[Pen-l] new word on the Russia/Georgia war

["Jim Devine" <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

November 26, 2008 / New York TIMES

Ex-Diplomat Says Georgia Started War With Russia
By OLESYA VARTANYAN and ELLEN BARRY

TBILISI, Georgia — A parliamentary hearing on the origins of the war
between Georgia and Russia in August ended in a furor on Tuesday after
a former Georgian diplomat testified that Georgian authorities were
responsible for starting the conflict.

Erosi Kitsmarishvili, Tbilisi's former ambassador to Moscow, testified
for three hours before he was shouted down by members of Parliament.

A former confidant of President Mikheil Saakashvili, Mr.
Kitsmarishvili said Georgian officials told him in April that they
planned to start a war in Abkhazia, one of two breakaway regions at
issue in the war, and had received a green light from the United
States government to do so. He said the Georgian government later
decided to start the war in South Ossetia, the other region, and
continue into Abkhazia.

He would not name the officials who he said had told him about planned
actions in Abkhazia, saying that identifying them would endanger their
lives.

American officials have consistently said that they had warned Mr.
Saakashvili against taking action in the two enclaves, where Russian
peacekeepers were stationed.

Mr. Kitsmarishvili's testimony in front of a parliamentary commission,
shown live on Georgian television, met with forceful and immediate
denials. One commission member, Givi Targamadze, threw a pen and then
lunged toward Mr. Kitsmarishvili, but was restrained by his
colleagues.

The chairman of the commission, Paata Davitaia, said he would initiate
a criminal case against Mr. Kitsmarishvili for "professional
negligence."

Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria, who appeared on short notice to
comment on Mr. Kitsmarishvili's testimony, called the allegations
"irresponsible and shameless fabrication," and said they were "either
the result of a lack of information or the personal resentment of a
man who has lost his job and wants to get involved in politics." Mr.
Kitsmarishvili was fired in September by the president.

Mr. Kitsmarishvili walked out amid the furor on Tuesday. "They don't
want to listen to the truth," he told reporters.

Russia and Georgia have each painted the other as the aggressor in the
five-day war. Georgia said it launched an attack on the South Ossetian
capital, Tskhinvali, because a Russian invasion was under way. Russia
says it sent combat troops into the enclave to protect civilians and
peacekeepers after Georgia's offensive had begun.

Russian forces drove deep into central Georgia, and remain in Abkhazia
and South Ossetia, which Moscow has formally recognized as independent
nations.

The hearings are part of an official Georgian inquiry, the full name
of which is the Temporary Commission to Study Russia's Military
Aggression and Other Actions Undertaken With the Aim to Infringe
Georgia's Territorial Integrity. Many senior officials have already
testified, and the president is scheduled to appear Friday. Mr.
Kitsmarishvili had petitioned to appear, saying a refusal to hear him
would show that the inquiry was hollow.

In his comments, the former diplomat said that Mr. Saakashvili was
responding to Russian provocation, but that he had long been planning
to take control of the enclaves, which won de facto independence from
Georgia in fighting in the early 1990s.

Mr. Kitsmarishvili said the president aimed to start an offensive in
2004, but met with resistance from Western and other Georgian
officials.

Among the catalysts for the offensive, Mr. Kitsmarishvili said, was
the belief that United States officials had given their approval. When
he tried to verify that information with the American diplomats in
Tbilisi, Mr. Kitsmarishvili said, he was told no such approval had
been given.

Olesya Vartanyan reported from Tbilisi, Georgia, and Ellen Barry from Moscow.

-- 
Jim Devine /  "Nobody told me there'd be days like these / Strange
days indeed -- most peculiar, mama." -- JL.
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