3.3 Russia's Use of Cluster Munitions

In the course of three missions to Georgia in August, September, and October 2008, Human Rights Watch researchers found that Russian forces used cluster munitions against targets in populated areas in the Gori and Kareli districts just south of the South Ossetian administrative border, killing at least 12 civilians and injuring at least 46 at the time of attack. Unexploded cluster submunitions in the contaminated areas have prevented many farmers from harvesting, throwing already struggling farmers into deep economic distress.

Because cluster munitions cannot be directed at specific fighters or weapons and because cluster duds will likely injure or kill whoever disturbs them, combatant or civilian, using cluster munitions in populated areas, as Russia did, should be presumed to be indiscriminate attack, which is a violation of international humanitarian law.[284]

The lawfulness of a military strike may also be determined by whether the effects on civilians are excessive in relation to any direct military advantage gained. As noted elsewhere in this report, a cluster strike will be an unlawfully disproportionate attack if the expected civilian harm outweighs anticipated military advantage. The expected civilian harm is not limited to immediate civilian losses, but also encompasses casualties over time. There is greatly increased likelihood that the loss will be excessive in relation to the military advantage when taking into account both strike and post-strike civilian harm, especially if an attack occurred in a populated area or an area to which people might return. Based on its field research in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon, as well as in Georgia, Human Rights Watch believes that when cluster munitions are used in any type of populated area, there should be a strong, if rebuttable, presumption that the attack is disproportionate.

Finally, parties to a conflict are under the obligation to take "all feasible precautions in the choice of means and methods" of warfare so as to avoid and in any event minimize "incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects." The indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions makes it impossible for a party using cluster munitions in populated areas to observe this principle.

Evidence of Russian Cluster Use

Russian authorities have not acknowledged using cluster munitions during the August war with Georgia. On August 15 the deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Anatoly Novogitsyn, stated that Russia had not used cluster munitions "in the area of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict."[285] Responding to a question from a journalist in October, a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not deny that Russian forces had used cluster munitions, but instead pointed out that "the Georgian side has cluster warheads in service."[286]

However, Human Rights Watch researchers gathered overwhelming evidence that several villages in Gori and Kareli districts had been hit by air-dropped RBK-500s and RBK-250s carrying AO-2.5 RTM submunitions and by Hurricane missiles carrying 9N210 submunitions. Human Rights Watch also found that Gori city had been struck by an Iskander SS-26 ballistic missile carrying submunitions.

Human Rights Watch has concluded that these strikes were Russian. The weapons systems in question are produced in Russia and are known to be in Russia's arsenal. Even though Georgia possesses cluster munitions (see Chapter 2.5, Georgia's Use of Cluster Munitions), there have been no reports that Georgia possesses these particular weapons systems. While the Georgian authorities admit to possessing the GRAD-LAR 160 multiple launch rocket system with Mk4 rockets with M85 submunitions, they deny that they are in possession of any other cluster munitions.[287] Finally, witnesses told Human Rights Watch that Georgian troops, likely targets for a Russian cluster munitions strike, were or had been passing through the area of the strike, although they were not in the immediate vicinity of the strike. Conversely, no Russian troops, likely targets for a Georgian strike, were reported in the area. International deminers working in the area concurred with Human Rights Watch's conclusion that the cluster munitions strikes in question were Russian.[288]

Human Rights Watch documented three cluster munition strikes that resulted in civilian casualties. In two cases (Gori city and Variani), the cluster munition strikes were directed against public squares where numerous civilians had gathered. In a third case (Ruisi), the strike was directed against the center of a town. In these three cases, the cluster munition strikes killed at least 12 civilians and injured at least 46.

Even though Georgian troops were moving through the general area, Human Rights Watch has not been able to identify any potentially legitimate military targets in the immediate vicinity of these strikes. All witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch insisted that there were no Georgian troops in the immediate vicinity at the time of the strikes. In the absence of military targets in the immediate vicinity, Human Rights Watch has concluded that the use of cluster munitions against targets in these populated areas constitutes at best indiscriminate use of force.

