{"id":232582,"date":"2023-04-03T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=232582"},"modified":"2023-04-04T10:41:58","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T09:41:58","slug":"human-rights-watch-deliberately-only-scratched-the-surface-in-exploring-ukraines-use-of-banned-petal-mines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/04\/human-rights-watch-deliberately-only-scratched-the-surface-in-exploring-ukraines-use-of-banned-petal-mines\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights Watch Deliberately only Scratched the Surface in Exploring Ukraine\u2019s Use of Banned \u2018Petal\u2019 Mines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

29 Mar 2023 – <\/em>Since Ukraine dropped\u00a0thousands of mines on the Donetsk People\u2019s Republic (DPR) in July,\u00a0104 people have fallen victim<\/a> to the internationally-banned PFM-1 \u2018petal\u2019 (otherwise known as \u2018butterfly\u2019) devices. Nine of them are children. Of which three died.<\/p>\n

Among the\u00a0most recent civilians to be injured<\/a>, on March 19, were two 60-year-old men. On February 26, a woman in her sixties was wounded<\/a> in her neighborhood. On February 14, a teenager stepped<\/a> on\u00a0a petal mine near a school. These are just a few documented<\/a> examples from recent weeks.<\/p>\n

The first wave of over 40 victims came within the first few weeks after Ukrainian forces deployed the mines over Donetsk en masse in July 2022, and the number has more than doubled since. Since then I, along with other reporters on the ground, have documented their lingering presence and the civilian victims.<\/p>\n

NGO reports… selectively<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After signing the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty<\/a> in 1999, Kiev was obligated to destroy its stockpile of 6 million PFM-1s. It denies using them, but abundant evidence incriminates Kiev in this particular war crime. While the West has yet to turn its attention to the victims of the\u00a0 petal mines in the Donbass, reports of Ukraine using them elsewhere have emerged.<\/p>\n

In its January 2023 report<\/a> on banned landmines, the Human Rights Watch NGO notes, \u201cIn 2021, Ukraine reported to <\/em>the UN secretary-general<\/em><\/a> that 3.3 million stockpiled PFM mines still need to be destroyed.<\/em>\u201d HRW then advised Ukraine to investigate itself for its use of the prohibited mines.<\/p>\n

The report is titled \u201cUkraine: Banned Landmines Harm Civilians. Ukraine Should Investigate Forces\u2019 Apparent Use; Russian Use Continues,\u201d<\/em> implying that not only is Russia also deploying the petal mines, but that Russia\u2019s use of them is beyond question, while Kiev\u2019s use is open to debate.<\/p>\n

Yet, much like in 2020, when the UN accused Russia<\/a> of war crimes in Syria based on \u201cwe say so<\/em>\u201d and unnamed sources, you won\u2019t find proof of Russia\u2019s use of petal mines in the HRW report. In fact, buried there is a HRW admission that it \u201chas not verified claims of Russian forces using PFM mines in the armed conflict.<\/em>\u201d This is a standard media tactic: boldly state one thing in a headline and quietly clarify the opposite in the body of the article, which most people won’t bother reading.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, HRW claims it interviewed over 100 people, \u201cincluding witnesses to landmine use, victims of landmines, first responders, doctors, and Ukrainian de-miners,\u201d<\/em> regarding Ukraine’s use of the objects in Izium (a city in the Kharkov region, north of Donetsk) while it was briefly under Moscow\u2019s control. The HRW team entered the city after Russian forces withdrew in September. Everyone interviewed, the report noted, \u201csaid they had seen mines on the ground, knew someone who was injured by one, or had been warned about their presence during Russia\u2019s occupation of Izium.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The testimony records that the areas were all, \u201cclose to where Russian military forces were positioned at the time, suggesting they were the target,<\/em>\u201d and that residents in Izium said that rocket attacks, \u201chappened frequently during the Russian occupation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The report cited 11 civilian mine-casualties, and noted that HRW had seen \u201cphysical evidence of PFM antipersonnel mine use,\u201d<\/em> including, \u201cunexploded mines, remnants of mines, and the metal cassettes that carry the mines in rockets.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It has to be noted that HRW has been banned in Russia<\/a> since April 2022, making it impossible for the organization to gather evidence on the ground in areas controlled by Russian forces. However, lack of access to evidence has not stopped it from using its report to carry accusations against Russia, citing Ukraine\u2019s former prosecutor general Irina Venediktova\u2019s claim that \u201cRussian forces used PFM mines in the Kharkivska region as early as February 26\u201d.<\/em> In contrast, the numerous credible reports of Kiev\u2019s use of petal mines in Donetsk, available through open sources, are absent from the report.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

HRW\u2019s history of targeted condemnations<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Human Rights Watch is one of many Western-funded NGOs with a history of whitewashing NATO and its allies’ crimes while pretending to be a neutral observer. Over the years, I’ve pointed out the hypocrisy of Ken Roth, who was the George Soros-funded NGO\u2019s executive director from 1993-2022. In March 2021 he pushed<\/a> Washington’s propaganda about Russia starving Syria. More glaringly, in 2015, Roth used footage from<\/a> an eastern Gaza neighbourhood (Shuja\u2019iyya) that had been flattened by Israel, to claim the footage depicted Syria’s Aleppo. He went on to likewise push the 2013 Ghouta \u201cchemical\u201d<\/em> narrative, which had long been widely-discredited<\/a> by journalists and by the so-called \u201crebels<\/em><\/a>\u201d themselves.<\/p>\n

