World court ends Georgia's case against Russia

[April 01, 2011]  THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- The United Nations' highest court on Friday threw out Georgia's complaint accusing Russia and separatist militias of years of ethnic cleansing in two breakaway Georgian provinces.

In a 10-6 ruling, International Court of Justice President Hisashi Owada said the court had no jurisdiction in the case because Russia and Georgia had never attempted to negotiate a settlement to the dispute before Georgia brought it to the court.

Toward the end of a five-day war in 2008, Georgia filed a complaint that Russian authorities and militias allied to Moscow murdered thousands of ethnic Georgians and displaced some 300,000 people in a two-decade campaign of discrimination in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Georgia's deputy justice minister Tina Burjaliani said she regretted the case had been dismissed "on a procedural technicality" and said it left open the possibility of filing a fresh case at a later date.

"We are certainly disappointed that proceedings will not immediately lead to the examination of the case," she said.

Georgia argued unsuccessfully that the court had jurisdiction under an international convention on the elimination of racial discrimination. However, disputes under that convention can only be referred to the court if countries have tried and failed to negotiate a settlement.

The court ruled that even though Russia and Georgia had been at odds for years over the status of the disputed territory, a dispute based on the convention only started during the 2008 conflict and no serious attempt was made to settle it before Georgia filed its case on the last day of the war.

At hearings into the question of the world court's jurisdiction last year, Russia portrayed itself as a mediator and peacemaker in the conflict, and said Georgia had never complained of ethnic discrimination until it lost the 2008 war.

Russia's Foreign Ministry legal adviser, Kirill Gevorgian, welcomed the ruling.

"It is a very, very good decision. It is exactly what we were trying to prove to the court," he said.

The war broke out just before midnight Aug. 7, 2008, and ended in a European Union-brokered cease-fire Aug. 12. Georgia filed its complaint to the Hague-based court on the same day.

The case has now ended at the world court, which settles disputes between nations. However, across town, prosecutors at another tribunal -- the International Criminal Court -- are carrying out a preliminary investigation into individuals on both sides who are suspected of committing war crimes during the brief war.

[Associated Press; By MIKE CORDER]

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