Russia and Georgia blamed over war
The five-day war killed at least 390 civilians and displaced more than 100,000 people
An EU-sponsored report into last year's Russia-Georgia war has blamed both countries for the conflict and said all sides violated international humanitarian law.
The findings, released on Wednesday, concluded that Georgia's attack on South Ossetia was not justifiable under international law, and that while Russia's initial response was "legal", subsequent action went "beyond reasonable limits".
It also said the war was "the culminating point of a long period of increasing tensions [and] provocations".
The inquiry, the result of a 10-month investigation, also said that South Ossetia and Abkhazia had no right to secede from Georgia, and that recognition of their independence is illegal.
So far only Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela have recognised the two breakaway Georgian provinces as independent.
'New confrontation'
The report also warned that the risk of new confrontation in the region "remains serious".
Last year's five-day war in August killed at least 390 civilians and displaced more than 100,000 people.
Russia and Georgia have both welcomed the findings, with each saying that it vindicated their actions.
Vladimir Chizhov, Moscow's ambassador to the EU, said the report provided "unequivocal confirmation of who started the war - it was Georgia".
"The report is objective on its main point, it concludes that the conflict started with the aggression by Georgia against South Ossetia," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.
But Georgia said the report was proof that Russia had invaded Georgia, violating its territorial integrity.
"The allegations of my country have been proven. It was Georgia which came under invasion from another country, in violation of the international law," Salome Samadashvili, Georgia's ambassador to the EU, said.
President under pressure
Heidi Tagliavina, head of the EU fact-finding mission, said it was their view that Georgia triggered the war when it attacked Tskinvali in South Ossetia with heavy artillery on the night of 7 to 8 August.
"None of the explanations given by the Georgian authorities in order to provide some form of legal justification for the attack lend it a valid explanation," she said.
The report is likely to further damage the reputation of Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian president, who has withstood calls by the public to resign over the conflict.
It may also undermine the former Soviet nation's hopes of becoming a Nato member.
The report, based on research by 30 European military, legal and history experts, was mandated by the EU last year to investigate the "causes and roots" of the conflict, but not to determine guilt.
Source(Al-Jazeera)