ウクライナ軍、民間人居住地域に軍事拠点 アムネスティ

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】】国際人権団体アムネスティ・インターナショナルは４日に公表した報告書で、ロシアの侵攻を受けているウクライナの軍が、国際法に違反する形で学校や病院を含む民間人居住地域に軍事拠点を構築して市民の命を危険にさらしていると批判した。（写真は資料写真）
　アムネスティは、自衛する側のこうした戦術は「ロシアの無差別的な攻撃を正当化するものではない」として、北東部にある第２の都市ハルキウなどでのロシア軍による「戦争犯罪」はウクライナ側の戦術とは無関係だと強調した。
　その一方で同団体は、ウクライナ軍がハルキウやドネツク、ルガンスク、ミコライウ各州にある１９の自治体で、民間人を危険にさらした可能性がある事案を列挙した。
　アムネスティの調査員は、ウクライナ軍が病院５か所、学校２２か所を「事実上の軍事基地」に転用していたことを確認。学校は閉鎖されていたとはいえ、民間人居住地域内に所在していた。
　アムネスティのアニェス・カラマール事務総長は「ウクライナ軍が民間人居住地域で活動する際に市民を危険にさらし、戦時国際法に違反するパターンを記録した」と述べた上で、「自衛する側にいるということは、ウクライナ軍が国際人道法を順守しなければならないという責務を免除するものではない」と指摘した。
　報告の中で、ウクライナ軍が拠点を築く民間人居住地域は前線から数キロ離れており、民間人に対して危険を及ぼさない「代わりになり得る場所」もあるとの見解を示した。また、ウクライナ軍がこうした拠点からロシア軍に向かって攻撃を仕掛けることで、市民が報復攻撃にさらされるにもかかわらず、避難の呼び掛けもしていなかったと批判した。
　報告書の公表を受けて、ウクライナ政府は強く反発し、アムネスティはロシア側のプロパガンダの発信元と結託していると非難した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/08/05-12:57）

Ukrainian forces are violating international law and endangering civilians by establishing bases in residential areas, including in schools and hospitals, Amnesty International said Thursday, drawing a furious response from Kyiv.
Kyiv said the rights group was drawing a false equivalency between the actions of Russia's invading forces and Ukrainians defending their homeland.
Amnesty had tried to amnesty the terrorist state and shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said later on Thursday in his daily address.
There is no condition, even hypothetically, under which any Russian strike on Ukraine becomes justified. Aggression against our state is unprovoked, invasive and terrorist.
If someone makes a report in which the victim and the aggressor are supposedly equal in some way, if some data about the victim is analysed, and the aggressor's actions at the same time is ignored, then this cannot be tolerated, he added.
Amnesty said in its report the tactics in no way justify Russia's indiscriminate attacks, and some Russian war crimes including in the city of Kharkiv were not linked.
But it listed incidents when Ukrainian forces appeared to have exposed civilians to danger in 19 towns and villages in the Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv regions.
We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas, Amnesty secretary general Agnes Callamard said.
Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law.
Residential areas where Ukrainian soldiers based themselves were miles away from frontlines, and viable alternatives were available that would not endanger civilians, the report said.
But it said the soldiers had failed to tell civilians to evacuate the areas, despite launching strikes on Russian forces that exposed them to retaliatory fire.
Amnesty researchers witnessed Ukrainian forces using hospitals as de facto military bases in five locations, and in 22 schools.
Although the schools have been shut during the conflict, they were located in civilian neighbourhoods.
We have no say in what the military does, but we pay the price, the report quoted one resident as saying.
Ukraine's government pushed back hard at the report, with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba branding the allegations unfair.
This behaviour of Amnesty International is not about finding and reporting the truth to the world, it is about creating a false equivalence -- between the offender and the victim, between the country that destroys hundreds and thousands of civilians, cities, territories, and a country that is desperately defending itself, he said.
Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov called the report a perversion as he said it questioned the right of Ukrainians to defend their country.
Top presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak insisted Ukraine's armed forces take all measures to move civilians to safer areas and suggested Amnesty was complicit in spreading Kremlin disinformation.
The only thing that poses a threat to Ukrainians is (Russian) army of executioners and rapists coming to (Ukraine) to commit genocide, he tweeted.