 

The military advantage achieved by the strikes is also questionable because Georgian military troops were already retreating at the time of the strikes. As a result, Russian use of cluster munitions was likely disproportionate and therefore illegal under international humanitarian law.

Although Human Rights Watch has not documented any casualties from unexploded Russian cluster submunitions, using such a weapon indiscriminately against troops in populated areas posed-and because of the presence of unexploded submunitions, continues to pose-foreseeable threats to civilian lives.

Variani-RBK-500 cluster munitions with AO-2.5 RTM submunitions

At least two cluster munition strikes hit the village of Variani during the conflict, killing three people and injuring 16. Variani is situated along one of the two main roads between Tskhinvali and Gori city. Based on statements from victims and witnesses and physical evidence gathered on the ground in the form of unexploded submunitions, remnants of delivery rockets, and numerous fragments from the weapons system (including the submunitions' signature ring of "fins"), Human Rights Watch has concluded that Variani was struck by RBK-500 cluster munitions loaded with AO-2.5 RTM submunitions.[289]

The first attack struck in the center of Variani around 10:30 a.m. on August 8. Teimuraz Khizanishvili, 70, was one of more than a dozen civilians who were in the public square for a daily gathering when the attack occurred. He told Human Rights Watch that Malkhaz Bedoshvili, age about 31, who was standing a few meters away from him, died immediately while his father, Omar Bedoshvili, about 65, was wounded and died several hours later in hospital. Khizanishvili was himself injured during the attack: "The bomb fell from the air and it exploded. It happened in seconds and we all fell down. Both my legs were broken. There was shrapnel everywhere in my body-my forehead, hand, legs, torso, back."[290] When he spoke to Human Rights Watch Khizanishvili was sitting in a wheelchair with his legs in large casts.

Three children were also among the wounded. Beka Giorgishvili, 13, was playing with his friend Valiko Urjumelashvili, 12, when the attack occurred. They were both injured together with Urjumelashvili's nine-year-old sister Tsira. Valiko Urjumelashvili lost part of his skull in the explosion, and when Human Rights Watch spoke with his mother in October she said he still had shrapnel in his head and had difficulties speaking.[291]

In all, 14 people were injured in the first strike.

The second strike occurred on the morning of August 12. Suliko Zubashvili, 59, was outside chatting with his friends Gaioz Kebadze, 78, and Zakro Buzaladze when the strike occurred. Zubashvili and Buzaladze were injured and Kebadze killed. Zubashvili said,

I heard a jet. The bomb fell and exploded. I was wounded in the leg, chest, back, fingers. I don't remember how many explosions there were. I fell down and got up. I was bleeding and when I looked back, Gaioz was dead. Nobody was here to help, so I went home and tried to stop the bleeding. I couldn't stop it myself so went to my brother's wife. She called the nurse who somehow bandaged me. The next day I walked to Gori because there was no ambulance. I was transferred to Tbilisi. I spent about 10 to 12 days in the hospital in Tbilisi.[292]

Several villagers showed Human Rights Watch unexploded submunitions and other physical remnants of the attack. In August, 79-year-old Galaktion Zubashvili showed Human Rights Watch researchers in Variani two unexploded AO-2.5 RTM submunitions that had landed in his house, and which he had carried outside and placed under a tree in his garden. Several villagers also showed Human Rights Watch the AO-2.5 RTM signature ring of "fins" that they had discovered after the strikes. During Human Rights Watch's October 2008 visit, Lia Kereselidze, 48, showed Human Rights Watch a canister with the inscription RBK-500/AO-2.5 RTM in cyrillic. Kereselidze had seen two more canisters nearby, but they had been removed by the time of Human Rights Watch's visit. Kereselidze also found four unexploded AO-2.5 RTM submunitions in her garden. Also on that visit we found three unexploded AO-2.5 RTMs and the separation rings of two more. We heard reports of an additional 50 individual submunitions that had exploded on impact or had been destroyed by deminers in Variani and the fields just outside it.[293]

