Tbilisi is dissatisfied with the work of EU commission on investigating the reasons of the war in South Ossetia

Tbilisi is displeased with the work of the International Commission of the EU (EUIC) on investigating the reasons of the August war in South Ossetia and recommends excluding several experts from the commission, whom they believe to be non-objective.

We remind you that the Georgian party had earlier expressed its full readiness to actively cooperate with the International Commission in investigating the reasons of the August conflict on all the aspects as stipulated in the Commission's mandate.

However, a routine arrival, earlier this week, to Tbilisi of the head of the Commission, Swiss diplomat Haidi Taliavini has unexpectedly became a scandal, as the "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" writes. The Georgian party has expressed its sharp protest against membership in the Commission of Otto Luchterhandt, expert in international law and the head of the Division of the East-European Law of the Hamburg University, and Christopher Langton, director of the Division of Defence Analysis of the British International Institute of Strategic Studies.

After his meeting with the members of the Commission, Givi Targamadze, chairman of the parliamentary committee for defence and security, told journalists that "two experts already know that the August war was launched by the Georgian party" and expressed his concern that their opinion can influence the verdict of the Commission. "Nevertheless, we are not going to insist on their exclusion from the staff of the Commission," said Mr Targamadze.

A tougher stand was expressed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. Minister Grigol Vashadze said, on air of the "Imedi" TV Company, that the authorities find unacceptable participation in the work of the EUIC of the persons, who had initially expressed their prejudiced opinions on the August events.

Vice-Premier Temuri Yakobashvili has accused Messrs Luchterhandt and Langton of financial links with "Gazprom" and recommended that the Commissions "get rid of such members", as the GHN Agency reports.

Let us note here that Langton, who had served in the British Army for 32 years and has some experience of working in Georgia (he was a member of the UN Observation Missions in Georgia), published an article in August 2008 entitled "Georgia's Dreams Are Defeated, It Should Blame Itself for That". The author marked that neither party in the conflict could be thought right. In his opinion, both Georgia and Russia unreasonably used their military force. The Georgian authorities, as Mr Langton remarks, had decided to return South Ossetia by force, and Russia took advantage of the situation in order to strengthen its influence in Southern Caucasus, the "Lenta.ru" writes.