Georgia: Russian Cluster Bombs Kill Civilians

[oberliner]

(Tbilisi, August 15, 2008) – Human Rights Watch researchers have uncovered evidence that Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs in populated areas in Georgia, killing at least 11 civilians and injuring dozens, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called upon Russia to immediately stop using cluster bombs, weapons so dangerous to civilians that more than 100 nations have agreed to ban their use.

"Cluster bombs are indiscriminate killers that most nations have agreed to outlaw,” said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. “Russia’s use of this weapon is not only deadly to civilians, but also an insult to international efforts to avoid a global humanitarian disaster of the kind caused by landmines.”

Human Rights Watch said Russian aircraft dropped RBK-250 cluster bombs, each containing 30 PTAB 2.5M submunitions, on the town of Ruisi in the Kareli district of Georgia on August 12, 2008. Three civilians were killed and five wounded in the attack. On the same day, a cluster strike in the center of the town of Gori killed at least eight civilians and injured dozens, Human Rights Watch said. Dutch journalist Stan Storimans was among the dead. Israeli journalist Zadok Yehezkeli was seriously wounded and evacuated to Israel for treatment after surgery in Tbilisi. An armored vehicle from the Reuters news agency was perforated with shrapnel from the attack.

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/08/14/georgi19625.htm

[bemildred]

1. U.S. Tries but Fails to Scuttle Cluster Bomb Treaty

Maybe this is the time to outlaw these weapons?

Well over half the world's governments agreed last week to "consign cluster munitions to the trash bin of history," in the words of the Cluster Munition Coalition, the civil society collective that delivered the treaty. Meeting in Dublin, Ireland, representatives of 110 governments completed negotiations on a new international treaty that bans the production, use, and export of all existing cluster munitions and commits them to destroy their stockpiles within eight years.

The U.S. government did not attend the negotiations, instead arm-twisting its allies to weaken the treaty. In the end, though, all other major NATO countries joined with the majority in agreeing to get rid of these weapons, which are designed to kill or maim every living thing in an area as large as two football fields. The vast majority of victims of cluster bombs have been civilians.

http://www.alternet.org/audits/93756/u.s._tries_but_fails_to_scuttle_cluster_bomb_treaty/

[MrMonk]

4. Russia wasn't present at the talks either ...

Are you saying that the bombings are actually the U.S.'s fault?

[oberliner]

6. Which countries that actually have large (or moderate) amounts of them have signed on?

Is there a list of those 110 countries?

[msongs]

2. looks like they r following bush/cheney in tactics nt

[ShenandoahAspen]

3. Putin is Bush's "soul"mate, after all.

Putin is killing civilians in Georgia. Bush is killing civilians in Iraq. Is there a difference? :shrug:

[doc03]

5. You see when the USA does it it is not illegal, understand n/t

[daleo]

7. When we kill civilians, it's because our enemy made us do it

When our enemies kill civilians, it's because they are bloodthirsty and evil.

But the mothers of the dead are too dim to understand.