Word: conflict
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...page report, the investigators say Georgia fired the first shots in the August 2008 conflict when it launched an attack on the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which the team deemed "unjustifiable" under international law. But the report, which was sponsored by the European Union, says the attack followed months of Russian provocation, including a heavy military buildup in the region and increased support for separatist movements in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region of Georgia. (See pictures of the war in Georgia...
...report was written over nine months by Heidi Tagliavini, a Swiss diplomat leading the inquiry, with the help of 19 European military, legal and history experts tasked with investigating the "causes and roots" of the conflict. The war lasted just five days: Russian forces quickly repelled the Georgian assault and advanced deep into Georgian territory, pulling back only when a cease-fire was brokered. Yet soldiers remain on the border between the two countries to this day, and tensions have not subsided. (Read "One Year On, Could Russia and Georgia Fight Another...
...inquiry says the conflict started the moment Georgia shelled the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali on the night of Aug. 7-8, 2008. "In the mission's view, it was Georgia which triggered off the war when it attacked Tskhinvali with heavy artillery," Tagliavini said in a statement accompanying the report. The document condemns the bombing, saying it was an overly aggressive response to the provocation. "It is not possible to accept that the shelling of Tskhinvali ... would satisfy the requirements of having been necessary and proportionate in order to defend those villages," it says...
...inquiry rejects outright the Russian allegations that Georgia had carried out a genocide against the South Ossetian population, but it accepts Tbilisi's charges that ethnic cleansing took place against Georgians driven from South Ossetia in the conflict...
...Georgia, President Mikheil Saakashvili, once considered a champion of democracy in the region, has seen his stature fall at home and abroad since the conflict. However, street protests in April failed to topple him, and he still has friends in high places: the Obama Administration. Vice President Joe Biden visited Tbilisi in July and pledged continued U.S. support for efforts by Georgia and Ukraine to break free of Russia's orbit. (See pictures of Joe Biden...