The cynical accusations of genocide, made by the Kremlin, were followed by accusations
by Georgia that it was Russia that had practiced ethnic cleansing. The dirty work
in this case was mostly done by the South Ossetian militias that had followed the
advancing Russian army in armored patrol vehicles with covered licence plates. “Refugees
from Karaleki and nearby [Georgian] villages,” wrote Luke Harding of The Guardian, “gave the same account: South Ossetian militias that had swept in on August 12,
killing, burning, stealing and kidnapping. . . . South Ossetian militias, facilitated
by the Russian army, are carrying out the worst ethnic cleansing since the war in
former Yugoslavia. Despite the random nature of these attacks, the overall aim is
clear: to create a mono-ethnic greater South Ossetia in which Georgians no longer
exist.”[11] South Ossetians did not attempt to deny that their aim was ethnic cleansing, they
even proclaimed it openly. “We did carry out cleaning operations, yes,” admitted Captain
Elrus, the militia leader, when asked by Luke Harding. And why shouldn’t he? Had not
South Ossetian president, Eduard Kokoity, in an interview in the Russian paper Kommersant, proudly declared: “We have flattened practically everything there [in the Georgian
villages].”[12] In a note of the Georgian government one could read that “deliberate attempts by
the Russian government to exaggerate the number of people killed in the conflict also
provoked revenge attacks on Georgian villagers.”[13] The Russian lies concerning a genocide committed by Georgians had the perverse
effect of inciting South Ossetian militias to kill, rape, and loot Georgian citizens
with even more fervor.
Human Rights Watch accused Russia of having used cluster bombs against civil targets.[14] Cluster munitions contain dozens and sometimes hundreds of smaller submunitions,
or “‘bomblets.” They cause unacceptable suffering because they are spread over a broad
area and kill civilians indiscriminately during strikes. Because many bomblets fail
to explode, these become landmines that kill and maim people months and even years
later. In May 2008, 107 nations agreed to a total ban on cluster munitions. Russia
and Georgia were not among the signatories. According to a report by Human Rights
Watch, on August 12, 2008, Russian aircraft dropped RBK-250 cluster bombs on the Georgian
town of Ruisi, which killed three and wounded five civilians. The same day the Russian
army also bombed the market in the center of the town of Gori with cluster bombs.
The bombs were launched with an Iskander missile. Eight civilians were killed, and
dozens were wounded. Among the dead was Stan Storimans, a Dutch TV cameraman.[15] Novaya Gazeta journalist Yuliya Latynina wrote: “The most precise weapon of Russia, ORTK ‘Iskander,’
already first developed in the 1980s, though only a few examples are today in the
possession of the army, struck Georgia twice: on the oil pipeline Baku-Supsa and on
the market of Gori on which humanitarian goods were being distributed—the Dutch TV
operator Stan Storimans was killed by it. . . . ‘Iskander’ is a high precision weapon,
meaning that either it proved not so precise when it fell on the market, or that the
market was targeted, and in that case it was the first time in history that a high
precision weapon has been used against the civil population.”[16]
