2.5 Georgia's Use of Cluster Munitions

The Georgian military attacked Russian forces with cluster munitions to stop their forward advance into South Ossetia. Human Rights Watch has no information about the impact of these attacks on civilians in South Ossetia.

Human Rights Watch did find that M85 cluster munitions hit nine villages in undisputed Georgian territory, which killed at least four people and injured eight. In addition, unexploded M85s have prevented civilians from tending or harvesting their crops, causing them to lose a source of income and subsistence. Human Rights Watch has concluded that these cluster munitions were fired by Georgian forces. Several factors suggest that Georgian forces did not target these villages, but rather that the submunitions landed on these villages due to a massive failure of the weapons system (see below). Even though injuries that result from failure of a weapons system do not mean that there has been a violation of humanitarian law, the incidents demonstrate the excessive and indiscriminate harm that can be caused to civilians, and why therefore progress is being made to ban the use of cluster munitions as a means of warfare.[169]

Cluster munitions are large, ground-launched or air-dropped weapons that eject, depending on their type, dozens or hundreds of bomblets, or submunitions, and spread them over a large area. Because cluster munitions cannot be directed at specific fighters or weapons, civilian casualties are virtually guaranteed if cluster munitions are used in populated areas. Cluster munitions also threaten civilians after conflict: because many submunitions fail to explode on impact as designed, a cluster munitions strike often leaves a high number of hazardous unexploded submunitions-known as duds-that can easily be set off upon contact.

In a letter to Human Rights Watch on August 31, 2008, the Georgian Ministry of Defense acknowledged that it had used cluster munitions against Russian military equipment and armaments as they were moving south from the Roki tunnel. The ministry insisted, however, that cluster rockets "were never used against civilians, civilian targets and civilian populated or nearby areas."[170]

The Georgian Ministry of Defense identified the type of cluster munitions used as the GRAD-LAR 160 multiple launch rocket system with Mk-4 rockets with M85 submunitions: In a document sent to Human Rights Watch on November 18, the ministry reported, "Georgian Armed Forces used 24 packages (13 shots in each) of GRAD-LAR munitions during the Georgian-Russian August war."[171] First Deputy Minister of Defense Batu Kutelia told Human Rights Watch that these weapons, bought from Israel, are the only cluster munitions in Georgia's possession.[172] M85 submunitions are not reported to be part of Russia's arsenal, and international deminers refer to the M85s they found in Gori and Karaleti districts as "Georgian."[173]  Notwithstanding the cluster munition hits in Gori district, Kutelia expressed satisfaction with how the munitions performed and said that they delayed Russian troop advances by several days.[174]

One witness interviewed by Human Rights Watch claimed that Georgian forces used cluster munitions in their attacks on the Dzara road in South Ossetia. The witness, a member of the Ossetian militia who had been assisting in the evacuation of civilians on that road, described seeing "a rocket which exploded in the air, and then small clusters started exploding."[175] Human Rights Watch was not able to independently verify this claim, yet such allegations need to be further investigated.

The Russian authorities did not respond to a written request from Human Rights Watch for information about Georgian use of cluster munitions in South Ossetia (See letter in appendix).

How Georgian Clusters Landed in Gori District

Human Rights Watch researchers found unexploded M85 submunitions, ribbons from detonated submunitions, and Mk-4 rockets in Gori district. They interviewed villagers who had fallen victim to M85 submunitions, deminers who work in the area, and senior government officials. Through these sources, researchers gathered evidence of M85s in a band of nine villages in the north of the Gori-Tskhinvali corridor: Brotsleti, Ditsi, Kvemo Khviti, Megvrekisi, Pkhvenisi, Shindisi, Tirdznisi, Zemo Khviti, and Zemo Nikozi.[176]

Georgian First Deputy Minister of Defense Batu Kutelia told Human Rights Watch that the presence of M85 submunitions in villages in the Gori district remained a mystery to the Georgian authorities. According to Kutelia, Georgia will conduct an investigation into the situation and seek the assistance of the company that sold it the M85s-presumably Israel Military Industries, the only Israeli manufacturer of M85s.[177] One theory is that the M85 submunitions landed in these villages because of a massive system failure. Based on Kutelia's description of the incidents, the rockets fell short of their minimum range. The failure theory would explain why they landed where they did (witnesses did not report Russian troops in the area at the time of attack), and why the dud rate was so high.

