Georgian General Admits Incompetence of his Statement on Constitutional Order in South Ossetia

Georgia, Tbilisi, 28 October / Trend corr. N.Kirtskhalia/ Commander of Georgia's peacekeeping forces, General Mamuka Kurashvili said his statement made in the early morning of 8 August was impulsive. "Making the statement I had just returned from a battle and had been shell-shocked," Kurashvili said at the meeting of the commission on examination of the August events on 28 October.

In midnight of 8 August, Kurashvili said to journalists that the Georgian authorities were commencing an operation to set constitutional order in South Ossetia. According to Georgian Security Council's Secretary Kakha Lomaya, Kurashvili did not have the authority to make the statement and furthermore the sense of the statement did not comply with the order issued to the troops.

"My statement was spontaneous and unprepared. Certainly, the statement did reflect the core of the order. Moreover, I was impressed by the death of my soldiers at the Avnevi post, which had been attacked," said Kurashvili.

In the early morning of 8 August, large-scale military actions commenced in the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia. Georgian troops entered Tskhinvali. Later Russian troops occupied Tskhinvali and forced back the Georgian servicemen.

On 12 August, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev said he had decided to complete the operation on constraining Georgia to peace.

Russian peacekeeping troops and international observers remained in Georgia.

The correspondent can be contacted at [email protected]