Georgia rebels call on West to end support for Tbilisi

(TBILISI) - Georgia's rebel regions on Wednesday urged Western countries to end support for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili after the release of a European report on last year's Georgia-Russia war.

The report said Georgia sparked the five-day conflict with Russia by attacking the rebel South Ossetia region but also accused Moscow of violating international law.

"Today the European Union report has confirmed that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili violated international law when he launched his brutal attack on my country," South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity said in a statement.

"If the West is serious about promoting peace in the Caucasus it must hold Georgia's president responsible for his reckless behaviour and reconsider its misguided policies," he said.

The leader of Georgia's other rebel region, Abkhazia, called on Western countries to stop providing aid to Georgia, which the separatists claim is being used to fund arms purchases.

"We urge Europe and the United States to re-evaluate their misguided policies to our region based on the incontrovertible facts," Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh said in a statement.

The five-day war in August 2008 saw Russian troops and tanks pour into Georgia to repel a Georgian military attempt to retake control of South Ossetia, which had received extensive Russian backing for years.

More than 250 people were killed and some 118,000 others fled their homes in the war, which was halted by an EU-brokered ceasefire.

Days after the conflict, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent, a move that has so far been followed by only Nicaragua and Venezuela.