Civilian Casualties from M85s

M85 submunitions are Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM) whose purpose is to injure or kill persons and pierce armor. It is an unguided weapon that poses grave danger to civilians in part because of its inaccuracy and wide dispersal pattern. These submunitions are cylinder-shaped; civilians often describe them as resembling batteries or light sockets. Connected to the top of each of these submunitions is a white or red ribbon that unfurls when the submunition is released.

At least one civilian was killed and two wounded as the M85 submunitions landed in Gori district villages. On the afternoon of August 9, Vano Gogidze, age about 40, was killed and his brother, Ketino, 38, was injured when M85 submunitions exploded as they landed in the village of Shindisi.[178]

Alexander Zerekhidze told Human Rights Watch that he was injured in his village of Tirdznisi when M85 submunitions landed around 3:30 a.m. on August 9:

I heard some noise. I came out of my front door. There was a loud shooting noise and I came out to see what was happening. I heard screams and came out to see if someone was wounded. As soon as I came out, something exploded. I turned back and shrapnel hit my back, stomach, leg. I started bleeding. My kids were inside the house. I tried to cover them. My wife treated me first and stopped the bleeding. In the morning I went to … Tbilisi. I was released [from the hospital] in a couple days.[179]

Zerekhidze showed Human Rights Watch three small craters and a fragmentation ring that he had found in front of his house. The craters were consistent with a submunition explosion, and Human Rights Watch identified the ring as belonging to an M85 submunition.

Casualties from unexploded duds

There are at least two versions of the M85 submunition: one with a self-destruct device and one without.[180] The unexploded M85 submunitions that Human Rights Watch discovered in Gori district villages did not have a self-destruct device. First Deputy Minister Kutelia told Human Rights Watch that he was surprised about this finding and similar findings by his own engineers. According to Kutelia, Georgian authorities had been told that the munitions that they had bought had self-destruct devices.[181]

Human Rights Watch has documented that at least three people were killed and six wounded by M85 duds that exploded upon contact in Shindisi, Pkhvenisi, and Brotsleti.

On August 10, several men from Shindisi decided to inspect one of the sites where the strike had landed the previous day. They found a piece of unexploded ordnance with a red ribbon, which they brought back to the village. When they tried to disassemble it the submunition exploded, killing Ramaz Arabashvili, age around 40, and wounding four others.[182]

An unexploded M85, an anti-personnel and anti-armor submunition found in Shindisi in October 2008.  M85s caused civilian deaths and injuries in Shindisi both at the time of attack and afterwards. Bought from Israel and launched by Georgia, this submunition is carried in an Mk-4 160 mm rocket. © 2008 Human Rights Watch

On August 14, around 1-2 p.m., Alika Kikvilashvili, 48, was on his way to the fields in Brotsleti with Amiran Khaduri and Tero Surameli, 46. Surameli was holding in his hands two small items that to Kikvilashvili looked like light sockets. One had a white ribbon and one a red ribbon. When Kikvilashvili's cellphone rang and he stepped away, the cluster duds exploded, fatally wounding Surameli and injuring Kikvilashvili and Khaduri. Alika Kikvilashvili told us,

I had shrapnel all around and it is still inside-stomach, right and left arms, right and left legs. I felt it only later. For four days I got no help. In particular my left leg had a hole. I poured vodka inside so there would be no infection. Four days later the Russians came. They had a field hospital here. Someone told them I needed help and they took me to the field hospital. I was taken back and forth and treated.

Kikvilashvili was later told that Surameli died an hour after the explosion.[183]

On August 18 Veliko Bedianashvili, age 72, found an unexploded M85 submunition in a field close to his house in Pkhvenisi. As he was trying to remove the red ribbon from the dud, it exploded and killed him. His son, Durmiskhan Bedianashvili, told Human Rights Watch, "There are so many of those lying around. The fields are full of them."[184]

In addition to posing a threat to civilian lives, unexploded M85 submunitions littering fields in the northern part of Gori district prevented many farmers from harvesting their crops, thereby throwing already struggling farmers into deep economic distress. Alika Kikvilashvili told us, "I am not going to my fields. The harvest is now ready, but there is grass and it is hard to notice anything so I am not going there. I hope there will be some deminers. My harvest includes apples and corn, which I sell. That's how we survive. That's how people live here. My peaches were lost completely, now my apples are in danger as well.[185]