Human rights group Amnesty International has just released a report into the Georgia-Russia conflict which has the blunt title, Civilians in the Line of Fire.

The organisation says that all parties in the war may have committed serious violations of human rights.

While the August conflict was officially over in five days, the suffering continues for tens of thousands of South Ossetians who are yet to return home.

The ABC's Moscow correspondent Scott Bevan spoke to Amnesty's John Dalhuisen about the report.

John Dalhuisen: Quantitively, obviously it was a small war in a small area, however qualitatively the violations and that, there are strong indications that occurred are serious ones, and ultimately it's not a question of scale - it's a question of gravity.

And that's civilians caught up in the conflict by the result of indiscriminate attacks, both the Georgian advance on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia and subsequently the Russian reply.

Scott Bevan: How compelling is the case, does Amnesty International believe that war crimes were committed during the conflict?

JD: Well we're certainly concerned that there's strong evidence that there is violations of international humanitarian law occurred in these indiscriminate attacks and also subsequently, looting, pillaging, marauding by South Ossetian forces that Russian forces in control of those areas did not control.

SB: You point out in the report that there is compelling evidence that both sides used cluster bombs. What is that compelling evidence and just what effect did they have?

JD: Well the compelling evidence are material traces both of the impact of cluster bombs and (inaudible) material parts of cluster munitions, of the types used by both Russian and Georgian forces. They are slightly different types, that they've both been found in different areas and where they've been found their use is consistent with stories Amnesty researchers have heard on the ground there.

The problem with cluster bombs is that at the moment of their use they explode over a wide area, and are very difficult to target precisely with a high risk therefore of civilian causalities. But also after the conflict has ended, a lot of unexploded cluster munitions remain on the ground and these are very easily triggered subsequently by civilians, often children or farmers working in those areas.

SB: Now the report calls on both the Russian and Georgian governments to do more in investigating any allegations of international law violations, but there's also a strong call for the international community to do more. What more should be done and why do you feel that not enough has been done by the international community?

JD: There are a number of different options that are possible; the one that Amnesty International is specifically calling for at this stage is the activation of international humanitarian fact finding commission. This is a body provided for by Geneva Conventions, and it would require both Georgia and Russia to invite it to analyse what happened, to investigate what happened and to make its recommendations.

The other avenue of international investigation would be if it turns out - and this is still remains to be seen as it's early days yet - but if Russian and Georgian investigations are inadequate, then it would perhaps become appropriate for the international criminal court, the prosecutor of the international criminal court, to investigate allegations of war crimes in itself.

SB: The report points out that the humanitarian consequences of the five day conflict continue and will do so for some time. What are the most profound or indeed shocking of those consequences?

JD: The major one is the displacement of a relatively large number of people, given the small size of the area, and I'm speaking specifically about ethnic Georgians displaced from South Ossetia proper and who are unable to return, there's about 20,000 of them.

And then there are a further approximately 10,000 who have of yet been unable to return to ... South Ossetia because the buildings, the houses have been destroyed.

But even for those who have been able to return the security situation particularly on the border, on the administrative border between Ossetia and South Ossetia and Georgia is extremely tense.