HRW: Georgia Admits Using Cluster Bombs
September 1, 2008
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on September 1 that Georgia had admitted to using cluster bombs during the hostilities in South Ossetia, The Associated Press and AFP reported.
A Georgian Defense Ministry official told Civil.Ge that an official statement on the report was expected later on Monday.
HRW said it had received an official letter from the Georgian Defense Ministry, acknowledging the use of M85 cluster munitions near the Roki Tunnel, which links breakaway South Ossetia to Russia’s North Ossetian Republic.
HRW said on August 15 its researchers had uncovered evidence that Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs in populated areas in Georgia
HRW representatives held a joint news conference with Georgian Interior Ministry officials in Tbilisi on August 21, both warning of the danger of unexploded cluster bombs, left by Russian forces.
“Many people have died because of Russia’s use of cluster munitions in Georgia, even as Moscow denied it had used this barbaric weapon,” Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at HRW, said in a statement on August 21. “Many more people could be killed or wounded unless Russia allows professional de-mining organizations to enter at once to clean the affected areas.”
Source: Civil.Ge, September 2008
www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=19363
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