Ruling party official rejects opposition’s branding of 2008 war investigation as “Russian affair”
Mdinaradze also alleged the UNM Government signed a resolution “blaming the Georgian troops for starting the war and bombing [the city of] Tskhinvali”, before agreeing to the Heidi Tagliavini Report on facts around the conflict that had said the Government had “fired the first shot” of the war on the evening of August 7, after it had “broadcast video footage” of the bombing using cluster bombs. Photo: Georgian Dream Press Office
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Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Friday responded to the United National Movement opposition party’s branding of GD’s announced intention to investigate facts around the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia as a “Russian affair” by highlighting rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court that said the Georgian troops did not violate human rights or commit war crimes during the war.
UNM’s reaction itself came following the announcement of intentions by the ruling party for a “public legal process” and allegations of “treason” on behalf of the former UNM Government during the war.
Mdinaradze said the investigation was a “key matter” for the Government because “no one will dare to commit treacherous acts against Georgia” with the precedent of the inquiry.
The most primitive PR campaigns [by UNM] consist of [messages on] what they dislike, [and] they refer to everything as Russian. This investigation is as ‘Russian’ as the law of transparency [of foreign influence] was [in reference to the branding of the bill by the opposition]”, he added.
The official claimed the former UNM Government had removed the article of treason from the country’s law months before the 2008 war, “restored” the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast of the Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region the conflict was mostly fought in, and “surrendered” Kodori Valley and Upper Abkhazia in the north-west.
Mdinaradze also alleged the UNM Government signed a resolution “blaming the Georgian troops for starting the war and bombing [the city of] Tskhinvali”, before agreeing to the Heidi Tagliavini Report on facts around the conflict that had said the Government had “fired the first shot” of the war on the evening of August 7, after it had “broadcast video footage” of the bombing using cluster bombs.
The party official also said paragraph 11 of the Tagliavini resolution stated that the Georgian troops “may have committed” war crimes during the conflict.