Amnesty International affirmed this Friday to fully accept its report in which it accuses the Ukrainian army of endangering the civilian population in its resistance to the Russian invasion by installing military infrastructure in inhabited areas, violently rejected by Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went so far as to accuse Amnesty International of “attempting amnesty to the terrorist state” in Russia, in response to the publication of this report on Thursday.
“We fully stand by our conclusions,” said the NGO’s secretary general, Agnès Callamard.
“Evidence-Based” Conclusions
It notes that these conclusions were “based on evidence from wide-ranging investigations held to the same high standards and investigative process as all of Amnesty International’s work.”
He regrets the reaction of the Ukrainian authorities “which risks paralyzing a legitimate and important discussion on these issues” of the protection of civilians, and specifies that the government had not responded to a request for reaction or comment before the publication of the report.
The NGO “clearly indicated that the Ukrainian military practices” described in its report, including the installation of military infrastructure in schools and hospitals, “in no way justify the systematic violations of international humanitarian law by Russia”, recalls Agnès Callamard.
“Ignoring violations committed by one privileged party over another would not be a way of accounting for human rights,” he pleads.
Source: BFM TV
