Amnesty International rejects criticism of Ukraine’s illegal behavior in the war started by Russia. There has been an extensive investigation and the findings are based on facts, Callamard said. She sees the danger that the fierce criticism could prevent discussions in the future.
Despite harsh criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the human rights organization Amnesty International is sticking to its report on the Ukrainian army’s problematic tactics. The organization is “fully committed to our investigations,” Secretary General Agnes Callamard wrote in an email to the AFP news agency. “The findings are based on evidence gathered through extensive investigations.”
Callamard said the Ukrainian government’s response “risks deterring legitimate and important discussion on these issues.” In addition, the Ukrainian government did not respond to a request for comment on Amnesty’s findings.
Criticism of the human rights organization came from the British Ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons. “The only thing that threatens the (Ukrainian) civilian population is rockets and guns and looting Russian troops,” Simmons wrote on Twitter.
The head of Amnesty’s Ukraine office, Oksana Pokalchuk, said on Facebook that Amnesty ignored her team’s request not to publish the report. The Ukrainian office will not translate the report into Ukrainian and will not post it on its website. Pokaltschuk explains that the Amnesty Team of Ukraine was not able to provide any data for the report and was not otherwise involved in the report. The team also did not receive a copy of the report for inspection prior to publication.
In a report published on Thursday, Amnesty International accused the Ukrainian army of unnecessarily endangering civilians with its military tactics. Ukrainian soldiers “repeatedly operated out of residential areas,” said Janine Uhlmannsiek, an expert on Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International Germany. The Ukrainian action is “a violation of international humanitarian law” that is not justified by the “Russian war of aggression, which violates international law”.
The Ukrainian President Selenskyj attacked Amnesty International as a result. The human rights organization wants to “issue an amnesty for the terrorist state (Russia) and shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim,” he said.
