Experts call Amnesty's report on criticizing Ukraine's army "imprecise and ambiguous" – NYT
The New York Times published a report by experts faulting Amnesty's International statement about Ukrainian troops.
Last year's statement accused the Ukrainian army of "violating" laws of war by placing military personnel and equipment nearby populated civilian areas. Experts found it inaccurate and insufficiently substantiated.
The independent experts who conducted the inspection included:
- Emmanuela-Kiara Gillard from the University of Oxford,
- Kevin John Heller from the University of Copenhagen,
- Erik Talbot Jensen from Brigham Young University,
- Marko Milanovych from the University of Reading,
- Marco Sassoli from the University of Geneva.
The expert commission agreed with the conclusions of Amnesty International of the Ukrainian military being often close to civilians. However, they believe that the organization's report on the Armed Forces was inaccurate and ambiguous.
"The report of August 4, 2022 was written in language that was ambiguous, imprecise and in some respects legally questionable. This is especially true of the opening paragraphs, which could be read as implying – although this was not the intention (organization – ed. ), that on a systematic or general level, Ukrainian forces were mainly or equally to blame for the deaths of civilians as a result of Russian attacks," the NYT quotes the experts' conclusion.
The experts made tougher conclusions but later changed their assessment from "unfounded" to "insufficiently justified."
According to the publication's source, the commission presented its final report on the Amnesty International report in early February. However, it decided to use it for internal distribution.
The NYT could not find out whether Amnesty International agreed with the final conclusions.
On August 4, the human rights organization stated that Ukraine's army is endangering the civilian population by creating bases and placing weapons in schools and hospitals.
At the same time, there is not a single word on the organization's website about the mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka PoW camp and condemnation of the actions of the occupiers who executed the captured defenders of Ukraine.
