Georgian experts indicate shortcomings of Five-Day War report

The report of the international commission headed by Heidi Tagliavini on the Georgian-Russian war in August 2008 fails to present some important facts, due to the limited time for collecting evidence, and leaves many questions unanswered, Georgian experts believe.

In their opinion, the "diplomatic nature" of the report allows interpreting its conclusions differently. However, they failed to come to a common opinion about who started the war.

The report of the EU commission states that Georgian authorities are guilty of unleashing the war in Tskhinvali and using prohibited weapons, as well as of shelling non-military facilities and attacking UN militaries.

The commission headed by diplomat Heidi Tagliavini had worked for 10 months and presented the investigation results on September 30, 2009.

Gulbaat Rtskhiladze, a political analyst, believes that the war was unleashed by Mikhail Saakashvili, the then President of Georgia.

Mamuka Zhgenti, an employee of the NGO "Georgian Institute of European Values" disagrees stating that "Georgia did not go beyond its territory."

"The report admits a twofold interpretation ... It presents the Georgia's assertions that the bombardment of Tskhinvali was undertaken in order to defend the population and prevent the offensive of Russian troops, which, according to Tbilisi, had crossed the border," said Kakha Gogolashvili, the head of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies.

He recalled that Georgia had explained its actions by reciprocal fire, while Russia justified itself by the international right to protect its peacemakers.