3.5 Attacks by Russian Forces on Civilians Fleeing the Conflict Zone

Several attacks by Russian forces on civilians fleeing the conflict zone or from areas under bombardment showed a failure to verify whether the target was military, and perhaps even intentional firing on civilian vehicles that posed no apparent military threat.

Aerial attacks on civilian convoys near Eredvi, South Ossetia

Human Rights Watch interviewed several civilians who fled from different villages in South Ossetia on August 8 in convoys of civilian cars traveling south in the direction of undisputed Georgian territory. The convoys came under aerial bombardment by military aircraft that was possibly Russian near the village of Eredvi, along a road that bypasses Tskhinvali.

 

Witnesses traveling in one convoy of several dozen cars told Human Rights Watch that on August 8, around 4 p.m., five Russian aircraft flew over the convoy, then returned and opened fire. According to witnesses, there were no military objects, military personnel, or military vehicles on the road at the time of the attack.

Temo Kasradze, from the village of Kemerti, who was fleeing with his grandson, described the attack: "There were five people in our car. Suddenly [there was an] explosion. Perhaps four or five cars were hit... I saw that people were injured and killed. There was blood."[323] Jemal Maisuradze, 45, travelling in the same convoy, described the attack similarly: "It was an aerial attack. There were five [Russian] planes. They first flew over once, then came back and opened fire, before they left... There were no military troops around. All the vehicles were civilian."[324]

Maisuradze, Kasradze, and one other witness described seeing two women killed in the attack, traveling in a white Niva car.[325] According to Maisuradze, the women were Tina and Marika Kakhniashvili, from Kekhvi.[326]

 

Several hours later, at around 7 p.m., Tengiz Magaldadze, 41, also from Kemerti, was driving the same route in a minivan with 20 other people. Just after they had turned onto the main road in Eredvi, Magaldadze saw three explosions about 20 to 25 meters in front of the vehicle. Magaldadze did not remember hearing any aircraft, but, because there were three explosions shortly after each other, he concluded the explosives had been fired from a jet.[327]

At the time of these attacks Georgian forces were deployed in South Ossetia and Georgian military aircraft had not yet been grounded. Russian forces have not acknowledged carrying out these attacks. However, Human Rights Watch has concluded that these attacks were more than likely carried out by Russian forces. The attacks occurred on cars moving south towards undisputed Georgian territory along a road bypassing Tskhinvali and running through Eredvi, an ethnic Georgian village, and in the area of several other ethnic Georgian villages (prior to the conflict, ethnic Georgians regularly utilized this road in order to avoid Ossetian villages and checkpoints around Tskhinvali, and continued to do so during the conflict). Witnesses stated that there were no Ossetian or Russian military positions in that area that would have been targeted by the Georgian military.

There can also be little doubt that the attacks on the civilian convoys near Eredvi violated international humanitarian law. Human Rights Watch is not aware of further information that would indicate the presence of legitimate Georgian military targets in the vicinity of the attacks described above, making them indiscriminate. It also cannot be excluded that the attacking forces deliberately targeted civilians, which would constitute a war crime.

Ground force attacks in undisputed Georgian territory

Unlawful shooting of neighbors from Pkhvenisi, August 11

On August 11 Nunu Chlaidze, a schoolteacher, fled Pkhvenisi with her husband, Amiran Razmadze, 56, and their neighbor, Durmishkhan Bedianashvili, after Russian forces attacked military targets in and around the village earlier that day, causing collateral damage to civilian homes. They decided to turn back, however, after seeing television news reports that civilians in Gori district were not being attacked.

