John Adoyi, PBA Journalism Mentee
Amnesty International has tendered apology to the Ukrainian Government over tension and distress caused by a report it issued about the country’s military tactics in the ongoing crisis with Russia.
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The international human rights organisation in an e-mail to Reuters on Sunday said it deeply regretted the outrage generated by the report.
Amnesty on Thursday issued a report which criticised Ukraine, saying the presence of the troops in residential areas heightened risks to civilians during Russia’s invasion.
The group said it is only concerned about the safety of civilians.
According to the E-mail it said “Amnesty International deeply regrets the distress and anger that our press release on the Ukrainian military’s fighting tactics has caused.”
“Amnesty International’s priority in this and in any conflict is ensuring that civilians are protected. Indeed, this was our sole objective when releasing this latest piece of research. While we fully stand by our findings, we regret the pain caused.”
The rights group said that they found “instances where Ukrainian forces had located themselves right next to where civilians were living, thereby potentially putting them at risk from incoming Russian fire.”
“We made this assessment based on the rules of international humanitarian law, which require all parties to a conflict to avoid locating, to the maximum extent feasible, military objectives within or near densely populated areas.”
“This does not mean that Amnesty International holds Ukrainian forces responsible for violations committed by Russian forces, nor that the Ukrainian military is not taking adequate precautions elsewhere in the country,” it said in the mail.
“We must be very clear: nothing we documented Ukrainian forces doing in any way justifies Russian violations.”
Many Ukrainians were said to be unhappy with the report.
The head of Amnesty in Ukraine, Oksana Pokalchuk, resigned from his job because of the report, calling it a propaganda gift for Moscow.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky was livid with the report saying that Amnesty is trying to “shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.”