Georgian ground troops had just entered Tskhinvali when the first cluster munition attack occurred in Variani on August 8. On August 12, at the time of the second attack, Georgian troops had retreated from Tskhinvali and reportedly had left Gori city, located several kilometers south of Variani, already the night before. While some villagers with whom Human Rights Watch spoke said Georgian troops might have been in the fields surrounding Variani, they said there were none in the town at the time of the attacks.[294]

Unexploded submunitions from Russian cluster attacks have prevented farmers from harvesting their crops, the only or primary livelihood for many residents of Gori and Kareli districts. Tamar Eremov, a 68-year-old farmer in Variani, was looking for walnuts on her land when she found an unexploded AO-2.5 RTM. "[Contamination] has interfered with my harvest. I couldn't collect because I couldn't get into my fields because they were occupied [by troops]. Now I'm afraid to go in because of the ordnance."[295] Eremov worried that the submunitions would soon prevent her from harvesting her tomatoes, beans, and corn.

Russian forces also hit Akhaldaba and Varianis Meurneoba, just outside Variani, with AO-2.5 RTMs. Human Rights Watch heard statements about AO-2.5 RTM submunitions in the former[296] and found physical evidence of RBK-250 canisters that carry AO-2.5 RTMs in the latter.

Ruisi-Uragan (Hurricane) rockets with 9N210 submunitions

Russian forces struck the villages of Ruisi on August 12 using Uragan rockets carrying 9N210 submunitions.[297] This conclusion by Human Rights Watch is based on numerous interviews with witnesses and victims, as well as physical examination of the contaminated areas by Human Rights Watch researchers who found remnants of delivery rockets, unexploded 9N210 submunitions, and numerous fragments from exploded 9N210 submunitions. We made the same conclusion about the villages of Dzlevijvari (struck on August 11, around 11 a.m.)[298] and Pkhvenisi,[299]based on a witness account from the former and physical evidence of 9N210s we found in both.

In Ruisi, the cluster munition strike occurred between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on August 12, killing three civilians and injuring six others.

On the morning of August 12, Suliko Goginashvili, 65, took his cattle to the field to graze. His wife, Iza Goginashvili, 57, who found Suliko in the field after the cluster strike, told Human Rights Watch, "When we found him he had numerous wounds. His head was broken. His brains were out. His legs and hand were sliced off."[300]Kvicha Saatashvili, a 45-year-old carpenter who lives in Ruisi, showed Human Rights Watch a canister for 9N210 that he found about 100 meters from the place where Goginashvili died. He also found identical small cylindrical fragments in his home.[301]Natela Guraspashvili, about 75, died in the same field as Goginashvili.[302]

That morning, Ushangi Beruashvili, 68, had just left Ruisi to go to Kareli. When the bombing started Beruashvili decided to return to Ruisi to seek cover in a house about 300 meters from the place where Goginashvili died. He recounted,

I saw the rocket was shot and fell not far away from where I was. I was going down to a basement to hide. Something hit me in the stomach…. I didn't lose consciousness. When it started, something exploded in the air and spread like hail. It was white. It hit the ground and sprung up.[303]

Beruashvili spent several days in hospital with other cluster munition victims from Ruisi.[304]

On the other side of Ruisi, not far from the village church, Amiran Vardzelasvhili, 79, father of seven, was also killed in the cluster strike. His daughter Marine was at home when the strike occurred:

Planes were flying around and dropping bombs, like that: "boom, boom, boom"-we heard bombs exploding in different places. People were screaming and crying. We could feel the blast waves from the explosions-it was right near our house. There weren't any troops in the village at that moment, they were just bombing the village. Suddenly, we heard our father screaming, "Gela!"-he was calling for his son. We ran out and saw him-my father was on the ground, all covered in blood. He died on the spot from shrapnel wounds.[305]

The same attack injured four women who had moved toward the church and the cemetery, in the belief that the church would not be targeted. All four women were injured. The injured women and neighbors showed Human Rights Watch an Uragan rocket and 9N210 fragments that they had found in or near the cemetery.[306]

Marine Vardzelashvili holds pieces of the same shrapnel that killed her father Amiran, 79, in the village of Ruisi on August 12, 2008. © 2008 Human Rights Watch

