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Last update - 18:26 04/11/2008
Human Rights Watch charges Georgia used defective Israeli-made cluster bombs
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel News, Russia 

A new study by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) organization has found that Georgia used Israeli-made cluster bombs during its war with Russia, and that the weapons were defective, detonating in populated areas, killing Georgian civilians.

Georgia, responding to the report, termed its conclusions "impossible."

The HRW report said that Russia also fired cluster bombs in large quantities, according an assessment by American intelligence.
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HRW investigators said they discovered that the Georgian cluster bombs fell in at least nine residential areas, several of them a great distance from areas where Georgia said it had employed them in the war against Russian forces.

The report states that Georgia said the bombs were acquired from Israel and that the defects in them were apparently found in most of the production run.

Responding to the HRW report, the Georgian defense ministry said in an official statement that Georgia had never used cluster bombs against targets which were "close to or beside areas of civilian population in the course of the war." Therefore, it said, from Georgia's standpoint, the conclusions of the American organization were "impossible."

Georgian officials said they had acquired the bombs, rockets and launchers from an Israeli company. They refused to name the firm. But Pentagon sources identified it as Israel Military Industries (IMI), with which Georgia had maintained trade ties since the 1990s

Responding to questions from Haaretz, the Foreign Ministry referred the matter to the Defense Ministry. The Defense Ministry spokesman said that the ministry does not disclose information on subjects tied to defense exports.

There is an international convention against the use of cluster bombs, but the convention has yet to take effect, and therefore is not binding on Israel.

During the Second Lebanon War, Israel used American-manufactured cluster bombs. After the war, when it became clear that some of the bombs had fallen in populated areas, causing casualties to the civilian population, the U.S. expressed anger over Israel's having used the bombs without its authorization.

Israel prefers to buy its cluster bombs from the United States because of the American foreign aid grant that it receives for defense needs. IMI, which also produces cluster bombs, has had difficulty selling them to the Israel Defense Forces, manufacturing them instead for sale to various foreign countries, among them NATO nations.



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  1.   Russia sells top guns to Syria, Iran - now You know why 19:28  |  levin 04/11/08
  2.   `defective Israeli-made cluster bombs` 19:33  |  uh huh... 04/11/08
  3.   We expect no less from HRW - they always condemne the victims 19:48  |  Arie 04/11/08
  4.   What laguage were the boms using, 20:07  |  ottomatik 04/11/08
  5.   HRW is a tool of anti-Israel ideologues 20:38  |  DJStahl 04/11/08
  6.   I don`t get it, isn`t that the point 21:50  |  Bitin Dawg 04/11/08
  7.   Arie on Human Rights Watch... 22:25  |  BBSNews 04/11/08
  8.   Plenty more evidence where this came from 22:42  |  Truth For Ossetia 04/11/08
  9.   Russia`s answer will come sooner or later 23:06  |  Paris 04/11/08
  10.   russia inching closer to israel 00:44  |  VIPER 05/11/08
  11.   # 3 arie 00:53  |  Axel 05/11/08
  12.   Paris is right. 00:55  |  Neutered Observer 05/11/08
  13.   It was an ugly little war 00:57  |  Mark Lincoln 05/11/08
  14.   Russia annihilated 300000 Chechnian, still waiting for HRW report 01:00  |  and waiting 05/11/08
  15.   "waiting" for Chechnya... 01:40  |  BBSNews 05/11/08
  16.   the truth is alway antisemitic 01:49  |  to those not semitic 05/11/08
  17.   So Human Rights Watch should make their own non-defective bombs.. 05:08  |  McQueen 05/11/08
  18.   #1 you have it backwards 05:08  |  McQueen 05/11/08
  19.   nothing is binding on israel 15:15  |  sam i am 05/11/08
  20.   defective? 01:07  |  schafe82 16/11/08
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