Who Lost Georgia, Part III

Ex-ambassador blames Georgia for war with Russia.

Former Georgian ambassador Erosi Kitsmarishvili to Moscow said Wednesday that Georgian officials believed the United States backed the idea of Georgian troops moving to reclaim Abkhazia and South Ossetia provinces. These had been de facto independent and patrolled by Russian peacekeepers since the early 1990s.

Kitsmarishvili's allegations re-kindled the debate over what or who started the five-day war in August, which turned Georgia a basket case as a nation-state.

He said Georgian officials told him President George W. Bush gave his blessing for such a use of force when he met Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili in Washington in March. Kitsmarishvili told a news conference.

Saakashvili's entourage has tried to form an opinion that the U.S. administration would support the use of force. In reality, it was not like that.

Thousands of civilians remain displaced and homeless at the start of winter. An estimated 35,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are living in collective centres run by the Georgian government. Food supplies are another critical issue, as many of the returnees are small farmers who are now unable to support their families.

This post is a third in a series. See Part I and Colin Powell.