Indiscriminate use of force is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, and serious violations are considered to be war crimes.
The BBC has discovered evidence that Georgia may have committedwar crimes in its attack on its breakaway region of South Ossetia inAugust.
Eyewitnesses have described how its tanks fired directly into anapartment block, and how civilians were shot at as they tried to escapethe fighting.
Research by the international investigative organisation HumanRights Watch also points to indiscriminate use of force by the Georgianmilitary, and the possible deliberate targeting of civilians.
The allegations are now raising concerns among Georgia’s supporters in the West.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has told the BBC the attack on South Ossetia was “reckless”.
He said he had raised the issue of possible Georgian war crimes with the government in Tbilisi.
The evidence was gathered by the BBC on the first unrestrictedvisit to South Ossetia by a foreign news organisation since theconflict.
Georgia’s attempt to re-conquer the territory triggered aRussian invasion and the most serious crisis in relations between theKremlin and the West since the Cold War.