Georgian President Saakashvili: "we started the
war"
For the first time ever, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili
has admitted that his country started the military conflict in
South Ossetia in August. But the Georgian leader is adamant the
action was justified. He was testifying before a parliamentary
commission investigating the five-day war.
According to Saakashvili, the attack on the South Ossetian
capital, which involved night shelling of residential areas with
multiple rocket launcher systems, was aimed at protecting Georgian
citizens. He said it was a response to Russia’s “intervention” in
the region.
“We did start military action to
take control of Tskhinvali and other unruly areas. But we took this
difficult decision to fend off our territory from intervention and
save the people who were dying. It was inevitable,”
Saakavili said.
The Georgian President claims Russia moved tanks into South
Ossetian territory before Georgia launched its attack.
He said: “The issue is not about
why Georgia started military action – we admit we started it. The
issue is about whether there was another chance when our citizens
were being killed? We tried to prevent the intervention and fought
on our own territory.”
“I used to like
Putin”
Mikhail Saakashvili said the deterioration of relations between
Tbilisi and Moscow had nothing to do with his personal relations
with Vladimir Putin. There was some speculation in the media that
Putin bore a personal grudge against Saakashvili after he allegedly
insulted Putin when he was president several years earlier.
The Georgian President said: “I
never insulted him [Vladimir Putin] before anyone, that’s a
lie.”
“All the gossip that the
differences between our countries are based on personal hostility
is an invented thing,” he said.
Ex-ambassador’s allegations
‘groundless’
Mikhail Saakashvili dismissed as nonsense the allegations voiced
earlier this week by the former Georgian ambassador to Moscow,
Erossi Kitsmarishvili. The diplomat said Tbilisi had been preparing
the military campaign against South Ossetia for several years and
put the blame for the bloodshed on Mikhail Saakashvili.
“Kitsmarishvili’s allegations are
groundless; his status was not high enough to attend the Security
Council meetings where the country’s foreign policy was decided. He
could not know our plans, and those certainly have nothing to do
with his version,” the Georgian leader said on Friday.
Opposition: EU should treat
Saakashvili like Zimbabwe’s Mugabe
The opposition Labour Party in Georgia has called on the EU to
freeze the bank accounts of Mikhail Saakashvili and several other
top officials. According to party secretary, Georgi Gugava, such a
move would stop them from fleeing the country.
“The Saakashvili administration
have packed their suitcases and hope to flee and live a quiet and
prosperous life abroad on what they’ve stolen and looted,”
he said.
The proposed sanctions would be similar to those imposed against
more then 100 Zimbabwe officials, who had their bank accounts
frozen by the EU in June.