Mr, Saakashvili, the Georgian Presdient, said he'd ordered his troops to open fire becaused Russian peace keeping forces, according to him, approched Georgian borders. BUT did he ordered his troops to shoot at the peace keepers? NO! He ordered his troops to shoot at Zhinvalui city, the capital of South Osetia that seeks independence from Georgia. Saakashvili's logic could have looked funny unless it had cost over 2,000 lives of citizens of Zhinvali - children, women, men, elderly people.
The BBC has discovered evidence that Georgia may have committed war crimes in its breakaway region of South Ossetia in August.
Eyewitnesses have described how Georgian tanks fired directly into an apartment block and how civilians were shot at as they tried to escape the intense fighting.
Research by the organisation Human Rights Watch points to indiscriminate use of force by the Georgian military and the possible deliberate targeting of civilians.
Indiscriminate use of force is a violation of the Geneva Convention and serious violations are considered to be war crimes.
The evidence was gathered by the BBC's Tim Whewell on the first unrestricted visit to South Ossetia by a foreign news organisation since the conflict:
