TSKHINVALI. Feb 8 (Interfax) - A group of residents of South Ossetia have forwarded a petition to U.S. Senator Richard Lugar to urge the U.S. to drop its plans to supply Georgia with weapons, arguing that they might again be used against the South Ossetian people.
"Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili once used weapons and military training provided to his country by the U.S. and other states to commit aggression against South Ossetia's civilian population, including the attack in August 2008, in which hundreds were killed and injured and thousands were left homeless and during which hospitals, schools, private houses, roads, and other important infrastructure were fully destroyed, as was confirmed in a report by an independent international mission investigating the conflict in Georgia," the address says.
The authors are convinced that the provision of military hardware and military training to Georgia would "increase the likelihood of a conflict in the region rather than advance peace."
"We ask the relevant committees of the United States Congress to conduct a careful and impartial inquiry into how the weapons and military training previously provided by the U.S. were used by President Saakashvili to start aggression against the citizens of South Ossetia and consider a possible effect of additional military assistance, and also investigate whether the $1-billion aid allocated to Georgia following the war reached the war's real victims or was unlawfully used by the Georgian government," the address says.
About 340 residents of South Ossetia signed the address in response to a report entitled 'Striking the Balance: U.S. Policy and Stability in Georgia', which was drawn up by Lugar's office at the end of December 2009. The report calls into question Washington's decision to stop arms supplies to Georgia after the August 2008 war with Russia.
The report suggests that the actual embargo on arms supplies to Georgia makes the situation in the region less stable.