Saakashvili: in August Georgia tried to set control over South Ossetia

President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili has confirmed his decision to launch the warfare aimed at establishment of control over Tskhinvali. He told this today to the ad hoc parliamentary commission in charge of investigating into the August events.

"Yes, we made a decision to start military actions for taking Tskhinvali under control. It was a hard decision for us, but it was made to defend the homeland and peaceful citizens in the conditions when a huge mass of military machines and troops of another state were concentrated at the Georgian border. We got reconnaissance data that they had started crossing the border; and we received both open and secret information that an aggression had been planned, which was not denied by Russia. One day prior to the events (on August 6), Georgian peacekeepers were killed and a peaceful settlement was shelled," said Mr Saakashvili.

He has stated that "answers should be given to the following questions: which of the two countries - Georgia or Russia - undertook the annexation; cancelled the agreement on economic sanctions against the breakaway regimes; increased its military presence in the conflict regions; switched over to provocations; gave up peaceful talks and the initiative of German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank Walter Stanmayer; secretly spread its national passports; exaggerated the count of peaceful victims in Tskhinvali with the aim to hide its actions under the pretext of defending peaceful citizens from genocide; undertook an ethnic cleansing; rejected the signed agreement on clearing the territory of another country; and refused to let EU observers into the conflict zones."

"These are the questions, which can't be answered in favour of Russia," President of Georgia has noted.

The commission plans to finish interrogating state servants after the President's evidences, and draft its conclusions by December 10 with recommendations to Georgian leadership as to those persons who had, in commission's opinion, made mistakes during the August events.