Amnesty International accuses Russia of crimes against humanity

Amnesty International, the international human rights organisation, has published a report about forced evacuation and deportation of civilians from the occupied territories of Ukraine. Organisation considers such actions of the Russian forces to be crimes against humanity.

Source: report by Amnesty International

Details: The report is based on interviews conducted among 88 people. Most of them are civilians from the city of Mariupol as well as from Kharkiv, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts.

Because of the situation created by Russian or Russian-controlled forces, many of those civilians had no choice but to be transferred or to otherwise flee in the direction of Russia or Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine.

Some suffered arbitrary detention, torture and other kinds of ill-treatment, as well as other violations as a result of filtration. Filtration is a practice of forcible screening of civilians, as a result of which many people became victims of war crimes.

The organisation states that the Russian army tortured civilians. Some of them were detained with no reason, beaten, electrocuted and threatened with execution. Others were deprived of food and water; many were kept in dangerous conditions and overcrowded confinements.

In some cases, unaccompanied children, older people and people with disabilities, who managed to get to relatively safe places, were sent back to Russia-occupied parts of Donetsk Oblast.

Agnès Callamard, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, remarks that the deportation of civilians from the occupied territories should be qualified and investigated as a crime against humanity.

Quote: "All Russia’s actions of forcible resettlement and deportation must be condemned. Amnesty International believes that they must be qualified and investigated as a crime against humanity…

All those forcibly transferred and still unlawfully detained must be allowed to leave, and everyone responsible for committing these crimes must be held accountable. Children in Russian custody must be reunited with their families, and their return to Ukrainian government-controlled areas must be facilitated."

Background:

• On 4 August, Amnesty International claimed that the Ukrainian soldiers who are holding back the Russian invasion are putting civilians in danger by creating bases and storing armament in schools and hospitals.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, denounced Amnesty International’s selectivity and stated that the organization is trying to justify the terrorist state and shift responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.

In response, Amnesty International stated that it regrets causing "suffering and rage" with its statement about the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

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