Ukraine: Amnesty International report sparks furor, resignation

The head of Amnesty International’s Ukraine chapter has resigned, saying the human rights group shot down her opposition to publishing a report that claimed Ukrainian forces had uncovered civilians to Russian assaults by basing themselves in populated areas.

In a press release posted Friday evening on Facebook, Oksana Pokalchuk accused her former employer of disregarding Ukraine’s wartime realities and the considerations of native employees members who had pushed for the report back to be reworked.

The report, launched Thursday, drew indignant denouncements from prime Ukrainian officers and criticism from Western diplomats, who accused the authors of creating imprecise claims that appeared to equate the Ukrainian navy’s defensive actions to the techniques of the invading Russians.

“It is painful to admit, but I and the leadership of Amnesty International have split over values,” Pokalchuk wrote. “I believe that any work done for the good of society should take into account the local context, and think through consequences.”

Russia has repeatedly justified assaults on civilian areas by alleging that Ukrainian fighters had arrange firing positions on the focused areas.

Pokalchuk mentioned her workplace had requested the group’s management to present the Ukrainian Defense Ministry sufficient time to answer the report’s findings and argued that its failure to take action would additional Kremlin misinformation and propaganda efforts.

“I am convinced that our surveys should be done thoroughly, bearing in mind the people whose lives often depend directly on the words and actions of international organizations,” she mentioned.

In a information launch that accompanied the report’s publication, Amnesty International Secretary-general Agnes Callamard mentioned the group had “documented a sample of Ukrainian forces placing civilians in danger and violating the legal guidelines of warfare once they function in populated areas.

“Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law,” she mentioned Thursday.

Russian state-sponsored media quoted the report back to help Moscow’s declare that Russia has solely launched strikes on navy targets in the course of the warfare. The spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry cited the Amnesty International assertions as proof that Ukraine was utilizing civilians as human shields.

Multiple Western students of worldwide and navy legislation went on social media to reject the human protect declare. They mentioned the report contained poor phrasing that muddied authorized distinctions and ignored the fight situations in Ukraine.

United Nations warfare crimes investigator Marc Garlasco, tweeting in a private capability Friday, accused Amnesty International of “getting the law wrong” and mentioned Ukraine was taking steps to guard civilians, akin to serving to them relocate.

Ukrainian authorities on the nationwide and regional stage have repeatedly urged residents of frontline areas to evacuate, though tens of 1000’s of people that left their houses since Russia’s invasion have returned after working out of help or feeling unwelcome.

Ukrainian leaders, together with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the nation’s international and protection ministers, have been scathing of their condemnation of the report, which they mentioned failed to supply context on Russia’s bombardments of populated areas and documented assaults on civilians.

Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, posted a tweet Friday that defended the group’s work and took purpose at its critics.
“Ukrainian and Russian social media mobs and trolls: they are all at it today attacking Amnesty investigations. This is called war propaganda, disinformation, misinformation. This won’t dent our impartiality and won’t change the facts,” she wrote.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba issued an indignant response to Callamard wherein he accused her group of “fake neutrality” and enjoying into the Kremlin’s fingers.

“Apparently, Amnesty’s Secretary General calls me a ‘mob’ and a ‘troll’, but this won’t stop me from saying that its report distorts reality, draws false moral equivalence between the aggressor and the victim, and boosts Russia’s disinformation effort. This is fake ‘neutrality’, not truthfulness,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter.