People testified under pressure in the scandalous Amnesty International report – Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine

YEVHEN KIZILOV – MONDAY, 8 AUGUST 2022, 15:40

The human rights organisation Amnesty International used the testimony of people in filtration camps and prisons in the temporarily occupied territories to prepare the infamous report about the war in Ukraine, meaning these people were interviewed under obvious pressure.

Source: Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine on Facebook

Details: The Centre has learned that independent journalists and volunteers in Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts were involved in collecting evidence.

At the same time, the majority of testimony was obtained from interviews with people who had been evacuated to temporarily Russian-occupied areas in the Crimea and Donbas.

In particular, material was collected in filtration camps and prisons. Interviews were conducted among those who were "willing" to give such information.

Quote: "The information collected in the camps should not have been used to prepare the report since it is clear that these interviews were conducted under obvious pressure from Russian law enforcement agencies (i.e. camp and prison administrations)."

More details: According to the Centre, sometimes giving a "good" interview was the only chance for camp residents to pass through the filtration process and leave the occupied territories. In addition, materials gathered by journalists and hired volunteers were examined by camp and prison administrations and, in some cases, by officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

Background:

• On 4 August the human rights organisation Amnesty International claimed that Ukrainian troops resisting the Russian invasion were putting civilians in danger by establishing bases and locating armaments in schools and hospitals. Furthermore, the organisation has not published any information on the mass murder of the Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka on its website, or expressed any condemnation in this regard.

• The Office of the Ukrainian President responded by stating that only the Russian army put Ukrainians in danger and that Amnesty International’s claims were merely part of Russia’s defamation campaign against Ukraine. Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated that he was outraged by the organisation’s claims and considered them unfair.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned Amnesty International’s selectivity and stated that, in his opinion, the organisation was seeking to pardon a terrorist state and shift responsibility from the perpetrator to the victim.
• The Ukrainian office of Amnesty International reported that it was not involved in drawing up or disseminating the report. Oksana Pokalchuk, head of the Ukrainian office, resigned after the scandalous report was published.
• Amnesty International headquarters has stated that it regrets the "suffering and anger" caused by its report, but has not retracted it.

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