Georgia PM backs inquiry into president over 2008 war

Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili on Wednesday backed opening an inquiry into President Mikheil Saakashvili's handling of the brief war Tbilisi fought in August 2008 with Russia. The comments by the billionaire Ivanishivili -- in office since his party's parliamentary election win last year -- are set to ratchet up tensions in the uneasy coexistence between the two men. "We must know what happened," Ivanishvili told reporters, accusing Saakashvili of behaving "inadequately" in the conflict. "Questioning by a court is a civilised norm and... the president should understand this. It is a normal method that a president should be questioned in court." Ivanishvili's comments came days after his justice minister said that a comprehensive probe into the circumstances of the 2008 war was Georgia's obligation before international organisations. The premier said it was "unjustified" that Georgia's armed forces started fighting before Russia crossed the border, and it could have been possible to defuse the conflict with international monitors. "The theme of the (2008 Russia-Georgia) war is shrouded in mystery. I personally have many questions," Ivanishvili said. "I think that our then-government, led by our president, behaved inadequately in that situation." Saakashvili's political allies promptly slammed Ivanishvili's remarks as "damaging to Georgia's national interests." "We are probably witnessing political revenge, an attempt to blackmail and bully the president and (his) United National Movement party," the senior lawmaker from Saakashvili's party, Nugzar Tsiklauri, told AFP. "Ultimately, all this damages Georgia's national interests rather than our party," he added. "Ivanishvili tries to blame his own country for starting the war, but we all -- including our Western partners -- know that the Russian forces have already been invading Georgia when the war started." The issue of who started the five-day border war that Georgia lost has lingered in Tbilisi, with some claiming that Russia had snuck an advance unit into Georgia before the hostilities broke out. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last year that he had approved the contingency plan to counter a possible attack from Georgia months before the conflict, and that Russia had even trained militiamen in South Ossetia. Russia and Georgia clashed when Saakashvili's military attempted to reassert control over the Moscow-backed region of South Ossetia. Russian troops ended up pushing deep into Georgian territory. The war stunned the West and prompted mediation from France, and badly soured relations between Russia and the United States, a close Georgian ally. After the war, Russia recognised South Ossetia and fellow rebel region of Abkhazia as independent, a move that has been followed by only a handful of other far-flung states. Soon after the war, Georgia's parliament initiated a probe on how the war started and concluded that Russia launched the invasion before Saakashvili ordered an all-out military assault on South Ossetia. But an investigation commissioned by the European Union said in 2009 that Tbilisi was responsible for letting small-scale hostilities in South Ossetia escalate into a full-scale war. It also accused Moscow of provoking the conflict, of violating international law and of reacting disproportionately by invading and bombing swathes of Georgian territory. Since the October 2012 election, which saw Saakashvili's United National Movement party defeated by Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition, the two leaders have gone through a tense political stand-off.