The International Criminal Court (ICC) judges in Hague has given prosecutors the go signal to start the investigation into the war crimes committed in South Ossetia. This chaos happened when the Russians fought the Georgians over the breakaway region in 2008.
The judges believe that there are crimes committed against humanity. This conflict led to Russia recognizing the South Ossetia and Abkhazia as a sovereign state. It will be the first investigation by the ICC outside Africa.
Russian troops are maintained in South Ossetia and Abkhazi since the war in 2008. It was led by Mikheil Saakashvili who constantly criticizes the effort to bring Georgia into NATO. ICC maintained that crimes including murder, war crimes, persecution, willful killing and intentional attacks against peacekeepers were committed. The ICC received 6335 representatives in behalf of the affected citizens as reported by Yahoo News.
Fatou Bensouda an ICC prosecutor asked the court if he can go ahead with the investigation after finding out that 113 ethnic Georgian civilians have been killed and up to 18,500 forcibly displaced in South Ossetia. The ICC prosecutors estimate that the ethnic group was reduced to at least 75 percent. He also added that the opposing Georgians and South Ossetian forces killed 12 peacekeepers both in the Russian and Georgian side after attacking a medical facility.
According to Channel New Asia, the violence against ethnic Georgians by the South Ossetian forces led to the investigation of the alleged crime against humanity according to the ICC. They noted that there is sufficient evidence that Russia implied overall force against the opposing side.
A pro-western leader, Saakashvili who is known to be closely tied with the United States and the European Union started a movement to reclaim South Ossetia on august 7-8 2008. Because of this, Russia responded with a counter attack which forced the Georgian army beyond South Ossetia.
After this issue, the ICC is reconsidering to open an investigation regarding the crimes committed in Ukraine. Back when Russia battled the Kyivs forces in a war that has killed more than 9,000 people since 2014.
