Originally appeared at Fsksrb at Kapetan Hrakan exclusively for SouthFront
Last week, the International Crimes Court made a very important decision. The investigative body had allowed the prosecution to officially start the investigation of crimes which were committed in 2008, during an armed conflict in South Ossetia. Formally, the investigation is named “Georgia situation” – since the ICC doesn’t recognise the self-determination of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and still treats those parts as Georgian territory.
It sounds like great news. Firstly, the ICC has for the first time ever started investigating any situation outside of the African continent. To this day, during all of its 13 years of existence, the ICC has only investigated matters in Africa. Thus, it isn’t by an accident that Ugandan president Y. Museveni had called the workings of the ICC as “hunting the Africans”. Secondly, this news can be viewed in a positive light as both, the South Ossetian citizens and the government of the Russian Federation, have been sending documents to the ICC since August 2008, which detail the crimes that the Georgian military has committed against civillians.
But, a more careful exhamination of the court decision, gives us reasons to believe that the news about the start of the investigation is not at all as positive as the first impression has been.
For seven years the prosecution has been deliberating whether the situation was worthy of an official investigation. During that time, the ICC representatives have visited Russia on more than one occasion and were given many documents that describe the crimes of the Georgian government of that time. We remind you that the Russian government [1] had sent an official request to the ICC to start investigating the crimes committed by the Georgian government against the Russian peacekeepers as well as the South Ossetian population. A few civillians who became victims of the war crimes committed by the Georgian government in August 2008 have also sent in their own separate and independent cases and documentation.
The ICC kept recieving all of that and kept deliberating… It was only after 7 years of deliberation that the prosecution gave the green light for the start of an investigation. The decision was accepted immediately. Now, an important question arises: what exactly does the prosecution want to investigate?
As it turns out, the ICC prosecutor claims that “very serious grounds exist which lead them to believe that from August to November 2008, massive and systematic attacks on the civillian population had occured”, but not by the Georgian military against the South Ossetian population, quite the contrary!
The preliminary investigative body which gave the prosecution the go-ahead for the investigation claims that “in the morning of 8 August 2008, Russian Air Force had attacked several populated areas in Georgia, including Variani and Gori, whilst steadily expanding their attacks to other parts of Georgia including Tbilisi”. Judges also claim that the South Ossetian soldiers had then joined up the Russian military. [2]
Similar claims are ridiculous. If the facts really were like that, then a question arises: how did the whole conflict end? Do the judges really believe that the military force, under the command of a genious mastermind Saakashvili, had fended off those attacks and beat the Russian forces, forcing them to turn back and run away?
Of course, the judges fully understand the stupidity of the situation, but they aren’t even worried that they will be able to find any evidence that supports those accusations. At least the buildings in Tbilisi or elsewhere that the Russian Air Force had destroyed. There is no mention about that at all. The judges are simply counting on what the prosecutor stated. Now, if we do take the position that the judges believe everything that is stated by the prosecution, that raises the question, why are then judges needed in the process at all? The decision by the ICC about the start of investigation into the Georgian situation represents a slap in the face to both, the victims of the crimes committed and to Russia, who had the nerve to protect the people who were subjected to aggression.
The fact that it actually is nothing else but a slap in the face is confirmed by many quotes such as this one: the prosecutor claims that the return od the Georgian refugees was only able to be set in motion after the withdrawl of the Russian military!
Here is another example: the only crimes that will be investigated will be the ones that will be attributed to the victims! In regards to the Georgian government, there was no persecution commited at all so there will be no investigation into them! Here is what the ICC prosecutor said in regards to the Georgian military attacks on the Russian peacekeepers – apparently, it is not possible to establish the truth. This is because “all sides give contradictory statements”. That is an outright disgrace. If all prosecutors followed that logic – no cases worldwide would ever be investigated.
This way it turns out that the ICC prosecution did not recieve anything from Russia [3], nor from the people living in South Ossetia in regards to the crimes committed by the Georgian government! Crimes of the Georgian government against its own civillian population in the ICC have been turned into a case against South Ossetia and Russia!
Even so, there still is one good news regarding the start of the Georgian case in the ICC. After the announcement of the decision made by the court, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Russian Federation is disappointed by the decision made by the court to support the statements of F. Bensouda. “Our country thought that the ICC would become an important element in implementation of the rule of law and stability in international relations but that did not happen. In regards to that fact and in regards to the latest decision, the Russian Federation will have to reconsider in principle its relations with the International Crimes Court”. [4]
The time for this was long ago. There was also no need to wait for the ICC at all – as an institution of the world powers – to attack Russia. The truth about that criminal institution should have been told a long time ago. It is very naive to think that you can count on justice to be served by the ICC. That court exists only to formally justify the crimes made by the world powers. Thus, Russia has to come out against the ICC and give support to all countries that find themselves under attack of the ICC.
[1] Russia sends documents to the ICC // http://www.segodnia.ru/content/12091
[2] SITUATION IN GEORGIA. Decision on the Prosecutor’s request for authorization of an investigation. Para 13 // https://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/doc/doc2195945.pdf
[3] Обратим внимание на фразу прокурора: «Следственный комитет России утверждает, что у него имеется огромное количество доказательств» (см. параграф 148 Доклада прокурора МУС).
[4] О начале расследования МУС событий в Ю.Осетии в августе 2008 года // http://www.mid.ru/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/2039123#7
Eating your own tie on camera is a masterful strategy…the Russians should be terrified lol
He looks like about 8 months along, to me. Compare to svelte Mr. P.
Mikheil Saakashvili, ex-leader of the Revolution of the Roses in Georgia and ex-president fled Georgia in 2013 and found refuge in the US, he fled because in Georgia he is a wanted man who is charged with corruption, abuse of power, and was well known for violent crackdowns on political protesters and other crimes that could put him in jail for a very long time.
The rise of Saakashvili started in 2003, when he succeeded in overthrowing his former patron President Eduard Shevardnadze in the course of one of the “color” revolutions, the so-called “Rose Revolution.” In 2007 Mr Saakashvili started abusing his powers in earnest while intimidating and persecuting political rivals.
Mr Saakashvili’s trump card has always been his strong anti-Russia and anti-Putin rhetoric which won him quite a few prominent friends in Washington who are now all rallying to his defense. Mr. Saakashvili has influential friends in the U.S. like Sen. John McCain and Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland.
He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by both John McCain and Hillary Clinton in 2005. In fairness, his hawkish supporters couldn’t have known at the time that he’d start and lose a war with Russia at the cost of 25% percent of his country’s territory, hundreds of lives and thousands of refugees.
That fat tosser….ought to get suits that fit him properly!
Russia should leave all these western funded organizations….you’ll never find any justice there….likewise the UN!