Ruling Party Says UNM Misleading Veterans of Russia-Georgia War
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Monday, November 19
The Georgian Dream ruling party says that the opposition and the United National Movement presidential candidate Grigol Vashadze are “lying and misleading” Georgian soldiers when they say that they [the servicemen] have been left alone in the war-related dispute in the International Criminal Court in Hague.
Vashadze stated that the Georgian Dream government is no longer providing the court with the information defending Georgian rights against Russia, which may cause a “very negative outcome for Georgia.”
He also stated that Georgian soldiers will have to defend their own rights at the court and they may face prosecution, as the current state leadership “will not stand by them.”
The Georgian Dream leadership has stated that the information is false and that the ICC never settles disputes between states.
The Georgian Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani says that ICC, which is an intergovernmental organisation and international tribunal, prosecutes individuals [and not states] for genocide crimes, international crimes, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
She stated that Georgia and Russia, as two states, disputed at the International Court of Justice, which is the principal judicial organ of UN settling legal disputes between member countries and giving advisory opinions to authorized UN organs.
“However, due to the low qualification and making a haste, Georgia lost the case,” Tsulukiani said.
The International Court of Justice dismissed Georgia’s case against Russia in 2011, under the United National Movement leadership, wherein it accused Russia of ethnic cleansing in the two breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia during the conflict which took place between 7 and 12 August 2008.
The court did not deliver any verdict, only stated that local mechanisms were still left to address the issue and only after when all the local resources would be used, the case could be renewed.
The ICC launched the investigation of the Russia-Georgia war issues in 2015 and the prosecutor, who investigates the case, has stated many times that the Georgian government is cooperating closely, while Russia has refused to do so.
