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Page last updated at 10:58 GMT, Tuesday, 18 November 2008

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Georgian refugees 'still trapped'

Georgian refugees near the town of Gori. Photo: September 2008

Many Georgian refugees are staying in temporary tent camps

More than 20,000 ethnic Georgians are still unable to return to their homes in South Ossetia following August's war in Georgia, Amnesty International says.

Its report says a "twilight zone" has been created along the de facto border between Georgia and its rebel region.

It also calls for an inquiry into the Georgian-Russian war to investigate claims of serious human rights abuses.

Georgia and Russia are due to resume talks on the future of Georgia's South Ossetia and Abkhazia rebel areas.

The first round of talks - mediated by the UN, EU and OSCE - failed last month in Geneva.

Cluster bombs were fired on and near inhabited areas by both Georgia and Russia, resulting in numerous civilians casualties

Amnesty International's report

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has told Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio that the talks now should focus on security and refugees.

In August, Russia ousted Georgian troops trying to regain South Ossetia, and it later recognised both that region and Abkhazia as independent states.

Under an EU-brokered truce, Russia later withdrew its troops from what Moscow described as "buffer zones" around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

But Russia still keeps its troops in the two breakaway regions.

'Looting and abductions'

Amnesty says its report - Civilians in the line of fire: The Georgia-Russia conflict - gathers together evidence suggesting that serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by all sides during and after the conflict.

It says "villages and residential areas in towns were bombed and shelled, and some civilians even reported being bombed while fleeing".

"Cluster bombs were fired on and near inhabited area by both Georgia and Russia, resulting in numerous civilian casualties and the contamination of large areas of land with unexploded ordnance."

Amnesty says that even now - more than three months after the war - more than 20,000 ethnic Georgians are unable to return to their homes in South Ossetia.

"A new twilight zone has been created along the de facto border between South Ossetia and the rest of Georgia, into which people stray at their peril," Amnesty's Nicola Duckworth said.

"Looting, shooting, explosions and abductions have all been reported in the last few weeks," she said.

The report also urges both Moscow and Tbilisi to request an inquiry into the conduct of the conflict by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission - a body of experts set up by the Geneva Convention.