MOSCOW: Georgian military forces fired more cluster munitions during the August war with Russia than originally thought, and some of these weapons may have malfunctioned, causing civilian casualties when they fell short of targets and hit Georgian villages, according to new research by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights group. Georgia has denied the findings, which Human Rights Watch presented at the Convention on Conventional Weapons held in Geneva on Tuesday. The group found that both Georgia and Russia extensively used cluster munitions during the war. After Georgia launched a massive artillery bombardment against South Ossetia, a breakaway Georgian enclave, Russian invaded large swaths of Georgian territory. Though Russia endured the brunt of international outrage for its conduct during and after the war, Georgia's actions in the conflict have come under increasing scrutiny, and the new report adds to a growing body of evidence of Georgian atrocities during the fighting.
MOSCOW: Georgian military forces fired more cluster munitions during the August war with Russia than originally thought, and some of these weapons may have malfunctioned, causing civilian casualties when they fell short of targets and hit Georgian villages, according to new research by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights group.
Georgia has denied the findings, which Human Rights Watch presented at the Convention on Conventional Weapons held in Geneva on Tuesday.
The group found that both Georgia and Russia extensively used cluster munitions during the war. After Georgia launched a massive artillery bombardment against South Ossetia, a breakaway Georgian enclave, Russian invaded large swaths of Georgian territory.
Though Russia endured the brunt of international outrage for its conduct during and after the war, Georgia's actions in the conflict have come under increasing scrutiny, and the new report adds to a growing body of evidence of Georgian atrocities during the fighting.
Though researchers found evidence of Russian and Georgian cluster munitions in over a dozen towns and villages in the conflict zone, Human Rights Watch said that Russian weapons caused most of the civilian casualties.
HRW keeps claiming that Russia used cluster bombs without any supporting evidence, and any evidence they provided before about RBK-50 use turned out to be debris of Western-made cluster bombs. Given the fact that they can not provide a single documented case of the use of Russian cluster ammunition, I doubt they can claim that this ammunition "caused most of the civilian casualties".
Could be because their "expert" is directly from Pentagon and former chief of high-value targeting during the Iraq war in 2003 and the same human rights activist than opined in July this year:
"In their deliberate targeting, the Air Force has all but eliminated civilian casualties in Afghanistan," said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst with Human Rights Watch. "They have very effective collateral damage mitigation procedures."
I guess that with experts like this and repeated false claims HRW does not care anymore about its own credibility.
More on HRW false claims here. b at moonofalabama been saying from the beginning of September that all HRW provided pictures of ordinance are Western-provided ammunition and not Russian as HRW identifies them. Could it be that Marc Garlasco is filling PsyOps position for Pentagon at HRW?
