigating the conflict in South Ossetia is expected to announce its conclusion on what happened and who is to blame in mid- December. Some findings are already known and according to the head of the commission, a criminal case could be opened against Georgia's former ambassador to Russia for alleged negligence during his work. November 13, 2008

Russia Seeks Inquiry Into Monitors' Account of Georgia War

By ELLEN BARRY MOSCOW - Russia has asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for an inquiry into the accounts of military observers stationed in the South Ossetian separatist capital of Tskhinvali on the night of Aug. 7, when it was shelled by Georgian forces. An article in The New York Times on Nov. 7 described newly available accounts by three monitors working in Tskhinvali for the O.S.C.E., a multilateral organization that has monitored the conflict in Georgia since the 1990s. The article detailed observations by the monitors, shared with diplomats at two confidential briefings, which suggested that Georgia had attacked the city with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire. The article also reported that the monitors were unable to verify heavy bombardment of Georgian villages on the night of Aug. 7, a main justification for the Georgian attack. Georgian officials have contested the account, while the Kremlin has embraced it. The Finnish foreign minister, Alexander Stubb, said Wednesday that he would cooperate with the Russian request and a Swiss-led European Union investigation into the war's origins, but he added that the small Tskhinvali detachment could shed little light on the question. "It's not my job to make a judgment of who started the war," he said at a news conference in Moscow, a day after meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov. "The O.S.C.E. is not an intelligence service," he added. "I find the debate very surreal. Our instruments are very limited - eight unarmed military observers, compared to the intelligence services of the rest of the world." He said that throughout the war, the organization's records - daily "spot reports" and his own official statements - were shared with the O.S.C.E.'s member states, including Russia. The conflict in Georgia, which brought Russia into tense confrontation with the West, had been simmering for days before Aug. 7. Georgia has said it carried out the attack because a Russian invasion was under way, but Western intelligence agencies have not been able to confirm that account. The Georgian government has been calling for an impartial investigation of the war's outbreak since August, saying it would reveal a Russian military buildup and attacks on Georgian settlements. "Things have not started on the seventh, and it is clear to anyone who is familiar with the matter," said Giga Bokeria, Georgia's deputy foreign minister. "We hope the commission will look at the issues and we certainly hope Russia will be made to be open, as we are ready to be, with the commission." The O.S.C.E. monitors' account is significant because the three monitors - a Finnish major, a Belarussian airborne captain and a Polish civilian - were the only impartial military observers on the battlefield. Mr. Lavrov said Tuesday that Russia was "very much interested in finding the truth about what the O.S.C.E. observers say, what they reported and to whom those reports were presented." He added: "We are not trying to accuse anyone of anything. We are very far from this thought. However, taking into account continuous ‘leaks' to the media on this subject, we have raised a question in the permanent O.S.C.E. council in Vienna asking to clarify it." Since the war's end, Russia and the security organization have been at odds about allowing monitors to return to South Ossetia. The O.S.C.E. has a mandate for eight observers to return, but they have not been allowed to enter the enclave, Mr. Stubb said.