During Georgia’s war over South Ossetia Human Rights Watch asserted that Russia used cluster bombs. Russia denies to have used any cluster ammunition in that war. My analysis of the pictures provided by HRW and supposed to show such weapon use found that the weapons in question were obviously of ‘western’ origin.
A few days later HRW acknowledged that Georgia used cluster bombs in that war but kept up the claim that some of its pictures showed Russian ammunition debris even while the pictures provided obviously do not show the ammunition type HRW claims they show.
In further backtracking HRW now acknowledges that it were Georgian cluster bombs that killed Georgian people. Writes the Wall Street Journal today:
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.
…
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.
It seems that Israel sold dreck (payed for by the U.S.?) to Saakashvili and his soldiers were incompetent in using it, killing their own people.
But while the WSJ repeats the claim of Russian use of cluster
ammunition, Human Rights Watch has up to now provide absolutely zero
proof that Russia used such in Georgia at all.
Its page on Georgia has not been updated with the new finding but still holds the false claims of Russian cluster bomb use, including the erroneous identification of ammunition debris.
Marc Garlasco is the person that was widely quoted accusing Russia
in media pieces that picked up the false HRW claims (but not the
subsequent corrections.)
Back in July Garlasco had no problems at all with ‘his’ side dropping bombs on civilians:
“In
their deliberate targeting, the Air Force has all but eliminated
civilian casualties in Afghanistan,” said Marc Garlasco, senior
military analyst with Human Rights Watch. “They have very effective
collateral damage mitigation procedures.”
That quote came only days after U.S. bombs had killed 47 civilians or their way to a wedding.
If Human Rights Watch wants to keep some semblance of neutrality it
should look for real experts instead of propagandists like Marc
Garlasco.