On August 16, 2007 was held the Meeting of the Government of Georgia. The agenda consisted of 44 items.
Upon beginning of the Meeting the Prime Minister of Georgia Zurab Noghaideli informed the Government members that the group of international experts completed the work in connection with the investigation of the incident of violation of Georgian airspace and shooting down a missile at the village of Tsitelubani on August 6 and asked the foreign minister of Georgia Gela Bazhuashvili to inform the Government members about the prepared report thereof.
The foreign minister of Georgia Gela Bazhuashvili informed the attended that yesterday, the group of international experts studying the facts of the incident which had taken place on August 6 , composed of the experts from the USA, Sweden, Lithuania and Latvia headed by the Swedish expert, submitted the report which proved all evidences related to the said incidents obtained by the Georgian party on the first day. He thanked the experts of those countries for the provided work and noted that today they are also waiting for the experts from the UK, France, Estonia. It is very important that The OSCE chairman, the foreign minister of Spain appointed for investigation of this incident his special representative who in the end of this week will arrive in Georgia. Noteworthy also is that in connection of this incident the own opinions expressed the European Union and other international organizations. Today, in the UN, the department for peaceful operations will report to the Meeting of the Security Council the details of this fact which are based on the report of independent experts and the interim report of OSCE experts. We will continue our work, stated the minister, in order to make clear to everybody what had had place on August 6. We will consider this fact as the prolongation of previous incidents that requires the serious attention of the international community. This is a message to our partners. The Georgian foreign minister also noted that today at our invitation Georgia was visited by a rather larger representative group from the Russian Federation headed by the chief of the air force staff. This is the person who on the day of incident denied the fact of any maneuvers of air forces on the territory of Russia that appeared to be a deception because on August 15 on the web-site of the Ministry of Defense of RF was published the information that such maneuvers had taken place and what types of aircrafts and ammunition took part in them. We are open to cooperation, said the minister and expressed a hope that after consultations with RF experts many question will be answered.
The Georgian foreign minister Gela Bezhuashvili thanked the Georgian interior ministry, defense ministry, other departments for the coordinated, agreed and effective activity within the investigation of facts of the said incident. However he noted that as the events of the latest days have revealed the procedures for administration of such situation are subject to improvement.
The Georgian interior minister Ivane Merabishvili stated that the commission established at the ministry has also completed its work in the investigation of the facts of the incident of August 6 and prepared the report which will be published after all experts finish their work. He said that the commission had found up to 600 evidences, more than 8000 details of the shot down missile were gathered, were recorded the radar readings, telephone conversations between the dispatchers, witnesses' evidences. In our opinion, said the minister, this was the Russian anti-radar missile. The airplane approached our radar as mush as possible and the emergency brining down of the missile took place. This conclusion is supported by all experts who are now involved in the commission at this stage. The minister underscored that the fact of the Russian air forces maneuvers in this regions in those days is proved, including with the airplanes of SU-24 type, which performs the tasks as the task assigned for that airplane. They took place in the maneuvers against the radar and anti-aircraft systems.
The Prime Minister of Georgia Zurab Noghaideli thanked the Georgian foreign minister Gela Bazhuashvili and the interior minister Ivane Merabishvili for the provided information. He also thanked all departments for the coordinated, agreed and effective work in connection with the incident.
Press Center of the Chancellery of the Government of Georgia