3.4 Tank Attacks on Civilian Homes
Villagers from Tamarasheni (in South Ossetia) described how Russian tanks fired on villagers' homes.[319] Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that there were no Georgian military personnel in their houses at the time that the tank fire took place.[320]
One witness described an incident in which tanks methodically moved through the streets, firing on numerous houses in a row, suggesting that the fire was not directed at specific military targets and that such attacks were indiscriminate.
According to Manana Gogidze, 48, of Tamarasheni, on August 9 at around 10 a.m. Russian soldiers entered the house where she and nine others were hiding, checked for armed men and left. Soon after, she saw Russian tanks roll down the street. "Three tanks would stand one after another, point their barrels in different directions and start shooting at houses," Gogidze told Human Rights Watch. "They would shoot at houses … and then would move on down the street, doing the same."[321]
Around the same time that day, 65-year-old Luiza Nasuashvili was in her home in Tamarasheni when a Russian tank fired on it. Nasuashvili told Human Rights Watch that soon after Russian troops had entered Tamarasheni, "All of a sudden I heard a big explosion and a big hole appeared in my house. I think it was tank fire. Debris fell on my head as I lay down on the floor."[322] Nasuashvili fled her house and was immediately detained by a member of the Ossetian forces.
[319]Human Rights Watch separate interviews with Zhuzhuna Chulukhadze and Nunu Gogidze, Tbilisi, August 26, 2008.
[320]If there were such forces present, their presence would render civilian objects such as houses legitimate military targets. But even in such circumstances, the presence of any Georgian military would not relieve Russia of its obligation under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to minimize the harm to civilians, and to verify that the particular objects were legitimate military targets. This principle of customary international law is codified in Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, art. 57 (2). Russia also had an obligation to do everything feasible to assess whether the expected incidental loss of civilian life or damage to civilian property of an attack would be excessive with respect to the direct and concrete military advantaged to be gained.
[321]Human Rights Watch interview with Manana Gogidze, Rustavi, August 23, 2008.
[322]Human Rights Watch interview with Luiza Nasuashvili, Tbilisi, August 26, 2008.