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.