Humanitarian impact of the Russo-Georgian War

Russian media reported on 9 August that several journalists had gone into hiding as they appealed to the international community for right of passage.[1][2]

According to western media sources who had begun arriving in the city and were toured by the Russian military on 12 August, "[s]everal residential areas seemed to have little damage", while the heaviest damage "appeared to be around Tskhinvali's government center."[3] According to later Russian statements, about 20 percent of Tskhinvali's some 7,000 buildings had been damaged and 10 percent were "beyond repair".[4]

HRW entered the mostly deserted Tskhinvali on 13 August 2008 and reported that it saw numerous apartment buildings and houses damaged by shelling. It said some of them had been hit by "inherently indiscriminate" weapons that should not be used in areas populated by civilians, such as rockets most likely fired from BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers. Since Georgian and Russian forces use identical Soviet-era weapons systems, HRW couldn't definitely attribute specific battle damage to a particular belligerent.[5] Human Rights Watch documented the damage caused to the Tskhinvali city hospital building by a rocket allegedly fired from a Grad multiple rocket launcher which hit the hospital, severely damaging treatment rooms on the second and third floors. One doctor told Human Rights Watch that the staff had to move all the patients into the building basement because of the shelling.[5]

Women and children from South Ossetia in a refugee camp set up in the town of Alagir, North Ossetia, Russia.

On 10 August 2008, HRW obtained official figures on the number of displaced persons tallied by the Russian government agency in Vladikavkaz, according to which, the Federal Migration Service registered 24,032 persons who fled South Ossetia to Russia. However, 11,190 of those went back after the Russian intervention in the war; the government stated that "the overall number [of the displaced] was decreasing because of the people who return to join to volunteer militias of South Ossetia"; furthermore, the figures could not be considered accurate, as many people crossed the border back and forth and thus got registered several times.[6] On 16 August 2008, ITAR-TASS put the number of refugees at over 10,000 refugees.[7]

On 8 August 2008, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged the combatants to form a humanitarian corridor in South Ossetia to evacuate the wounded civilians.[8][9]

On 10 August the Russian Ambassador in Tbilisi claimed that "at least 2,000 people" had been killed, and the chief of Russian ground forces said that the Georgian shelling has destroyed "all the hospitals" in Tskhinvali.[10] On 13 August Human Rights Watch said that deliberate attempts by the Russian government to exaggerate the number of casualties in the conflict provoked revenge attacks on Georgian villagers in South Ossetia.[11]

According to a doctor at Tskhinvali hospital, the hospital treated 273 military and civilian wounded from 6 to 12 August. The doctor also said that forty-four bodies had been brought to the hospital; these represented the majority of Ossetians killed in Tskhinvali, because the city morgue was not functioning due to the lack of electricity.[5] According to a later report by the Russian blogger, he asked the same doctor: "Could there possibly be 2,000 dead?" The doctor answered him: "If you’re counting the entire district, then yes."[12]

On 14 August South Ossetian officials claimed they had identified 200 corpses of South Ossetian civilians and 500 were missing; at the same time, Russian investigators said they had identified a total of 60 civilians killed during the war.[13] On 20 August, following an investigation in South Ossetia and amongst refugees, the number of dead civilians identified was put by Russia at 133;[14] nevertheless, South Ossetian officials said 1,492 people died.[15]

On 21 August 2008, Russia scaled down its estimate of the number of killed South Ossetian civilians, admitting that the toll could be about a tenth of its first claims.[16] On 26 August 2008, Russian investigators claimed they found evidence of "genocide by the Georgian military" against South Ossetians. Aleksandr Bastrykin, the Head of Russia's Investigative Committee, said that according to the witnesses, Georgian soldiers were throwing cluster bombs into shelters where civilians were hiding. He also claimed that investigators found the body of a pregnant woman shot in the head.[17]

On 18 August 2008, South Ossetians alleged that they estimated that "500 Ossetian civilians were kidnapped and taken away by Georgian forces from the south of Tskhinvali".[18] Georgian government answered: "They want to exchange them for our hostages. The problem is we don't have any hostages so we can't do any exchange."[19] By 20 August the South Ossetian estimate was scaled down to some 170 "peaceful citizens" allegedly held by Georgia.[20]

