Group: Georgia admits to dropping cluster bombs

Source: The Boston Globe (boston.com)

September 1, 2008, GENEVA

A prominent human rights group says Georgia has admitted dropping cluster bombs in its military offensive to assert control over the restive province of South Ossetia.

Human Rights Watch says it has received an official letter from Georgia's Defense Ministry that acknowledges use of the M85 cluster munition near the Roki tunnel that connects South Ossetia with Russia.

The M85 is the same weapon that was used extensively by Israel in its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

HRW arms division researcher Bonnie Docherty told reporters in Geneva on Monday that Russia undoubtedly used cluster munition in several places during the conflict. However, Russia has denied using the weapon.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2008/09/01/group_georgia_admits_to_dropping_cluster_bombs/

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"The M85 is a variant of the Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM). DPICMs
have both anti-armour and anti-personnel capabilities. The shaped charge contained in the
submunition produces the anti-armour effect, turning into a molten slug of metal that is
capable of penetrating 105mm of armour upon detonation. The pre-scored fragmentation
casing causes the anti-personnel effect, splitting into 1,200 tiny pieces upon detonation.
Each submunition has a ribbon attached to one end which uncoils on release from the
container. The ribbon causes the submunition to rotate, stabilising it in flight and also arming
its fuze ready for detonation upon impact with the target/ground. However if the submunition
fails to detonate, these ribbons cause problems in the post conflict period. In Lebanon, where
these weapons were used in civilian and agricultural areas, the ribbons were found caught up
in trees and fences. This makes them more difficult for clearance teams to clear and also
makes them attractive to children.

... produced or stockpiled by the following countries:
Argentina, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, South
Korea, Poland, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and USA."

Landmine Action: M85 cluster bomb fact-sheet

http://www.landmineaction.org/resources/ActionPacks/m85_factsheet.pdf

Oops.

No excuse for anyone using cluster bombs anywhere. They need to be banned worldwide.

x(

at killing innocent humans.
Hell, they probably had this stamped on each bomb...."Bringing DEMOCRACY to the world one bomb at a time"

AP has picked this up now.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/AP/Search/World/Default.aspx?id=235086

:puke:

Did I mention a cluster of red herring.

like the previous HRW report about Russia dropping cluster bombs. I wonder if the herrings weren't red then? :shrug:

Russia wasn't the bad guy in this one.

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