EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU is getting ready to adopt a wide-ranging mandate for a "truth mission" to investigate who started the war in Georgia, as allegations fly over Georgia's shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of the rebel-held South Ossetia region. "The mission's objective will be to enquire into the origins and evolution of the conflict that started on 7 August 2008, with reference to international law and human rights law. The geographic and temporal scope of the enquiry must be sufficiently large to determine all the possible causes," the EU's draft decision on the enquiry says, a diplomatic contact familiar with the text told EUobserver. A lake in the Alps: Ms Tagliavini's Swiss nationality is to underline the committee's neutrality The proposed EU mandate asks the mission to present a final report to the EU, the UN, the OSCE, Russia and Georgia on 30 November 2009. The international committee is to be chaired by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini and will be funded out of the EU's €249 million Common Foreign and Security Policy budget for 2009.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU is getting ready to adopt a wide-ranging mandate for a "truth mission" to investigate who started the war in Georgia, as allegations fly over Georgia's shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of the rebel-held South Ossetia region.
"The mission's objective will be to enquire into the origins and evolution of the conflict that started on 7 August 2008, with reference to international law and human rights law. The geographic and temporal scope of the enquiry must be sufficiently large to determine all the possible causes," the EU's draft decision on the enquiry says, a diplomatic contact familiar with the text told EUobserver.
A lake in the Alps: Ms Tagliavini's Swiss nationality is to underline the committee's neutrality
The proposed EU mandate asks the mission to present a final report to the EU, the UN, the OSCE, Russia and Georgia on 30 November 2009.
The international committee is to be chaired by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini and will be funded out of the EU's €249 million Common Foreign and Security Policy budget for 2009.