As they approached a Russian military roadblock at an intersection near the gas station in Variani, their car, with Amiran Razmadze at the wheel, came under fire. Bedianashvili told Human Rights Watch,

When we entered Variani I told Amiran to be careful because there were tanks in front. Then they started shooting at us. There was massive gunfire. [Amiran] was wounded and he ran into the tank. I was hiding behind the seat. They thought that I was dead. Then I ran away.[328]

Chlaidze was shot twice in the back, and Russian soldiers took her to a field hospital where she was treated. She felt unsafe at the hospital and ran away. When Human Rights Watch spoke to her in hospital in Tbilisi she had no information about her husband's fate.[329]

Attack on taxi in Tedotsminda, August 12

On August 12 two women, Dodo Garsevanishvili and Nino Arabashvili, were killed when Russian forces fired on the taxi in which they were riding. Mamuka Berkatsishvili, the taxi driver, was driving the two women in his blue Opel from Gori city north toward Shindisi so that Garsevanishvili could check on her house (she had fled several days earlier). Berkatsishvili later told Nino Garsevanishvili, Dodo's daughter, what happened:

They got to Tedotsminda, and started going up the hill when they saw Russians coming the other way. Mamuka told me that Russians fired without any kind of warning. Mamuka fell from the car. The car turned over, but Russians still shot anti-tank missiles on it. The car was almost completely destroyed.

Then Mamuka was beaten, he was begging for his life. The Russians … left him there. He crawled all the way to the village of Ortasheni. And then he was taken to hospital … in Tbilisi. I saw him on August 17 or 18. He was still very ill.[330]

An eyewitness to the attack confirmed Berkatsishvili's account. Vakhtang Gagnidze, 20, was walking from Gori city to Tedotsminda with two others to check on Gagnidze's grandmother when they witnessed the incident:

We were walking to the railway stop when we saw an Opel taxi pass by, heading in the direction of at least one and perhaps a few more Russian tanks on the hill. The tank apparently fired on the car, and the car went off the road, exploded and caught fire. We ran away...

We could hear shooting, something firing and passing us in our direction so we again ran away … [A] week later [the car] was still sitting there and it was beginning to smell because of the decomposing bodies.[331]

According to Nino Garsevanishvili, Russian troops denied an ambulance access to the area to collect the two women's remains. Russian troops later informed a priest who was passing through the village about the dead bodies, and they were eventually buried.

Attack on civilian car in Akhaldaba, August 12

Around 9 a.m. on August 12 Merab Khekhelashvili, 41, and Moris Papuashvili, 33, were working their shift at the television tower near the village of Akhaldaba when Russian aircraft started attacking the Karaleti and Shindisi areas.

As the aircraft started attacking the tower as well, the director of the television tower, Vakhtang Shavdatuashvili, and a relative decided to drive Khekhelashvili and Papuashvili back to the village. As recounted by Khekhelashvili, on the way the car (a white Zhiguli) came upon three tanks-each with about eight soldiers sitting on top-driving toward them:

When we reached parallel with one of the tanks, without any warning a soldier sitting on the tank opened fire on us with his gun. I felt a bullet skim the top of my head. Someone shouted, "Get down!" and we all bent over and put our heads down.

 

The first tank passed us by and then a second tank approached us and they were also shooting. I felt something hit me in my right hip. I wanted to get out of the car. I was sitting on the side closest to the tanks. I shouted at Moris to open the door and jump out, but he didn't react. So I reached across and opened the door, pushed him out and I followed. The others got out as well as the third tanked passed by, also shooting at us.

When the third tank had passed by, Khekhelashvili tried to get Papuashvili to run with him to seek cover:

I said to Moris, "Let's go and hide." I saw that he was bleeding heavily from the neck. There was so much blood and gushing out like a fountain. There was no sign of life in him. Vakhtang [the driver] was wounded in the hand. His relative, like me, also took a bullet in the buttocks. I had lost feeling in my right leg.

The three wounded men eventually managed to get to Akhaldaba, which was occupied by Russian forces. Some of the villagers went back to collect Papuashvili's body. Khekhelashvili told Human Rights Watch, "When they brought the body back we saw that there was a bullet wound to his forehead that had not been there when we left him-apparently a control shot."[332]