HozNews

MOSCOW (AFP) - - A Russian probe on Tuesday alleged that Georgia committed genocide in its August conflict with Russia, the latest accusation in a bitter war of words between the two foes.

The probe’s findings came a day after objections from Moscow forced Europe’s OSCE security watchdog to wrap up its observer mission in Georgia, prompting a furious reaction from Tbilisi.

“We can say that we have witnessed the genocide of the Ossetian people,” the head of the Russian prosecutors’ investigative committee Alexander Bastrykin told reporters.

He said 162 South Ossetian civilians were killed in the conflict — a figure much lower than that of 500 given by South Ossetian rebel authorities and that of over 1,500 given by Russian officials after the outbreak of hostilities.

“What is important is not the number. What is important is that we have established that there was a conscious and planned action to destroy the Ossetians as an ethnic group,” he said.

A senior Georgian official retorted that the accusation by Russian prosecutors was a “cynical lie.”

“Russia was telling lies to the whole world that there were thousands of civilians killed by the Georgian army in South Ossetia,” Alexander Lomaia, the former secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council, told AFP.

“The Russian prosecutor’s statements are yet another cynical lie. This is nothing but a Kremlin propaganda campaign,” said Lomaia, who was recently named Georgia’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Georgia on Monday accused Russia of seeking to hide “war crimes” after the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said it would pull its observers out of Georgia on January 1.

Russia forced the OSCE to pull its mission after it insisted the observers should stay out of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two separatist regions of Georgia at the heart of the August conflict.

Despite a European Union-brokered ceasefire that ended the war, observers fear that the disputed status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia still poses a threat to peace.

Russia has recognised the two regions as independent — a step only followed by Nicaragua — but Georgia insists they are an inseparable part of its territory.

Bucking the current trend of tension, a Russian daily reported on Tuesday that Georgia has had secret talks through intermediaries with Russian officials about restoring direct flights and diplomatic ties.

Kommersant said the key intermediary in the talks has been Mikheil Khubutia, the head of the Union of Georgians in Russia, who the paper said met Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on November 21 in Munich.

“He (Saakashvili) seems disappointed that Georgia has not been given an action plan for NATO membership and that he has not received the due support from Europe,” he added.

“He has understood that dialogue is needed with Russia. Russia must show itself to be wise and help him. Work is going on. Let’s see what happens.”

The Georgian presidency refused to comment on the report, but an influential lawmaker from the ruling United National Movement party, Giorgi Kandelaki, called it “a baseless rumour.”

Russia sent troops into Georgia in early August to repel a Georgian military attempt to retake South Ossetia, which had received extensive backing from Moscow for years.

Russian forces later withdrew to within South Ossetia and Abkhazia under the terms of the EU ceasefire.