Parliament’s Temporary Investigative Commission examining alleged crimes committed by the former United National Movement Government in 2003 – 2012 reviewed the situation in Georgia"s Russian occupied territories in 2004 - 2008 and the 2008 August war.

Grigol Vashadze, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, answered a question of Tea Tsulukiani, the Commission’s Chairperson, regarding why the population in the conflict zone was not warned prior to the escalation of hostilities.

“As for the warnings, alerting the population was not my direct function. I repeatedly raised this issue in Security Council meetings, but I was informed they would manage the response in an emergency. Georgia was doing everything possible to prevent the war.

If we had evacuated civilians at a time when the Russian Federation was demonstratively withdrawing its own population, it would have created the impression that we were also preparing for war. This was one of the considerations expressed at the time”, - explained Grigol Vashadze.