Thousands of people uprooted during the fighting over South Ossetia will be risking their lives when they return home because of unexploded or abandoned munitions, aid workers and weapons experts warn.
"There will be a lot of unexploded ordnance lying around the streets and possibly even in people's homes which have been damaged, and in schools and health centres," said Robert MacGillivray, head of operations for Mines Advisory Group (MAG).
An estimated 100,000 people are thought to have fled their homes after Georgia launched military action last week to retake control of the breakaway region of South Ossetia and Russia responded with a massive counter-offensive. With a fragile ceasefire in place, many people are likely to start heading home.
"There is a very grave risk to the population should they move some of the unexploded ordnance, particularly for children. Some of the ordnance is quite brightly coloured and sometimes children see munitions lying on the ground and use them as play-things," MacGillivray said.
The warning came as Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Russia of dropping cluster bombs in populated areas - an allegation denied by Moscow. Cluster bombs are munitions which break apart in mid-air to scatter bomblets over a wide area. Many fail to explode, creating virtual minefields as happened in Lebanon during Israel's war with Hezbollah in 2006.
More than 100 countries agreed to ban cluster bombs earlier this year, but Russia rejected the pact.
MAG, a British-based organisation which helps clear explosive debris from war zones, fears people returning home could face the same sorts of risks from unexploded ordnance as they have in Lebanon and Iraq.
Not only does unexploded ordnance kill and maim civilians, it jeopardises aid operations and holds up post-conflict reconstruction as the area has to be cleared first. Economic recovery also suffers if farmers cannot produce food because their land has been contaminated.
Mark Hiznay, an arms researcher at HRW, said the failure rate of the sorts of munitions fired by Georgia and Russia ranged from 1 to 10 percent or more depending on how they were used and what condition they had been kept in. Weapons used in the fighting included mortar shells, artillery projectiles, tank rounds and aircraft bombs.
He warned that civilians often try to break up weapon fragments left over after a conflict in order to salvage scrap metal - a factor that has caused numerous deaths and injuries in Cambodia.
"Someone needs to take steps to warn the population still in the area not to touch any of the unexploded ordnance and someone needs to take steps to remove it. It's a significant, significant threat," Hiznay said.
"We're also calling on Russia to provide strike data on its cluster bomb attacks ... in order to facilitate an eventual clear-up."
MAG's MacGillivray expected people to start returning home very soon. He said 85 percent of the population of Gori had fled their homes when the Georgian town came under heavy Russian bombardment. Some were in camps and others living with host families.
"Very poor people, who have got very little, will do more to protect their meagre possessions than anyone else," MacGillivray said.
"As soon as there's a window of opportunity for people to go back to their own homes, no matter how badly damaged they are, then the population generally seizes on that and goes back - but unfortunately, all too often prematurely."
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