Human Rights Watch Urges Georgia and Russia to Bring Offenders to the Court

The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch calls upon Georgia and Russia to bring those responsible for the war in August 2008 to the court; those people have committed war crimes. The urgent appeal of the organization was published on the official website of the HRW.

The Human Rights Watch calls upon the international community to compel Georgia and Russia to punish the offenders. The organization states that their crimes resulted into the death of many civilians and damage of properties of peaceful citizens.

‘The international community is largely focusing on who fired the first shot, but the need for justice should not be ignored,” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. ‘The people whose lives were ruined by fighting are still waiting for justice. It's hard to imagine how there could be any real reconciliation without it.’

Human Rights Watch reports that ‘the Fact-Finding Mission's 1,129-page report on last year's armed conflict between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia found that international human rights and humanitarian law violations were committed by Georgian, Russian, and South Ossetian forces. The violations included indiscriminate attacks by the Georgian and Russian militaries and a widespread campaign of looting and burning of ethnic Georgian villages, along with ill-treatment, beating, hostage-taking, and arbitrary arrests by South Ossetian forces. The report also found that the Russian military failed to prevent or stop violations by the Ossetian militia’.

 Source: Interpressnews