Saakashvili must stand trial in The Hague - former S. Ossetian President Kokoity
MOSCOW. Jan 28 (Interfax) - Former South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity, who ruled the republic in 2008, said that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague should focus its efforts on the investigation into the crimes perpetrated by Georgian politicians and military.
"The International Criminal Court must name and punish the Georgian politicians and military who carried out aggression against the South Ossetian people in 2008. Mikheil Saakashvili must be the first to stand trial," Kokoity told Interfax on Thursday.
"Otherwise, the ICC will fully discredit itself. The court must consider the issues related to the genocide by Georgia against South Ossetian and Abkhazian peoples," he said.
"Back during the first Georgian-South Ossetian conflict 116 South Ossetian villages were razed to the ground. And where was the international community then? Therefore, I have few hopes for a just investigation in The Hague. Since the late eighties the civilized West believed that Georgia has the right to exterminate South Ossetian and Abkhazian peoples. And Tbilisi has always acted with the tacit consent of Western countries," Kokoity said.
Georgian Defense Minister Tina Khidasheli said previously that she did not understand the ICC preliminary statement about the start of a probe into possible facts of war crimes perpetrated by representatives of Georgian and South Ossetian sides in 2008.
The ICC said on Wednesday that it has allowed the prosecutor's office to launch an investigation into the crimes which could have been perpetrated during the 2008 armed conflict in South Ossetia.