Mayors Campaign Condemns the Bombardment of Cities in Georgia

Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign

10 August 2008

Mayors Campaign Condemns the Bombardment of Cities in Georgia

The city of Tskhinvali was subjected to intensive, massive, and seemingly indiscriminate bombardment by Georgian military forces beginning on 7 August.  It was then turned into a battleground in which first Georgian and then Russia troops stormed the city.  As we write, ‘control’ of the city is disputed, but one thing is certain, the city is in ruins and the population is in flight with those unable to escape terrorized.  Many hundreds of civilians – quite possibly in excess of a thousand – have been killed.

Russia has responded by attacking several Georgian cities from the air.  Although some of these attacks appear to have been aimed at military installations, they have resulted in dozens of civilian casualties. 

In October 2007, the Second World Congress of United Cities and Local Governments, speaking on behalf of the majority of humanity which now lives in cities, declared: “… the use of conventional armaments is at present the cause of unbearable suffering for civil populations… We call on all nation states and armed groups to cease considering cities as military objectives – ‘cities are not targets’.”

In line with this stance, Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign vehemently condemns all use of explosive force in populated areas.  Bombardment of cities by artillery and airplanes must cease immediately.  Mayors for Peace, with 2,368 members in 131 countries, supports efforts to establish an immediate, comprehensive ceasefire followed by an internationally supervised withdrawal of all armed forces to their pre-August positions.

Aaron Tovish, international campaign director asserted: “Cities are inhabited overwhelmingly by non-combatants; the use of explosive force in heavily populated areas will inevitably result in a great number of civilian casualties.  Military forces seem to assume that they can use explosive force in a city as they would on an open battlefield.  On the basis of this assumption, many cities have suffered terribly from the scourge of war in the last 100 years, accounting for the vast majority of civilian casualties.  The logical extension of that thinking was the total obliteration of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs in August 1945, with over 200,000 noncombatant deaths.

“The ultimatum issued by the Georgian Government to the citizens of Tskhinvali to evacuate their homes during a three-hour pause in the attack is despicable.  According to international humanitarian law, such warnings are to be issued before an attack commences not after.  Furthermore, in our view, compelling citizens of an entire city to leave their homes and property under threat of destruction is totally unacceptable.  Mayors are pledged to defend the lives and property of their citizens; the 2020 Vision Campaign must and will speak out against all threats to cities.”

For more information on the ‘Cities Are Not Targets!’ project of the 2020 Vision Campaign please see www.2020visioncampaign.org  or call Aaron Tovish +43 676 325 2195.