Amsterdam - International human rights organization Human
Rights Watch (HWR) told international media on Friday it has evidence
RTL television cameraman Stan Storimans was killed by Russian
cluster bombs, despite an international ban on such bombs.
Storimans was killed in the Georgian city of Gori while reporting
about the conflict over South Ossetia between Georgia and Russia.
Two other journalists, Dutch Jeroen Akkermans and Israeli Zadok
Yehezkeli, sustained injuries in the same incident.
HRW says it spoke with several eye witnesses and documented video
and photo material of the damage caused by the bombing that killed
seven.
In May, more than 100 countries banned the use of cluster bombs at
a convention in Ireland.
A cluster bomb contains many bombs which explode once touching the
ground. However, international experts say many of them do not
explode immediately, causing injuries to civilians up to years after
a conflict has ended.
The HRW report comes one day after Dutch journalists association
NVJ told Dutch media it would investigate the death of the Dutch
cameraman.
Meanwhile the Dutch wife of Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili
sent an e-mail to Dutch news wire ANP on Friday expressing her sorrow
over the death of the Dutch cameraman.
On Wednesday, Saakashvili told international media his wife would
be present at the Dutch cameraman's funeral, the date of which is
still unknown.
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