On 9 August 2008, Russian jets bombed Gori. The bombs hit residential buildings.[21] Civilians were killed. During the air strikes, an air-to-ground missile smashed into the Gori Military Hospital with deadly effect, despite a Red Cross flag flying on the roof.[22] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Georgia brought the airstrikes upon itself by bombing civilians and Russian peacekeepers.[23] On 12 August 2008, an attack on the main square in Gori killed dozens of civilians, including a Dutch journalist.[5]

On 16 August 2008, Human Rights Watch said it had collected evidence of Russian warplanes using RBK-250 cluster bombs, each containing 30 PTAB 2.5M submunitions; rights group urged Russia to stop using the weapons, which more than 100 nations have agreed to outlaw.[24] When asked about the report, Russian General Anatoly Nogovitsyn claimed: "We never use cluster bombs. There is no need to do so."[25][26] On 22 August 2008, HRW reported that unexploded cluster munitions were left in Gori and at other locations.[27]

Refugees from South Ossetia asking for help outside the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi on August 10, 2008.

Before the war started, one estimate of the population of ethnic Georgians living in South Ossetia was 18,000 people, up to one quarter of the population.[28] On 10 August 2008, Georgia charged that ethnic cleansing of Georgians was occurring behind Russian lines.[29] On 15 August, UNHCR said that according to Georgian officials, up to 15,000 ethnic Georgians had fled into the other parts of Georgia from South Ossetia.[30] As of 15 August 2008, some 73,000 people were displaced in Georgia proper.[31] On 17 August 2008, The Independent reported that many refugees from South Ossetia in Tbilisi were crammed into makeshift centres without basic amenities and had no possessions with them, except the clothes they were wearing when they fled.[32] By 19 August, the UNHCR figure of the displaced persons rose to 158,600.[33] On 20 August, The Guardian reported that "The scale of ethnic cleansing in the district nine miles north of Gori was strikingly apparent".[34]

On 15 August, the Russia-allied president of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, in the interview for Kommersant, officially acknowledged that the alleged ethnic cleansing of South Ossetia was in fact committed against ethnic Georgians, saying that his forces "offered them a corridor and gave the peaceful population the chance to leave" and that the Ossetians "do not intend to allow" their return.[35][36][37] Kokoity said most of the Georgian villages "had been virtually flattened."[38]

Russian soldiers allegedly told the Georgians in Gori: "Putin has given us an order that everyone must be either shot or forced to leave".[39][40] HRW documented several cases in which Russian occupying forces opened fire on civilian vehicles in Gori district, killing or wounding civilians.[41]

The Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs and the OSCE chairman Alexander Stubb visited the war-affected area in Georgia and accused the Russian troops of "clearly trying to empty southern Ossetia of Georgians."[42] On 27 August, the French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner accused the Russian troops of "ethnic cleansing, creating a homogeneous South Ossetia."[43]

On 28 August 2008, some 2,300 people from the villages north of Gori which were still under the Russian military control, had to register as internally displaced people in Gori.[44] It was reported that Russian forces had set up 18 checkpoints between Gori and South Ossetia, which were "an obstacle to the humanitarian relief effort and to people trying to return to their homes."[45] Civilians willing to live in South Ossetia were forced to accept a Russian passport.[46][47]

The war displaced 192,000 people,[48] and while many were able to return to their homes after the war, a year later around 30,000 ethnic Georgians remained displaced.[49] As of May 2014, 20,272 persons remain displaced whose return is denied by the separatist authorities.[50]

On 12 August 2008, Associated Press journalists toured by the Russian military through Tskhinvali witnessed numerous fires in the deserted ethnic Georgian neighborhoods and saw evidence of looting in those areas; while a Russian army officer claimed that some of the buildings had been burning for days from the fighting, in fact none of the houses was burning before more than 24 hours after the battle for the city was over.[3] On 12 August, HRW researchers in South Ossetia witnessed at least four ethnic Georgian villages being destroyed. A HRW researcher said that "the remaining residents of these destroyed ethnic Georgian villages are facing desperate conditions, with no means of survival, no help, no protection, and nowhere to go."[51] On 13 August an interviewed South Ossetian officer acknowledged that the South Ossetian forces burned these houses "to make sure that they [the Georgians] can’t come back." HRW also learned from an Ossetian officer about the summary execution of a Georgian combatant, and that the looters, who were "everywhere" in the Georgian villages in South Ossetia, were "now moving to Gori".[5] By 14 August, already after the official ceasefire, many international media outlets reported Georgian government and refugee stories that Ossetian and often also other pro-Russian irregulars (including reports of Cossack and Chechen paramilitaries) were looting and burning Georgian villages in South Ossetia and near Gori.[52][53][54][55][56][57][58]

