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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA bit of truth about an incident that happened in Mariupol
Revisiting this issue one last time. OK, maybe next to the last time.
I'm not one of those who believe that the poor folks who were incinerated in Odessa did it to themselves. Seems more than a little implausible.
But I have no love for Putin, to put it mildly. He is NOT a man of the left by any stretch of the imagination. One of those around here who seem to adore the man and his works (like distorting the Russian economy so badly its exports mostly consist of energy and its byproducts, which is tough to do when you have a country with a sterling educational system that cranks out math geniuses like they were sausages...) put up some stuff claiming that some incident in Mariupol was a war crime.
A war crime, I tells ya!
The truth varies some from that though. Once you pan out and actually look at the context and ALL of what actually happened, the incident looks very very different (wotta surprise, eh?): http://julius-civilis.blogspot.nl/2014/05/what-happened-near-theatre-square-in.html
The Magistrate
(95,255 posts)Taking shelter among non-combatants, by the way, is a war crime.
Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)The Magistrate
(95,255 posts)Combatants have an obligation to avoid taking up positions so situated that, if the enemy fired on them, non-combatants would be put in danger, and if them take up and fight or conduct operations from such positions, they are in breach of the Geneva regulations.
Whether the gun-man here meets the definition of a partisan, a civilian combatant, or is just a common criminal, is not evident from the video material. It would hinge on whether he was part of a body with some organization about it or not. If he were simply an individual with a gun who decided to shot at somebody, felony murder would apply --- a person committing a felony is responsible for any death that occurs in course of it, and people have been convicted of murder when their partner in crime was killed by police in course of apprehending them.
Mika
(17,751 posts)The Magistrate
(95,255 posts)In condition of settled peace, no.
There is also a burden on the combatants attacking, in a situation where non-combatants could be put at risk: the direct military value the attack can gain must be balanced in a 'reasonable man' test against the possibility and gravity of harm to non-combatants.
FYI, Sir, my gender is male.
All the best to you, Sir.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,198 posts)And yes, unfortunately it does appear that there were unarmed civilians caught in the crossfire.
But it appears less likely that Ukrainian troops were actually targeting unarmed civilians.
Of course, will it matter through the haze of propaganda? You have RT's Graham Phillips, who first claimed that 100(!) unarmed civilians were killed in Mariupol, and has since had to sheepishly backtrack after people following his Twitter page (including actual journalists) called him on his bullshit.