08 September 2008, 12:09
UN Court in The Hague considers Georgia's suit against Russia
The UN International Court in The Hague has started three-day hearing of Georgia's claim against Russia.
The "Caucasian Knot" reported earlier that on August 14 Georgia sent a claim to the main UN's judicial body asking to take measures to urge Russia "to immediately stop violence against the peaceful population" of the country. On August 12, 2008 Georgia lodged a claim against the Russian Federation demanding compensation for "almost twenty years' discrimination of ethnic Georgians by Moscow."
The "Echo Moskvy" Radio reports that the UN International Court is to define first of all whether the case is under its jurisdiction. Besides, it has to understand whether the present situation meets the conditions demanding any provisional measures to be taken, as Tbilisi insists.
Sozar Subari, Georgian Ombudsman, stated, when meeting on September 1 the delegation of the Azerbaijan Public Committee on European Integration, that as a result of the latest Russian-Georgian conflict 150,000 Georgian citizens were forced to leave their homes.
The Reuters remarks that Tbilisi assures that violence in settlements and villages was exercised under direct support of Russia. Georgian leaders suggest to treat is as genocide. The claim affirms that more than hundred thousand residents left their homes in August.
According to the data disclosed by the Ministry for Matters of Refugees and Accommodation of Georgia on September 2, after the events in South Ossetia the country's territory still hosts 66,443 internally displaced persons. Some of them have already returned home.
