Amnesty International: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is ‘repetition’ of war in Syria

The Russian military invasion of Ukraine is a “repetition” of what happened in Syria, with a special feature of the “multiplication of war crimes” in the month-long armed conflict, said Amnesty International, which today publishes in Johannesburg its annual report (2021-2022).

“What is happening in Ukraine is a repetition of what we saw in Syria,” the UN secretary-general, Anies Kalamar, told AFP. There are “deliberate attacks on political infrastructure, housing”, school bombings, he denounced and accused Russia of allowing humanitarian corridors to be organized, but then turning them into “death traps”.

“Our investigators, who were on the ground for ten days, documented the use of tactics identical to those used in Syria and Chechnya,” such as attacks on civilians or the use of weapons prohibited by international law, he said in a parallel interview. Straders, Amnesty International’s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Addressing some 20 African governments that opted to abstain in early March when a draft UN General Assembly resolution calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops was put to a vote, the NGO argues that “neutrality” in the face of Russia’s actions does not mean “neutrality”. .

Moreover, more than two years after the outbreak of the new coronavirus broke out, Amnesty denounces those who characterize it as attacks on human rights under the pretext of fighting the health crisis.

“In all four corners of the globe, states have abused and dismantled demonstrations, sometimes by disrupting regulations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus,” he said, especially in Cameroon, C Εte d’Ivoire and Chad.

In addition, it stipulates laws restricting freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly in 67 of the 154 countries covered by the report: Cambodia, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and the United States.

The virus has claimed the lives of more than six million people since it was first detected in China in late 2019, according to the World Health Organization. Thanks to advances in vaccination, several countries have progressively eased restrictive measures.

With regard to immunization, Amnesty stigmatizes the fact that rich countries, such as the EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland and the UK, have opposed the temporary lifting of copyright protection against COVID-19 vaccines.

At the same time, “pharmaceutical companies”, under pressure from “strong governments”, have given “key priority to the delivery of vaccines to high-income countries”, exacerbating inequalities. “High-income countries have stockpiled millions of extra doses of what they could utilize,” and some “were able to vaccinate their entire population five times” while others were in huge shortages, Amnesty International’s annual report said.

The NGO is also suing companies that run social networking sites, saying they provided fertile ground for misinformation about the pandemic.

More broadly, the organization stigmatizes the fact that last year “new armed conflicts were incubated” while “unresolved conflicts deepened”. “Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Israel and Palestine, Libya, Myanmar and Yemen (…) have committed violations of fundamental human rights and international humanitarian law on a massive scale,” he said. Blatant violations went unpunished, he adds. “In a few cases there has been an international reaction; in a few cases there has been justice and accountability.”

SOURCE: AMPE