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We've gotten a lot of feedback on this piece. Some is in bad faith, but some is legit and from researchers and journalists I respect, so let me answer a few concerns. 1/? https://twitter.com/Brian_Castner/status/1336964259469733889
(I don't feed trolls. And I ignore government bots. But if you have constructive thoughts, reply away, I'll leave it open)
Q) A lot is going on in the conflict, why is your report so short?
Because it's not a report, it's a press release. Our reports, like this recent one on Yezidi kids, is 64 pages. Our output on the NK execution vids is less than 1000 words. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/iraq-yezidi-child-survivors-of-islamic-state-facing-unprecedented-health-crisis/
Because it's not a report, it's a press release. Our reports, like this recent one on Yezidi kids, is 64 pages. Our output on the NK execution vids is less than 1000 words. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/iraq-yezidi-child-survivors-of-islamic-state-facing-unprecedented-health-crisis/
We do short press releases when something significant happens in a conflict and we think timely reporting and verifying and doing a legal analysis will be helpful. Long reports take months, these short pieces take days.
We do these in lots of conflicts. Like the recent massacre in Mai-Kadra: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/11/ethiopia-investigation-reveals-evidence-that-scores-of-civilians-were-killed-in-massacre-in-tigray-state/
Or when the battle lines shifted suddenly in Libya and Russian mercenaries were laying landmines in civilian neighborhoods on the way out: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/06/libya-retaliatory-attacks-against-civilians-must-be-halted-and-investigated/
Or of torture and executions in Mozambique: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/09/mozambique-video-showing-killing-of-naked-woman-further-proof-of-human-rights-violations-by-state-armed-forces/
Or in this conflict in NK, when Azerbaijan used banned cluster munitions against Stepanakert on 4 Oct: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/10/armenia-azerbaijan-civilians-must-be-protected-from-use-of-banned-cluster-bombs/
Or when Armenian forces used cluster munitions on Barda later that same month. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/10/armenia-azerbaijan-first-confirmed-use-of-cluster-munitions-by-armenia-cruel-and-reckless
We quickly published this latest piece because the two videos of decapitations of civilians by Azerbaijani forces were so disgusting and egregious we wanted to verify them and demand an investigation and prosecution of these war crimes as quickly as we could.
But this output was not our final word on the conflict. Far from it. We're still monitoring and researching, because, as the latest ceasefire violation shows, the conflict isn't even over yet.
Q) There are hundreds of NK videos, why did you only cover 22? How did you miss the others?
We know there are tons of videos. We're on telegram too. But watching videos and researching whether they are legit are two different things.
We know there are tons of videos. We're on telegram too. But watching videos and researching whether they are legit are two different things.
Every day we find old or mis-attributed videos that are supposedly from this or that conflict and turn out to be wrong. Some are government propaganda. Some are mistakes. Some, who knows? Remember this one supposedly from NK? https://observers.france24.com/en/20201106-video-iranian-tourists-fire-armenia-azerbaijan-debunked-russia
Just today there is another that may or may not be right. https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1338113018824101890
The point is, we do a lot of work to verify. Geolocate if we can, of course. Finding old versions of the videos. Digital forensic analysis of whether the file has been altered in some way. Pathologist analysis of the wounds of victims. Weapons, uniforms, languages, etc.
That takes time, and there are hundreds of videos just from NK, so we can't do them all. Some we work on and can't prove so we never publish. Some other outlets do first and then I try to amplify their work: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/rest-of-world/2020/10/15/an-execution-in-hadrut-karabakh/
The truthful, un-glamorous reason wrote about these 22 videos is because they are the ones we had done and we didn't want to wait and stay silent until we had finished 222 video analyses, not when war crimes appear to be ongoing. Which leads to the final issue...
Q) Why are you acting like all these crimes are "the same?"
Here I want to be extremely clear. We do no such thing. In the output we spend 500 words on the three horrific executions and 50 words on the other crimes. The nature of the violence demanded it.
Here I want to be extremely clear. We do no such thing. In the output we spend 500 words on the three horrific executions and 50 words on the other crimes. The nature of the violence demanded it.
But human rights orgs are not in the business of keeping score & counting violations to determine which side is "better" or "worse." We are on no one's side, except the side of victims and the law. We will always disappoint partisans. This comes up a lot: https://twitter.com/Brian_Castner/status/1260252204709097472
If both sides are committing war crimes, we won't pretend otherwise. And if there are hundreds of videos of human rights violations, we're going to write about all we can prove. That's it. We publish what we can prove. And then work as hard as we can for justice. /end
