Humanitarian impact of the Russo-Georgian War

[1][2] Mart Laar, Estonian adviser to Georgian president, alleged by 13 August 2008 that Russia was not allowing international missions into Tskhinvali so the people under the rubble would die.

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

"[22] Several South Ossetian women told HRW on 12 August that Georgian soldiers they had met did not want to attack the civilians and apparently only militias and hostiles were their targets.

[25] While Russia was accusing Georgia of committing "genocide" in South Ossetia, The Wall Street Journal wrote that there was "little evidence of a high death toll."

"[26] On 20 August, the number of dead civilians identified was put by Russian official investigators at 133;[27] The new reduced estimate was a tenth of the original fatality rate.

[51] Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili commented on Russian "rampage" on 13 August: "What we are seeing is classic Balkan-type and WWII-type ethnic cleansing and purification campaigns.

[63] The Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs and the OSCE chairman Alexander Stubb visited the war-affected area in Georgia in late August and accused the Russian troops of "clearly trying to empty southern Ossetia of Georgians.

"[64] On 27 August, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner accused the Russian forces of "ethnic cleansing, creating a homogeneous South Ossetia.

[67] By 28 August 2008, the refugees recently returned to the villages north of Gori, which were still under the Russian military control, had to flee a renewed harassment by the South Ossetian militias.

[69] Journalist wrote for International Herald Tribune in early September that "the first thing that strikes" inside the 20-km wide "security zone" adjacent to South Ossetia is "the almost total lack of people".

"[49] On 18 August, journalists working for The New York Times visited the Georgian villages located between Gori and Tskhinvali and witnessed the situation indicating "ethnic anger and a sustained, often unchecked period of looting.

[90] Anna Neistat of HRW stated in early September that marauding was continuing in the Georgian villages located in the uncontrolled buffer zone between Gori and South Ossetia.

[91] Journalist for International Herald Tribune observed in early September that large vehicles had been crashed into some robbed structures in the Russian-occupied Georgian villages near South Ossetia.

"[70] On 27 August 2008, Human Rights Watch used the UNOSAT satellite images to prove the rampant arson of ethnic-Georgian villages by Ossetian militia in South Ossetia.

[93] 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.

Russian forces turned back some humanitarian aid expeditions trying to help civilians, with only the United Nations (UN) managing to bring limited food provisions to the city.

[108] Aslambek Apayev of Helsinki Group said on 15 August that "If Moscow considers that Saakashvili should stand before the Hague tribunal, then let it first send [to that court] Putin and his generals who are guilty in the mass murder of peaceful residents on the territory of the Chechen Republic.

"[115] The Bulgarian MP Petar Kanev, chairman of the group for Bulgarian-Russian Friendship in the National Assembly, claimed that he did not see any military object hit by the Georgian army.

[133] In late October 2008, the BBC reported that according to the Ossetians, Georgian troops could have perpetrated war crimes during the battle of Tskhinvali, such as possible intentional attacks on civilians.

[135] Chairman of the Union of South Ossetian journalists Batradz Kharebov told Echo of Abkhazia in November 2008 that according to his calculations, only 70 people died in Tskhinvali.

[139] In response to the report, Russian foreign ministry official Igor Lyakin-Frolov suggested that it was "too late" to conduct an investigation into violations of the humanitraian law.

Deputy director of the Moscow office of HRW, Tanya Lokshina, said: "South Ossetian militias are running wild attacking ethnic Georgians in Akhalgori.

[142] In December 2008, former Secretary of the South Ossetian Security Council Anatoly Barankevich told Kommersant that president Eduard Kokoity personally beat the captive Georgian prisoner of war.

[149] Georgian forces used Grad multiple rocket launchers, self-propelled artillery, mortars and howitzers against South Ossetian targets during the initial phase of the conflict.

[151] HRW commented on the conduct of war by Russia that Russian attacks, carried out with bombers and artillery, killed or wounded civilians in Georgia, including areas outside of South Ossetia.

[158] Walter Kälin, the Representative of the United Nations' Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, visited South Ossetia on 5–6 November 2009.

[160] In April 2010, Georgia submitted a claim to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of the family of Giorgi Antsukhelidze, a Georgian soldier who died in captivity and a subject of internet videos showing his torture at the hand of South Ossetian militias.

It stated: Alan Chochiev, the chairman of the Popular Front of South Ossetia "Adamon Nykhas" puts forward the following question: if genocide was taking place, why didn’t the president of Russia order the 58th Army to prevent the tragedy, and only on 10th of August, Medvedev began to be indignant about the "massive civilian casualties among population", which "has risen to two thousand people."

[165] On 10 March 2022, the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan requested warrants of arrest of South Ossetian officials on the charges of abuse of ethnic Georgian civilians.

[166] The International Criminal Court concluded its investigation in the Situation in Georgia in December 2022, delivering arrest warrants for three de facto South Ossetian officials believed to bear responsibility for war crimes committed during the 2008 war — Mikhail Mindzaev, Gamlet Guchmazov and David Sanakoev, respectively, holding the positions of Minister of Internal Affairs, head of a detention centre in Tskhinvali, and Presidential Representative for Human Rights of South Ossetia, at the relevant time.