Georgia and Russia both broke law, war report says (Extra)

Sep 30, 2009, 11:37 GMT

Brussels - Georgia broke international law by attacking the separatist zone of South Ossetia last August, but Russia broke the law by invading Georgia in response, an independent report into the conflict said on Wednesday.

'There is the question of whether the use of force by Georgia in South Ossetia ... was justifiable under international law. It was not,' the report, commissioned by the European Union and drawn up by veteran Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, said.

There is no evidence to support Georgia's claim that it only attacked the breakaway region because Russia had already sent troops to annex it, the report said.

'There was no ongoing armed attack by Russia before the start of the Georgian operation,' it said.

But Russia's response, which saw Russian tanks and aircraft attacking targets across much of Georgia, 'cannot be regarded as even remotely commensurate with the threat to Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia,' it said.

'It must be concluded that the Russian military action outside South Ossetia was essentially conducted in violation of international law,' it said.

And the attack by forces from Russia and the breakaway region of Abkhazia on the upper Kodori Valley - an area held by Georgia before the conflict - 'constituted an illegal use of force as prohibited by ... Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter,' the report said.

Tagliavini handed the report to the ambassadors of the warring parties and to UN and EU officials on Wednesday morning.