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Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ reveals evidence Georgia may have committed war crimes
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The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ has found evidence that Georgia may have committed war crimes in its attack on its breakaway region of South Ossetia in August this year.
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The evidence, obtained during the first unrestricted visit to the territory by a Western news team, suggests Georgia used indiscriminate force, and may have targeted civilians.
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It will be broadcast tonight on File On 4 at 8.00pm on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 and Newsnight at 10.30pm on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two.
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Eyewitnesses have told the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ how Georgian tanks fired directly and repeatedly into an occupied apartment block, and how civilians were shot at as they tried to escape by car.
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Georgy Tadtayev, a 21-year-old dental student, was among the Ossetian civilians killed during the fighting.
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His mother, Taya Sitnik, 45, a college lecturer, told the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ he bled to death in her arms on the morning of 9 August after a fragment from a Georgian tank shell hit him in the throat as they were both sheltering from artillery fire in the basement of her block of flats.
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Mrs Sitnik said she subsequently saw the tank positioned a few metres from the building, firing shells into every floor.
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Extensive damage to the five-storey block appeared consistent with her version of events.
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She said she and her son were watching television when the Georgian attack began.
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"They started firing not from rifles, but from heavy weapons. Shells were exploding. We jumped up straight away, switched off the lights and ran down to the cellar. And we sat here on boxes. We thought it would end, but the firing got heavier and heavier.
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"They went on firing all the next day without stopping. At some point there was a pause, and we saw Georgian soldiers going along the street in their NATO uniforms. Then they started firing again, even more heavily. The Grad rockets were coming over all the time..."
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Neighbours told the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ another resident of the block also died of wounds received during the attacks.
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The Russian prosecutor's office is investigating more than 300 possible cases of civilians killed by the Georgian military.
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Some of those may be Ossetian paramilitaries, but Human Rights Watch, the international investigative organisation, believes the figure of 300 to 400 civilians is a "useful starting point".
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That would represent more than one per cent of the population of Tskhinvali – the equivalent of 70,000 deaths in London.
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The evidence appears to back up research from Human Rights Watch which now accuses Georgia of indiscriminate use of force in South Ossetia – a violation of the Geneva Conventions – and believes it may also be guilty of directly targeting civilians, a serious war crime.
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Allison Gill, director of the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch, said: "We're very concerned at the use of indiscriminate force by the Georgian military in Tskhinvali.
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"Tskhinvali is a densely populated city and as such military action needs to be very careful that it doesn't endanger civilians.
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"We know that in the early stages that there were tank attacks and Grad rockets used by Georgian forces.
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"Grad rockets cannot be used in densely populated areas because they cannot be precisely targeted, and as such they are inherently indiscriminate.
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"Our researchers were on the ground in Tskhinvali as early as August the 12.
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"And we gained evidence and witness testimony of Grad rocket attacks and tank attacks on apartment buildings, including tank attacks that shot at the basement level. And basements are typically areas where civilians will hide for their own protection.
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"So all of this points to the misuse, the inappropriate use of force by Georgian against civilian targets."
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Human Rights Watch will talk only of the "possible" deliberate targeting by Georgian forces of individual civilians – a still more serious charge – though some Ossetians the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ spoke to in Tskhinvali claim to have witnessed such cases.
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Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband, a strong supporter of Georgia, said he took the allegations of war crimes "extremely seriously" and had raised them "at the highest level" in Tbilisi.
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Apparently hardening his language towards Georgia, he called its actions "reckless".
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But he added: "The Russian response was reckless and wrong. It's important that the Russian narrative cannot start with Georgian actions; it has to start with the attacks on the Georgians from the South Ossetians and that is the tit for tat that got out of control."
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Georgia's Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili denied her country's armed forces ever intentionally attacked any civilian object, though she called for an international inquiry to establish the truth.
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Eka Tkeshelashvili told the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ: "I can firmly say that the Georgian military, on intention, never attacked directly any civilian object.
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"On the surface, the damage to some of the houses in Tskhinvali that can be observed might lead to this conclusion.
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"But to see if some is damage inflicted by direct targeting, for that an in-depth military assessment needs to be done.
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"I think the best response is a fully-fledged independent, impartial international inquiry into the issue," she added.
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