SIDEBAR Human Rights Watch: Ukraine used cluster bombs against civilians
Kyiv (dpa) – Human rights activists on Tuesday accused the Ukrainian
military of violating the international laws of war by firing cluster
bombs in residential areas.
A report by Human Rights Watch documented 12 incidents in which
cluster munitions killed at least six people and injured dozens in
the city of Donetsk and surrounding areas.
The rebel-held city with a peacetime population of more than one
million has become a focal point in the conflict between pro-Russian
separatists and government forces.
While fighting has been centred at the city‘s airport, artillery
rockets have regularly killed and injured civilians in residential
areas.
The report suggests that an October 2 attack that killed a Swiss
employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross in central
Donetsk was carried out with cluster munition rockets.
The attack could have been aimed at a nearby dormitory that was being
used by rebel fighters, the report said.
“Firing cluster munitions into populated areas is utterly
irresponsible and those who ordered such attacks should be held to
account,” said Mark Hiznay, an arms researcher for the New-York based
organization.
The report says that the separatists may also have used cluster
munitions, but adds that the evidence to support this is “not
conclusive.”
Cluster bombs contain smaller munitions that explode when they hit
the ground, posing mortal danger to people in the surrounding area.
Because of their indiscriminate nature, they have been banned under a
convention that has been joined by 114 countries, Human Rights Watch
said. Russia and Ukraine have not joined the treaty.
The Ukrainian military denied the report‘s findings and suggested
that the human rights activists had been influenced by the
separatists.
“Ukrainian armed forces have not used weapons that are banned by
international treaties,” National Security and Defence Council
spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in Kyiv, the Interfax Ukraine news
agency reported.
He added that the report‘s authors might have received “provocative
information” from the separatists and suggested that the organization
should present their findings in more detail.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry echoed those comments. Spokesman
Yevhen Perebyinis said that Human Rights Watch was “sadly being used
by illegal armed formations for their own propaganda aims,” according
to Interfax Ukraine.
It is not the first time that a human rights organization has
criticized Ukraine‘s pro-Western government. On Monday, a report by
Amnesty International said that both sides in the conflict had
committed summary killings and other atrocities. However, the report
also accused Russian media and authorities of greatly exaggerating
reports of such incidents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week accused international
human rights organizations of turning a blind eye to rights
violations in eastern Ukraine.