GEORGIA USED CLUSTER BOMBS THAT HIT CIVILIANS

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Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1225757 ... lenews_wsj
NOVEMBER 4, 2008
Georgia Used Cluster Bombs That Hit Civilians, Group Says
By YOCHI J. DREAZENArticle

Georgia used cluster bombs that malfunctioned and fell into towns and villages, killing several of Georgia's own civilians during its summer war with Russia, according to new research by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based humanitarian organization. Georgia called that conclusion "impossible."

The group found that Russia also made extensive use of cluster bombs during the brief war. U.S. intelligence assessments during the conflict also found that both sides were using cluster bombs, a senior Pentagon official said.

Researchers from Human Rights Watch went further, saying that Georgian cluster bombs landed in at least nine Georgian towns, including several located far from the area where Georgia acknowledges using them against Russian soldiers who stormed the country in fighting over the fate of the breakaway republic South Ossetia.

The cluster bombs, which Georgia says it bought from Israel, appeared to have malfunctioned on an "absolutely massive scale," said Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon intelligence official who now serves as Human Rights Watch's senior military analyst. He said rockets failed to disperse the cluster bombs over the intended targets, and many of the small bombs failed to explode on impact.

Georgia remains littered with thousands of leftover bombs that can be easily triggered by anyone who accidentally touches them, he said. The bombs killed at least three Georgian civilians, the group concluded, including two who died when they accidentally touched unexploded bombs after the fighting ended.

The Georgian Ministry of Defense said in a written statement that Georgia never used cluster bombs against targets that were "nearby/around civilian populated areas" during the war. That made it "impossible" for Georgian missiles to have landed on the nation's own territory, the ministry said.

Still, the ministry said Georgian officials and engineers from the company that sold the weapons were conducting "intensive investigations" to examine the possibility that the weapons malfunctioned.

Human Rights Watch will present its findings Wednesday to a United Nations conference on cluster bombs in Geneva. The group's contentions may raise new concerns about one of the world's most controversial weapons. In May, more than 100 countries agreed to outlaw cluster bombs, but the biggest producers and users -- Russia, China, the U.S., India and Israel -- have said they won't abide by the treaty. Georgia also declined to sign it.

Cluster bombs, carried aboard rockets fired from ground-based mobile launchers, are designed to blanket areas the size of football fields with hundreds of smaller bombs. Humanitarian groups are trying to ban the weapons because they often kill or wound civilians.

"Not only are these weapons indiscriminate and disproportionate, but they're also so unreliable that using them can potentially endanger your own population," Mr. Garlasco said.

Georgia has long insisted that it only fired cluster bombs at the Russian forces advancing through the Roki Tunnel, a strategically important thoroughfare connecting Russia with South Ossetia.

Georgian officials say they bought the cluster bombs, launchers and rockets from a company in Israel. The officials declined to name the firm, but a senior Pentagon official said that Georgia has a longstanding relationship with Israel Military Industries, Israel's largest defense firm.

Jonathan Peled, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy, declined to comment. A spokesman for Israel Military Industries didn't respond to emails.

The Russian embassy in Washington didn't respond to requests for comment on the Human Rights Watch findings.

Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com