Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Statement by Ambassador Valery Loshchinin of the Russian Federation to the Conference on Disarmament 14th August 2008

Unofficial Transcript

Thank you. We would like to welcome our colleague from Italy and Israel, Ambassador Itzhak Levanon and Ambassador Lucia Fiori and we would like to note their contribution to the work to the conference on disarmament and wish you every success in your future work.

Mr. President.
In connection with the topic that has been raised regarding the situation in South Ossetia. We would ike to inform you of the following.

We have already stated that on the night of the 7th to the 8th of August, literally on the eve of the solemn opening of the Olympic games in Beijing, it was precisely then that the leadership of most countries was at the Chinese capital in order to participate in this solemn ceremony and at that point, Georgia unleashed aggression against the people of South Ossetia and against its own territory.

This occurred a few hours after an agreement had been reached on holding negotiations to reduce tension in the conflict zone and this was stated publicly by Mr. Saakashvili himself. These assurances proved to be lies. Despite the diplomatic efforts undertaken between Moscow, Sukhumi and Washington and other interested capitals including Berlin, Paris and Brussels and despite our numerous warnings, the Georgian leadership preferred to follow the worst of all possible scenarios using force and thus deliberately carried out aggression and gross violations of standards of international law and humanitarian principles.

Two days ago, the President of Russia, Mr. Medvedev made an important statement on the completion of operations in South Ossetia. The aims of operations have been achieved, the security of peacekeepers and civilian populations in South Ossetia has been achieved and the aggressor was punished and severed serious losses. During the armed conflict with Georgia, the Russian forces strictly observed the standards of international humanitarian law and in particular did not carry our any attacks on any civilian facilities or civilians. We would like to inform you that the Presidents of Russia and France, during the visit of President Sarkozy to Moscow, Mr. Sarkozy acting at the President of the European Union on the 12th of August, late at night, reached the agreement on the 6th principles on the Georgian - South Ossetia Conflict.
First, non use of force.
Secondly, definitive end to all military action.
Third, free access to humanitarian assistance.
Four, the armed forces of Georgia will return to their previous locations.
Fifth, the Russian forces will return to where they were prior to the beginning of military actions. Until international mechanisms are set up, the Russian peacekeeping forces will take additional security measures.
Six, the beginning of international discussion on how to ensure lasting security in South Ossetia and Abkhazia

The Russian-French agreement is addressed to the parties of the Conflict to it - Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Presidents of Russia and France have confirmed these principles and have called onto the parties of the conflict to sign onto these principles. The most important principles, I would like to stress is to refrain from the use of forces. And this is a principle in regards to the other principles still needs to be given shape legally binding documents.

We would like to stress that we certainly do welcome the role played by President Sarkozy as leader of France and also as the President of the European Union.

I would like to repeat that everything that has occurred in South Ossetia over the last few days is nothing other than carefully planned aggression by Tbilisi against the people of South Ossetia. Georgia had brought considerable heavy equipment to the zone of the conflict and has carried out a scorched earth policy, savagely bombing residential areas of Tskhinvali The capital of South Ossetia and also bombed peaceful South Ossetian villages, using all types of weapons and using cluster weapons. And we have all seen on television screens and how this equipment have wiped the city of Tskhinvali from the face of the earth. The total causalities because of these barbaric attacks among civilians in South Ossetia, the number at present is 2000 people. This is more than 5% of the remaining population in Ossetia. The population of South Ossetia have fled to North Ossetia and thus left their houses, and their destroyed cities and villages, this is clearly ethnic cleansing which is a war crime and violation of international law.

The aim of a policy of this kind was too clear South Ossetia of Ossetians.and thus the territory once cleared would be seized and that’s what one could consider that this is the settlement to the South Ossetian conflict. Such criminal actions do fall under the definition of genocide and there is considerable evidence of violations of the standards of humanitarian law by the Georgian side. And in short order, we will be providing documents confirming this criminal activity by the Georgian authorities.

According to recent statements, Georgia has applied to the International court against Russia. Now the hypocrisy is obvious, but what is one to do. Unfortunately as events in South Ossetia have shown, there have been situations of this kind also before. The present Georgian leadership has not taken adequate decisions nor the adequate actions nor has its reactions been adequate and if we turn to the international court. Georgia will need to go there not as a plaintiff but as a defendant and ask for forgiveness from the international community and then I would recommend it go to a church and pray for forgiveness on its sins and see what itself has done.

Now mention has been made of the fact, that Russia allegedly used excessive force and attacked this small democratic country but we have worked President Sarkozy on six principles thereby indicating our good political will and our friendly relations with the Georgian people.

We should draw lessons from this tragedy also with regards to the work of our body, the CD. Two days speaking in the informal meetings on Item 5 on Transparency and Armaments, I pointed out to our colleagues that the United Nations register on conventional weapons convincingly shows of the consistent preparations of Georgia for military actions just in the period from 2003 to 2008. According to the register which is the result of voluntarily submitted information. Georgia had supplied 124 tanks, 83 large caliber artillery systems. 47 armored military vehicles and 20 military aircraft. Even according to Stockholm data, SIPRI, during the period of Mr. Saakashvili leadership, the military expenditure of Georgia has increased 10 fold and according to other data, the military budget has increased 20 times. It is that the real data both on the delivery of weapons and on military expenditure is significantly higher. Of course it is clear that a destabilizing accumulation of Georgia is result of the connivance of a number of countries and this in final analysis has led to this bloodshed.

Yesterday there was a meeting of the European Union in Brussels and the other question was raised as to who was responsible and guilty and even now, it is hard to answer this question. This is rather surprising and I would like to state that if there were even the slightest indication of Russian’s guilt, this would be immediately noted against the background of the campaign of slander and lie against Russia but the Prime Minister of Slovakia presented quite frankly that it was Georgia that started all of this.

We must respect the honest assessment of Edward Shevardnadze who said yesterday “The Georgian in South Ossetia was a fatal error” I repeat, a fatal error and this was Shevardnadze that said this. But the United States also has encouraged Georgia to make very serious errors. For example today in the International Herald Tribune, it says “On July 9th Condoleezza Rice, she warned Mr. President Saakashvili not to get in to military conflict with Russia that Georgia would not win. She told him, in no uncertain terms that he had to put a non use of force pledge on the table.” Now unfortunately these very wise counsels were ignored by the Georgina leadership which made a fatal error in carrying out ethnic cleansing and carrying out military actions, thereby it is fully responsible on what is happening in South Ossetia.

Thank you.