On 13 August, Russian interior minister Rashid Nurgaliev said there would be "decisive and tough" measures taken against looters;[51] according to Russia's Interfax, two looters were executed by firing squad in South Ossetia.[59] Nevertheless, on 14 August, The Daily Telegraph reporter witnessed South Ossetian irregulars continuing to loot and pillage around Gori, often with the encouragement of Russian troops, including a Russian officer shouting to "take whatever you want".[60] Vehicles were even carjacked from the international officials by paramilitaries while Russian soldiers watched.[61] According to HRW, on 13 August Russian military had blocked the road from Java to Tskhinvali in an effort to prevent further attacks and looting, and by 14 August, researchers saw no more fires there; however, looting and burning of Georgian villages continued in ethnic Georgian villages in Georgia's Gori Municipality.[62] Major General Vyacheslav Borisov, the Russian commander in Georgia, was quoted as saying that "Ossetians are running around and killing poor Georgians. This is a problem and we are trying to deal with it. I have ordered my men to arrest anyone carrying out looting and other criminal acts."[32]

The looting and burning of Georgian villages in South Ossetia continued in late August. An AP reporter saw burning and looting of Georgian homes in at least six separate areas from 22 August through 28 August. It was also reported that according to South Ossetian officials ethnic Georgian civilians in South Ossetia were "detained for their own protection" and were expelled to the Georgian side.[63] Russian tour guide told a group of foreign journalists that "Georgian special commandos burned the houses."[64]

On 28 August, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Operational Satellite Applications Programme UNOSAT published report on an initial damage assessment on 19 August, based on satellite images of Gori. Total number of buildings that were classified as affected by Russian air raid, was 33, of which 18 were destroyed, and 15 were severely damaged. The UNOSAT report does not specify whether the damage was inflicted to military or civilian buildings.[65] Human Rights Watch used the satellite images to confirm the widespread burning of ethnic-Georgian villages by Ossetian militia in South Ossetia.[66]

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Tbilisi Central Hospital, meeting with injured from Gori

Some of the emerging stories featured reports of atrocities. On 14 August, BBC News said, "The testimonies of those who have fled villages around South Ossetia are consistent, but with all roads blocked and the Russian military now in charge of the area, the scale of alleged reprisal killings and lootings is difficult to verify."[67] The new waves of Georgian refugees bringing reports of the widespread pillage and "revenge" killings in the territories occupied by the Russian forces kept coming over the next days.[68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76]

On 16 August, an Associated Press reporter witnessed groups of Georgian forced laborers in Tskhinvali under armed guard of Ossetians and Russians; South Ossetia's interior minister Mikhail Mindzayev acknowledged this, saying that the Georgians "are cleaning up after themselves".[77] The Independent reported that around 40 Georgian civilian captives, mostly elderly men, were "paraded" through the city and abused by South Ossetians.[32] On 18 August, South Ossetian leaders put the number of the hostages at more than 130, roughly half of them women and mostly former Georgian guest workers.[19] The kidnapping of civilians by warring parties is a war crime according to the Article 3 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.[18]

On 16 August, HRW appealed to Russian authorities to "immediately take steps to end Ossetian militia attacks on ethnic Georgians" in the Gori district and for the Russian military to ensure safe passage for civilians wishing to leave and for humanitarian aid agencies to enter. The organisation said that ethnic Georgians remaining in Gori region villages were afraid to leave after learning about militia attacks on those who fled. The UN described the humanitarian situation in the Russian military-controlled Gori as "desperate". It was able to deliver limited food supplies to the city.[78]

Russian (Novaya Gazeta) and British (The Sunday Times) journalists embedded with the Russian and Ossetian forces reported that irregulars were abusing and executing captured Georgian soldiers and suspected combatants captured during the "mopping-up operation" in South Ossetia and beyond.[72][79]

In 2009, Human Rights Watch reported that armed gangs and Ossetian militia engaged in looting, arson attacks, rape and abductions in Georgian areas under Russian control, forcing the civilian population to flee.[80][81]