Accusations over August War investigation
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, November 27
Majority MP Tina Khidasheli claims that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is carrying out an investigation over the August War 2008. She stressed that nothing genuine had been done under the previous government to prove that Russia was guilty in the war and the Kremlin undertook ethnic cleansing on Georgian territory.
“The current government is doing its best to uncover Russia’s wrongdoings in the war. It is in our interests for the court to make a verdict in favor of us,” Khidasheli said. She admitted that former officials Tina Burjalinai and Zurab Adeishvili had information over the investigation in ICC.
Khidasheli claims that the previous government did not send a single bit of evidence to the court.
“I, Tina Khidasheli sent 6,000 pieces of evidence to the court in favor of Georgia. I was in the NGO sector then and together with various organizations we collected photo and videos forage to send to the court,” Khidasheli said.
Responding to the statement, Former Deputy Minister of Justice of Georgia Tina Burjaliani accused Khidasheli of “lying” and “irresponsibility” concerning the investigation of the Russian-Georgian War in 2008.
Burjaliani says that she met with Mr. Luis Moreno Ocampo, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on 13 August 2008 and informed him.
“I met with him in September 2008 and gave him the case files depicting the ethnic cleansing of Georgians carried out by Russian soldiers, war crimes and other serious offenses. In addition, Zurab Adeishvili (Georgia’s former Justice Minister) and I met with Mr. Ocampo in 2009 and gave him the additional materials. I sent a lot of documents, depicting ethnic cleansing of Georgians carried out by Russian soldiers, war crimes and other serious offenses, to the International Criminal Court in 2009-2011,” she says.
Burjaliani admits that the documents were sent to the International Criminal Court through the relevant departments of the Justice Ministry and the Prosecutor’s Office. “These letters’ copies should be in the above-mentioned agencies,” she says.
“In addition, the Ministry of Justice of Georgia filed two complaints against the Russian Federation in the International Court of Justice in The Hague and in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg”, Burjaliani adds.
According to her, Khidasheli should inform the public about the current situation regarding these cases.She stresses that during the former government, the Georgian Foreign Ministry sent a note to the Russian Federation, where Moscow is accused in the ethnic cleansing of Georgians, thus began the process set by the International Court of Justice.
“This process has been suspended since the arrival of the new government. The fate of this process is unknown,” she says.
