PACE mission: No genocide in South Ossetia

“There was no genocide in South Ossetia during the Georgian troops deployment in Skhinvali early August, 2008”, said head of the PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) delegation Luc van den Brande speaking at the press conference in Tbilisi about the results of his visit to Skhinvali, APA quotes RIA-Novosti agency.

“We need to be cautious speaking about the genocide. We can’t name the events in Skhinvali as genocide”. Luc van den Brande said the conflict started before August 7 and no one from the sides tried to avoid the confrontation. He said it would be appropriate to use the word of “ethnic cleansing” instead of “genocide”, but it didn’t relate to the Ossetian people. “We visited both Georgian and Ossetian villages and saw that there was ethnic cleansing and human rights violation there”. The head of mission repeated that they supported territorial integrity of Georgia and summoned for international investigation of the Georgian events.

The nine-member group of lawmakers from the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) visited Russia and Georgia on September 22-25, ahead of emergency debates on the Russo-Georgian war in late September and early October. The PACE Committee on Rules and Procedures must discuss the request on the first day of the plenary session, on September 29; then the Committee will report to the Assembly about its conclusions and the latter will decide the matter by majority vote.