Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia (Tagliavini Report), summary of findings

Editorial annotation

Accessed via a secondary summary of the EU-commissioned mission's 30 September 2009 report rather than the full original report text; treated here as the summary of an authoritative intergovernmental investigation, not as a verbatim primary quotation. The mission, headed by Swiss diplomat and former UNOMIG head Heidi Tagliavini, found that Georgian shelling of Tskhinvali on the night of 7-8 August 2008 marked the start of large-scale hostilities following a long period of rising tension, that South Ossetian forces carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Georgians with Russian forces' inaction, and that all parties committed international humanitarian law violations.

Cited on

• August 2008 Russo-Georgian war and South Ossetian recognition
• History of the South Ossetia dispute
• South Ossetia