In mid-July, the UN released a report indicating that Ukraine had used nursing home residents as human shields. The report, “Situation of Human Rights in Ukraine in the Context of the Armed Attack by the Russian Federation,” includes a section that identifies the “placement of military objectives near civilian objects and the use of human shields...”
Calling out any unsavory deeds by Ukraine certainly does not mean that Russia is to be exonerated for its invasion. To point out a misdeed by Ukraine does not signify pro-Russian sentiments or sympathies. Truth should always be pursued, and groupthink and mass control opposed. But making grand leaps of that kind without asking questions is the world we now live in. The collective brainwashing demands that one must go along with the popular view without asking questions. To criticize reckless immigration means one is “anti-immigrant” or “xenophobic.” To point out the high rates of black-on-black crime means one must be “racist.” To call out jihad and Islamic supremacist hatred and intolerance means one must be “Islamophobic.” To call out “gender affirming care” targeting the youngest children in schools means one must be “transphobic.”
Oksana Pokalchuk explained that “she was proud of the work that Amnesty International did to highlight Russian war crimes,” but when Amnesty, which certainly has many faults, presented an unfavorable report about Ukraine, she resigned, claiming that “this study…has become a tool of Russian propaganda.”
In Canada, when questions were raised in 2017 about whether Liberal then-Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland’s grandfather was a Nazi collaborator, her response was that it was all “Russian disinformation.” As it turns out, he was indeed a Nazi collaborator.
The cancel culture mentality is predominantly found in woke circles, but everywhere there are endeavors to shut down questions and silence important discourse. This was clearly evident in the case of vaccine mandates, when any questions asked about the medical establishment and/or government were dismissed with ad hominem charges. In this case, it’s now automatically wrong to report about any misdeeds by the Ukraine government.
Agnès Callamard said: “Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law.” This should be obvious.
“Amnesty International’s Ukraine chief resigns after report criticizes Kyiv,” by Bryan Pietsch, Washington Post, August 8, 2022:
The head of Amnesty International in Ukraine said she was quitting her job after the human rights organization issued a report that criticized Ukraine’s military, sparking backlash among Ukrainian officials who said it was unfairly blaming the victim in Russia’s war.
Oksana Pokalchuk, who had led the organization’s efforts in Ukraine, said in a Facebook post announcing her resignation that it was “another loss that the war has cost me.”
She said that although she was proud of the work that Amnesty International did to highlight Russian war crimes, the report issued last week — which alleged that “Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians” — became a point of conflict between the staff in the Ukrainian office and the larger organization.
Pokalchuk said that the organization’s employees in Ukraine had pushed Amnesty International to allow the Ukrainian Defense Ministry to respond to the report’s findings before it was published, but that the organization gave Ukrainian officials “very little time to respond.”
“As a result of this, although unwillingly, the organization created material that sounded like support of Russian narratives,” she said. “Seeking to protect civilians, this study instead has become a tool of Russian propaganda.”
Amnesty International had said that “Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals.”
The organization said it had “found evidence of Ukrainian forces launching strikes from within populated residential areas as well as basing themselves in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages in the regions.” The report also said the violations “in no way justify Russia’s indiscriminate attacks.”
“Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law,” Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said in a statement accompanying the report.
Callamard has previously said Russia was “breaching the sovereignty of Ukraine and challenging the global security architecture,” calling the invasion “the worst such catastrophe in recent European history.”…
mortimer says
Superb reasoning from CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS. “Calling out any unsavory deeds by Ukraine certainly does not mean that Russia is to be exonerated for its invasion. To point out a misdeed by Ukraine does not signify pro-Russian sentiments or sympathies. Truth should always be pursued, and groupthink and mass control opposed. But making grand leaps of that kind without asking questions is the world we now live in.”
