The Armed Forces was in danger of "civilian": Amnesty International report was criticized by experts - NYT
About it on Friday, April 28, writes the American newspaper The New York Times. For several months, the Amnesty International Council worked on a report that criticized a group of human rights activists who accused Ukrainian troops of illegal threat to civilian population during the war with Russia.
"The 18-page report, a copy of which has reached the newspaper, emphasizes the complexity of the application of international law to the aspects of conflict in Ukraine-and the delicacy of the preserved issue, which caused fierce and rapid reaction to the actions of the human rights group," the journalists write.
In a statement of August 4, Amnesty International accused the Ukrainian forces of illegally exposing the "civic population to danger", placing soldiers nearby and striking from settlements. In some aspects, the report from the review commission justified Amnesty International, summarizing that it should be evaluated whether the defender, not just the aggressor, the laws of the war, and stating that Amnesty records clearly show that Ukrainian troops were often near civilians.
According to international law, the publication writes, both parties in any conflict should try to protect the civilian population, regardless of the correctness of their actions. As a result of a human rights organization, it is quite appropriate to criticize a violation by the victim of aggression, provided that there are sufficient evidence of such violations.
However, the expert commission unanimously came to the conclusion that Amnesty International made a number of errors in its statement and that its main conclusions that Ukraine had violated international law was "insufficiently substantiated" by available evidence. The general story of the release of August 4 was "written in a language, which was ambiguous, inaccurate and in some respects legally doubtful," the report reads.
"This is especially true of the initial paragraphs that can be perceived as a hint - although it was not the intention of AI - that at the systemic or general level, Ukrainian forces are primarily or equally guilty of the death of civilians due to attacks by Russia," the report said. According to NYT, the Kremlin presented the results of the study as proof that Ukraine is guilty of the death of Ukrainian citizens at the hands of Russia.
In particular, the Ambassador of Russia to the UN Vasily Neenza cited these conclusions as justification of the occupation of the nuclear power plant in Ukraine by Russia. "We do not use the tactics used by Ukrainian armed forces - the use of civilian objects as a military cover, I would say that I recently proved Amnesty International in our report, which we were constantly talking about at all meetings with the Security Council," he said .
It should be noted that the statement, in fact, does not contain accusations against Ukraine of the use of civilians as a living shield, but only in that it did not take precautionary measures to protect them. However, the response was fierce. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky accused the organization of "shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim. " Within Amnesty International, her statement has caused deep controversy.
Its director from Ukraine Oksana Pokalchuk resigned as a sign of protest, emphasizing that Russia is accused of atrocities in occupied cities, and Ukraine is trying to prevent new cases. She accused the group of "giving Russia justification for continuation of the non -harvesting attacks. " The Branch of the Group in Canada made a statement that expressed the reason and the consequences of these misses by the institution of our level.
" The report states that the researchers of the group recorded "at least 42 specific cases in 19 cities and villages" when Ukrainian soldiers operated near the civilian population. It was also found that several "attacks of the Russian forces, which were found against the Ukrainian military, led to the death or injury of civilians and damage to civilians.
" "We have made this assessment on the basis of international humanitarian law (IGP), which require all parties to the conflict to avoid placement, as far as possible, military goals in or nearby areas. The causes of Amnesty International calls for governments to comply with them, "the updated report on August 7, 2022 reads. At the same time, human rights activists emphasize that they do not impose on the Ukrainian forces responsibility for violations committed by Russian troops.
We will remind, on April 24 it became known that in the Saratov region Russian law enforcement officers detained and brought to the interrogation of the mercenary of PEC "Wagner" Azamat Uldarova, who told human rights defenders about the mass murder of civilians "Wagner" in Bakhmut and Soledar.