Most villagers who spoke to Human Rights Watch said that Georgian troops had moved through the village the previous day, and that they in some cases had stayed in people's yards or houses, but that on the day of the attack all Georgian troops had left the village and were deployed a few kilometers outside it. One villager did say that Georgian troops were in the village at the time of the attack.[307]

Gori city-Iskander SS-26 missile with submunitions

On the morning of August 12 several dozen civilians gathered on the main square in Gori city, anticipating food distribution from local officials in the Gori municipal administration building located on the square.[308] A car accident on the square attracted even more civilian onlookers, and a group of journalists had stopped on the square to ask for directions. One victim estimates that there were at least 40 civilians on the square when the cluster munitions attack took place.[309]

According to Paata Kharabadze, chief doctor of the Gori civilian hospital, six people were killed during the attack.[310] The injured were initially taken to the Gori civilian hospital but were evacuated to Tbilisi due to the deteriorating security situation in Gori. The Gudushauri National Medical Center of Tbilisi admitted 24 civilians from Gori that day, many of them injured in the morning's attack.

Victims of the attack described to Human Rights Watch how they saw numerous small explosions within seconds before they fell to the ground. Keti Javakhishvili, 25, told Human Rights Watch that she went with her neighbors to get bread and was injured in the attack: "There was a big explosion above us and the next moment there were many smaller explosions everywhere."[311] Dr. Merab Kiladze, head of the surgery department of the Gudushauri National Medical Center, told Human Rights Watch that Javakhishvili suffered massive trauma to her liver, stomach, and intestines, as well as hemorrhagic shock.[312]

Nodar Mchedlishvili, 54, told Human Rights Watch that he went to the municipality building to get food to feed eight people displaced from South Ossetian villages: "In a couple of seconds from everywhere I heard what sounded like massive gunfire. We fell on the ground and some people never got up." Mchedlishvili sustained shrapnel wounds to his left leg and knee. Giorgi Malkhaziani, 59, whose right leg was shredded as a result of the attack, corroborated Mchedlishvili's account of the events.[313]

The Gori city square is a large open space with a statue of Stalin (who was born in Gori) at the center. On one side of the square is the municipal administration building, and on the other sides are apartment buildings with shops on the ground floor. Even though the main command center for the Georgian military operation in South Ossetia was located in Gori, all Georgian troops had left the city by the evening of August 11, according to witnesses. All witnesses said that there were no military forces on the square when it was attacked.

One of those killed in the August 12 cluster munitions strike on Gori's main square was Stan Storimans, a cameraman for the Dutch television station RTL. On August 29 the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs dispatched an investigative commission consisting of military and diplomatic experts to Gori to investigate Storimans's death. The commission writes in its report,

During the on-site investigation, the mission was able to establish that the entire square and several nearby streets had been hit in the same manner. An area of about 300 by 500 metres was struck by small metal bullets [fragments] measuring about 5 mm. It was deduced from the entry holes that the bullets were from multiple explosions, both on the ground and in the air.[314]

Having analyzed video material taken by Reuters and security cameras at two banks by the square, the commission concluded that "the square and surrounding area were hit by about 20 explosions at around 10:45 a.m., and that each explosion scattered a large number of bullets. The explosions can be seen to occur both in the air and on the ground."[315] Based on visual characteristics, the serial numbers found on the missile pieces and the nature of the strike, the commission concluded that Russian forces had hit the square with an Iskander SS-26 missile carrying cluster munitions.[316]

The information gathered by Human Rights Watch researchers on the ground supports the Dutch investigation's conclusions. In addition to the victims' and witnesses' descriptions of the strike, Human Rights Watch discovered and documented missile remnants that had landed in a backyard nearby, and damage we saw to the square and the surrounding area is consistent with the conclusion that Russian forces used cluster munitions.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has denied that it used the missile system Iskander in South Ossetia, though this would not preclude that it had been used against a target in another part of Georgia, such as Gori.[317] Presented with the findings of the Dutch investigative commission, the Russian authorities asserted that there was not enough evidence to conclude that Storimans had been killed as a result of the use of weapons by the Russian side.[318]