Burdjanadze Accuses Saakashvili of Lie and Concealment


An attempt of a number of countries to accuse Russia of launching a war against Georgia in August 2008 landed up in failure. At the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that was held on 1 October 2009 in Brussels after hearing the report of the international independent mission headed by Heidi Tagliavini two thirds of participants of this forum agreed with the proposed EC findings of the mission on investigation of the aggression committers, causes and consequences.

The document clearly confirms Moscow’s position that Tbilisi was the first to begin military operations against South Ossetia, and Georgia can say goodbye for a long time to all hopes to enter NATO, not to speak of the EU membership. This war caused Abkhazia’s and South Ossetia’s actual withdrawal from Georgia, and these regions basically have no chances to return in the Georgian state.

EC and the USA continue to render Tbilisi significant assistance and, thanks to regular pouring of money, Georgia’s economic situation is now stable, in spite of the world crisis.

Times of preparation of the European Commission’s report and its promulgation were illegally delayed, and the political environment around Georgia considerably changed. Last year the unambiguous blaming of Georgia as responsible for the conflict may have helped to keep Russia from acknowledging the sovereignty of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But it was already before Barack Obama’s visit to Moscow and the world financial crisis. Since then in relations between the USA and Russia pragmatism and sober views on events in the region have become predominant.

Washington and the Western Europe are interested in Russia’s support of their actions in Afghanistan, settlement of the problem of Iran’s civilian nuclear power development. For Moscow the war in Georgia became a legacy of the shadowy age of George Bush Jr. being partly overcome today. The world financial-economic crisis made political leaders to behave more responsibly and they will have a lot of opportunities to prove it in the future.

Tbilisi and its eastern European allies expanded an unprecedented anti-Russian campaign during the period of the report preparation. Some supported Russia’s influence restriction in EC up to its exclusion from the poll in PACE. The result turned out to be exactly opposite and painful for the Georgian regime.

Saakashvili and his supporters are very disappointed, but quite quickly came out of the sad prostration and began to actively use the “justified themselves” methods of making a fool of their own people. On the declaration of Nino Burdjanadze, the ex-speaker of Georgia’s parliament, leader of the “Democratic Movement - United Georgia” movement, they simply suppress before the public the truth of Heidi Tagliavini’s mission report.

“Even Georgia’s authorities do not deny the objectivity of the mission’s findings, in spite of the fact that it gives the severest for our country and the power itself estimates. They tried traditionally to conceal the truth from their people again by means of controlled mass media. Concealment and “defacement’ of the facts given in the findings is another crime before the citizens of Georgia,” said N.Burdjanadze.

She said that all authoritative international mass media referring to this report represented Georgia as a country that launched the war, which is very dangerous for the state’s future. In this connection she believes that “Georgia’s state separation from Saakashvili’s regime, who committed a grave crime against his country and people” is required.

“When we speak about the people, we mean Georgians, Abkhazians and Ossetians... There is no doubt such authorities have no right to govern the country, “said N.Burdjanadze.

The acknowledgement of Saakashvili’s regime liability for the unleashing of war against South Ossetia and the following tragic events of final separation of the two important regions from the state are a conclusive proof of maturation of the forces deprecating the current Georgian authorities.

This document may be able to urge the Georgian opposition to become enlightened and admit a real perpetrator of crime against his state, to overcome parochial disagreements and join its efforts in struggle against the losing international positions Saakashvili’s regime.
2009-10-02 14:38
Yuri Veselov