Indeed, if an officer is responsible for using a human shield, a court martial should deal with him. But who is going to deal with madman Putin? The future security of Europe depends on Putin’s war machine being ground down and pushed back. Putin and Russians must see that this megalomania is very 19th century … if not 17th century. The world is now ruled by treaties and international laws that prohibit aggrandizing territorial conquests as was the rule historically in past centuries.
Putin overestimated his military force and he overestimated the power of his will to take on NATO. Putin must believe he is the reincarnation of Peter the Great, but he isn’t.
Putin’s future lies in exile in China or North Korea.
gravenimage says
+1
gravenimage says
Amnesty International’s Ukraine chief resigns after report criticizing Ukraine military
………………………………………
Of course no nation–even one under brutal attack–should be free from criticism.
That being said, this from Amnesty International is very much like the constant bashing of Israel when she tries to defend herself against Jihad terror attacks.
Billy Chickens says
No one mentions the Nazis of the Azov Battalion in Ukraine or Ukraine’s infatuation with Stepan Bandera or the fact that Zelensky is a puppet of the West (Igor Kolomoisky is his sugar daddy buying him a 36 million dollar home in Miami and funding a billion dollar bank account for him) or that RUSSIA IS WINNING THE WAR…or that Russian Sergey Lavrov is the most brilliant diplomat on the planet or that the neurotic EU and Collective West are elitist buffoons stabbing themselves in the foot by sanctioning Russian gas and oil.
No one mentions the genocide of Russians and Russian speaking Ukrainians in the Donbass by the Ukraine Nazi troops over the past 8 years. No mention of Ukraine breaking the Minsk Accords. No one mentions that the BILLIONS AND BILLIONS sent to Zelensky in money to fund the Ukraine government is going into the pockets of the elites (especially cocaine headed former TV comedian Zelensky) and that only 20%, if that, of the weapons make it to the front lines since all the rest are sold on the black market. (Remember that Ukraine was and still is the MOST CORRUPT country in Europe.)
But all will be well for Russia, China, India etc because with Xi’s trip to Saudi Arabia it’s clear that MBS will join BRICS and that soon the USD will be overshadowed by the BRICS monetary system. The United States will become a backwater country – it’s well on the way to Communism at the moment – and the EU will implode. It’s going to be a cold cold winter for Europeans, Germans especially – with no heat because their elite political class sanctioned Russian gas and oil.
The EU and Collective West – especially the Biden Reich House (which no country outside of the West wants anything to do with) want regime change in Russia in order to plunder the vast wealth of all her commodities FOR FREE. Then the West will live happily ever after.
Keys says
You raise some good points, BC. Zalensky and the West are not innocent.
Why are the Democrats and “Biden” (his handlers) giving so much money to Ukraine?
What about Hunter, and what about Biden’s “well son of a bitch” they fired the guy and got their billion dollars. Too many unanswered questions to my mind.
I wonder if Russia is like a Trump to the Democrats. And that is not to say that Russia and Trump are innocent.
gravenimage says
Billy Chickens is now cutting and pasting his own claptrap. I have noted that there are actually many more neo-Nazis in Russia than in Ukraine. As for Sergey Lavrov being the most brilliant diplomat on the planet, he has affirmed that Russia deems any Ukrainian who supports independence from Russia to be a “Nazi”, and affirms that Russian intends to liquidate Ukrainians. Not so diplomatic…
Then, there was no genocide in Donbass–nor have there been any Ukrainians there, Russian-speaking or otherwise, cheering their invasion by Russians. Odd, that…
And on another thread Billy Chickens is not just lauding Russia and China, but also Iran. No surprise there…
And Russian trolls have *already* claimed that Britons have to spend evenings in McDonald’s that are heated so they don’t freeze to death…in August…in a heatwave… Not even an attempt to make this stuff sound plausible.
And the claim that the West is after Russia’s commodities is nothing but projection–it is Russia that invaded Ukraine. No one is invading Russia.
Then, the claim that Ukraine is “not innocent” for daring to defend against the brutal Russian invasion is just grotesque. This is exactly what Muslims claim as justification for murdering Infidels.