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.”…