If dubious claims from HRW or its representatives aren’t indication enough of their allegiances to Western narratives, then their links to the US government should be. The vice chair of its board of directors, Susan Manilow, according to this 2014 article<\/a>, describes herself as \u201ca longtime friend to Bill Clinton,\u201d<\/em> who helped manage his campaign finances. Bruce Rabb, also on the board, lists in his biography that he \u201cserved as staff assistant to President Richard Nixon\u201d<\/em> from 1969-70 \u2013 the period in which his administration secretly and illegally carpet-bombed Cambodia and Laos.<\/p>\n

The article further notes that the advisory committee for HRW\u2019s Americas Division has even boasted the presence of a former Central Intelligence Agency official, Miguel D\u00edaz. According to his State Department biography, D\u00edaz served as a CIA analyst and also provided \u201coversight of US intelligence activities in Latin America\u201d<\/em> for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.<\/p>\n

So, when HRW recently decided to finally discuss Ukraine’s deployment of the insidious petal mines (tens of thousands of which have been fired into the Donbass by Ukraine over the course of the past year), it is not because the body<\/a> has suddenly become neutral and impartial, but it is rather a grasp at credibility: reporting what is widely known \u2013 that, in violation of international law, Ukraine has been deploying Petal mines \u2013 but avoid providing the whole story.<\/p>\n

By downplaying and ignoring Kiev’s widespread use of petal mines throughout the DPR, HRW is deliberately downplaying war crimes, much like the entirety of Western corporate media.<\/p>\n

Kiev\u2019s Western supporters may even have to deal with its use of the petal mines at their own expense down the line \u2013 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recently announced<\/a> his country would invest $2.2 million into de-mining Ukraine. Of course, no mention was made of the Ottawa Treaty-banned munitions which will have to be cleared.<\/p>\n

Kiev\u2019s deadly delivery<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In one incident I witnessed first hand, an attack took place just after 9 pm on July 30, 2022. Ukraine fired rockets, each packed with over 300 mines, onto Donetsk, its suburbs, and other cities, including Yasinovataya, Makeevka and Gorlovka. The rockets exploded in the air to ensure greater distribution of devices on the ground. The attack mirrored previous \u2018deliveries\u2019 to the hard-hit Donetsk districts of Kievskiy, Kirovsky and Kuibyshevkiy.<\/p>\n

The morning after, I walked the central Donetsk streets extremely carefully, wary of every leaf or piece of cardboard which could be obscuring or covering a Petal mine, so difficult are they to pick out from their surroundings. They cannot seriously damage military vehicles, which means that scattering them over Donetsk only has one purpose \u2013 to target and maim civilians. Some models of the petal mines have a self-destruct timer. Others, including those used by Kiev, can stay on the ground for years.<\/p>\n

The innocent victims of Donbass<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Since reporting the initial bombardment in late July, I have been following up on the methodical destruction of these mines by Russian sappers, as well as on civilians harmed by the illegal munitions. One of the more recent victims was 14 year old Nikita<\/a>. His foot was blown off when in early November, 2022, he stepped on a mine in a playground while on his way to visit his grandmother.<\/p>\n

RT journalist Roman Kosarev recently spoke with<\/a> another recent teenage victim,\u00a0 who stepped on a petal mine when getting into a car.<\/p>\n

Kosarev also spoke to the Director of the Donetsk Republic\u2019s Trauma Center, Andrey Boryak, who said: “The injury from such a mine is very severe, and immediately leads to a handicap. It’s almost impossible to save the foot and the lower part of the leg.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

HRW has had over 6 months to investigate Ukraine littering the DPR with Petal\/PFM-1 mines\u2026 but it has not, and will not. It’s once again the case that the lives of Donbass civilians don’t matter when it comes not only to Western media reporting but also to supposedly-neutral human rights bodies. Even worse still is the knowledge that in spite of the valiant efforts of sappers in the DPR, the mines will inevitably claim more innocent civilians as their victims.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Eva Bartlett is a Canadian independent journalist and activist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine (where she lived for nearly four years). <\/em>Her writings can be found on her blog, In Gaza<\/a>. Email: evakbartlett2017@gmail.com<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – patreon.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

29 Mar 2023 – Since Ukraine dropped\u00a0thousands of mines on the Donetsk People\u2019s Republic (DPR) in July,\u00a0104 people have fallen victim to the internationally-banned PFM-1 \u2018petal\u2019 (otherwise known as \u2018butterfly\u2019) devices. Nine of them are children. Of which three died.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":232583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[224],"tags":[961,965],"class_list":["post-232582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-ukraine","tag-war-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232582"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232839,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232582\/revisions\/232839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}