GEORGIA: DESPITE CONCERNS, GEORGIA WILL COOPERATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TBILISI 000468 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/10/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM MOPS RS GG SUBJECT: GEORGIA: DESPITE CONCERNS, GEORGIA WILL COOPERATE WITH EU'S INVESTIGATION OF AUGUST WAR Classified By: Ambassador John F. Tefft for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary. Senior Georgian officials have raised questions about the objectivity of two members of the EU's independent investigation of the causes of the August 2008 war. They have nevertheless pledged their continued support for and full cooperation with the commission's work. Swiss diplomatHeidi Tagliavini, who is leading the investigation, acknowledged to the Ambassador the Georgian concerns, but indicated she would take care to ensure the final report is fair and focused on lessons to be learned from the conflict, not political declarations. The next step is for the investigators to distribute questionnaires to principal officials. The report is due on July 31, although Tagliavini indicated that she might need to seek an extension. End summary. ¶2. (U) Heidi Tagliavini, who served as the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Georgia in 2002-06 (i.e., head of UNOMIG),was named by the EU in November 2008 to head a special commission charged with investigating the origins of the August 2008 war between Georgia and Russia, called the "Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia" (IIFFMCG). The group is led by Tagliavini and two others, Interim Head Uwe Schramm and Deputy Head Marian Staszewski, and includes a panel of a half-dozen experts. As part of the IIFFMCG's work, Tagliavini traveled to Georgia March 1-10 with several members of her team and met with officials in Tbilisi, Sukhumi and Tskhinvali, as well as the Ambassador. ¶3. (C) In the context of Tagliavini's visit, Foreign Minister Vashadze and Interior Minister Merabishvili both expressed concerns to the Ambassador and other Embassy officials that two members of Tagliavini's panel of experts had shown significant bias against Georgia in their independent writings. In particular, former British military officer Col. Christopher Langton, who served as deputy UNOMIG chief, published an article entitled "Georgia's Dream is Shattered, but It Only Has Itself to Blame" on August 13, 2008 in the United Arab Emirates publication "The National." Likewise, Otto Luchterhandt, lawyer and professor at Hamburg University, wrote an article entitled "International-legal aspects of the 'Georgian War'," also in 2008, apparently in ;Russian. (Both documents have been emailed to EUR/CARC.) ¶4. (C) According to the Georgian officials, these articles -- written before either Langton or Luchterhandt was invited to participate as experts in the IIFFMCG -- show that both individuals entered into their work as investigators with already formed conclusions about what happened in August. Merabishvili added that both Langton and Luchterhandt were expressly pro-Russian and anti-Georgian. He and Vashadze both saw the inclusion of these experts as evidence that the investigation itself was designed by German Foreign Minister Steinmeier, who reportedly first proposed the idea (and whom they assume to be pro-Russian and anti-Georgian as well),as a means of casting Georgia in a bad light. The Georgians had proposed alternate experts, whom they saw as more balanced in their perspectives, including Svante Cornell of Johns Hopkins University, but claimed that their nominations were not QUniversity, but claimed that their nominations were not accepted. Reintegration Minister Yakobashvili raised similar concerns in the press in February; although he did not name Langton and Luchterhandt specifically, the press did note the same two articles raised by Vashadze and Merabishvili. ¶5. (C) Despite their concerns, both Vashadze and Merabishvili reiterated to the Ambassador that Georgia still supported the work of the IIFFMCG and would cooperate fully with the investigation. ¶6. (C) In a conversation with the Ambassador, Tagliavini acknowledged the concerns expressed by the Georgians. Although she did not admit that any members of her team had a particular bias, she took pains to assure the Ambassador that the IIFFMCG's final product would be her (and not her experts') report, and that she would take full responsibility to ensure the final product was fair. She also said she intended to avoid producing a political document, but would instead focus on lessons to be learned from the war. In terms of process, she explained that the next step was for investigators to distribute questionnaires to key decision makers in Georgia. The due date for the IIFFMCG's final report is July 31, but Tagliavini said she might need to request an extension. TBILISI 00000468 002 OF 002 COMMENT: Tagliavini's Good -- and So Is Cooperation ¶7. (C) It is difficult to judge the perspective of an individual from a short essay. It is true that Langton and Luchterhandt level serious criticisms of Georgia in the pieces supplied by the Georgian government. At the same time, both also make serious allegations concerning the Russians. Although they may have an inherent bias against Georgia, it is possible they might have written the pieces based on incomplete knowledge of the situation -- knowledge that will presumably be improved considerably by the work of the IIFFMCG. In any case, Tagliavini is an experienced, knowledgeable and balanced observer of Georgia, and post believes she will make a sincere effort to ensure that the investigation's final product avoids privileging either side. More importantly, in terms of Georgia's international standing, the possible biases of two members of a larger panel of experts pale in comparison to Georgia's overall willingness to be cooperative and transparent with the international community. The government seems to realize this, and we believe it will indeed follow the pattern of cooperation it has established with the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others. TEFFT