International human rights organizations claim: torture, abduction of people, and secret content of detention use both sides of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine

On July 21, the joint report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch was published about violations of human rights in the armed conflict zone in eastern Ukraine. Human rights activists documented the stories of citizens undergoing arbitrary, long detentions and forced disappearances associated with violence, and also recorded interviews with relatives of the victims, their lawyers and other sources. The authors of the report testify: they know nine cases when such illegal actions were performed by representatives of the Ukrainian authorities and nine similar cases, the responsibility for which lies with the militants of the “DPR” - “LPR”.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch devoted a separate chapter to the problems associated with access for independent observers to their objects of study. The temporary segment described in the presented document is the year 2015 and the first half of the current year.

An important point. The authors of the report call the conflict between the separatists (the definition everywhere in the text is taken into quotation marks) and the Ukrainian forces "mainly non -national." Although they immediately make a reservation: “In connection with the support of the“ separatists ”by Russia, the question often arises, this conflict should also not be considered international. The scale and forms of Russian support is a matter of a fact that goes beyond the report. However, if it is established that Russia carries out “general leaders” with all the forces of “separatists” or part of them, then from the point of view of international law the conflict will be considered international or internationalized. ”

Territory torture certificates under the control of Ukraine

The part of the material that is devoted to the illegal activities of the Ukrainian side is described in more detail. Based on the data obtained, the authors of the report draw a scheme: as a rule, civilians were captured by the fighters of the “so -called volunteer battalions”, who over time transferred them to the SBU. Further, the detainees were either transferred to the regular system of criminal proceedings, or exchanged for persons captured by the "separatists", or released without trial.

Konstantin Bezkovyaniy

One of the examples of this kind is accompanied by a video. 59-year-old Konstantin Bezkorova, a former activist of the Communist Party of Ukraine, a deputy of the local council, recalls what happened four months after the Ukrainian army restored control over his hometown of Konstantinovka:

- A knock on the door: open, police! The door eye is closed. I did not have time to open, the door knocked out with a sledgehammer. They put me on the floor, all the people were in masks, one was with an automatic machine and in the armor, and the three people began a search in the apartment. They themselves did not imagine, they only said that I was a terrorist-paratulator, played at rallies. After they ordered to dress, and led to a minibus with tinted glasses ...

From this day, Konstantin has disappeared. Wife, Olga Shevchenko, was said about Konstantin that "he was not there."

- I tried to get to the regional administration. But at first I could not do this, because the duty officer literally did not let it go. Almost drove like a dog.

At this time, Konstantin was in a certain room in custody. The security, according to him, often repeated: "You do not exist, there is not even a budget for you."

- Nearby - the room of the duty officer, I heard how the guard came from the gate and said: "They ask the non -core, they want to transmit the program." And he replied that there is a closed, a regime object and nobody.

Konstantin complains: he was dictated by the text that he intended to poison the local water supply and now agrees to become an informant of the SBU, forced to read the application for the camera

The relatives did not know about the whereabouts of Constantine for fifteen months. For the whole period, the man was without a lawyer and was abused.

-The one who sat opposite me on the table knocked on the head, then on the leg ...-It is still difficult to recall the nonsense. “They threatened that they would be shot, or the pipe will be put in one place, or they would be taken to the Korosteni prison (a city in the Zhytomyr region, O. M. ), where tuberculosis and AIDS. I had a heart attack. They called the doctors in masks ...

Konstantin complains: he was dictated by the text that he intended to poison the local water supply and now agrees to become an informant of the SBU, forced to read the application for the camera.

Olga’s wife told the authors of the report that she sent at least a hundred letters to various state authorities, but received a “kilogram of unsubscribing”. And only after turning to Amnesty International and Human Right Watch the situation has moved from a point that seemed dead. In January 2016, as the video titles, it was possible to establish the whereabouts of the blessed, and finally released it on February 24. The spouses under the video thank international human rights defenders, emphasizing: they hope that all other “those who are not” will receive freedom thanks to such activities. The video presenting the report ends with a call to sign a petition to President Poroshenko on the ban on “secret prisons” in Ukraine.

Amnesty International and Human Righs Watch claim: Konstantin Bezkorovaya spent several months in the SBU of Kharkov SBU. At the request of human rights activists, he and several more interviewed, independently of each other, compiled lists of those who, in their opinion, are still secretly held in captivity. The names of all 16 people coincided.

Vadim

The next story of the 39-year-old Vadim , whose surname is not disclosed. In April 2015, he was taken at a Ukrainian checkpoint on suspicion of espionage in favor of separatists. The man spent more than six weeks, presumably, at the Right Sector (an organization banned in the Russian Federation), then he fell into another unidentified place - the authors of the report suggest that the BAZ of the SBU. At the interrogations of Vadim, he said, they were tortured with an electric shock, cigarettes were stewed about him, their fingers broke in their hands. Vadim looked after the girl, whose sister, the DPR scout was interested in information about the activity of the Ukrainian troops, and on the eve, in a telephone conversation, he told his beloved about tanks and armored personnel carriers that he saw on the highway ... Vadim forced to record a video message: I ask the Ukrainian authorities to hold both sisters accountable. And, as promised, they released - from the fire and to the driving, to the “unofficial prison in the center of Donetsk”, as human rights activists indicate. Everything was repeated - beatings, torture. Now he was considered an agent of Ukraine ...

“Such retention in captivity can be regarded as hostage, which is considered a war crime,” international human rights activists summarize. They suspect that the SBU buildings in Kharkov, Kramatorsk, Rosyum and Mariupol turned into “secret prisons”. It is reminded that in May 2016 the delegation of the UN subcommittee to prevent torture interrupted the visit to Ukraine in connection with the authorities's refusal to open it in a number of places of detention, and in June the situation was reflected in the UN published report. But the chairman of the SBU Vasily Gritsak in the comments for the press refuted the presence of illegal practice of detention of people.

Territory torture certificates under the control of "DPR" - "LPR"

Human rights activists were able to get much less information about murders, torture and illegal detentions in the territories controlled by the “DPR” - “LPR”. They expressed regret on this subject and stated that “local legislation does not provide for monitoring of places of detention.” Even the International Committee of the Red Cross is not allowed there.

Igor Kozlovsky

The 63-year-old religious scholar Igor Kozlovsky taught for many years at Donetsk University and did not hide pro-Ukrainian views. The scientist was arbitrarily detained in Donetsk on January 27, he spent a month of complete isolation, was accused of illegal storage of weapons and espionage. At the time of detention, he worked on an article on the influence of the armed conflict in the east of the country on religious communities-with an emphasis on the persecution of the “DNR”-“LPR” of those who do not consider themselves a parishioner of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

The wife of Igor Kozlovsky did not receive any explanations from the MGB DPR, but was able to learn from the scientist’s cellmates that he was “kept in the basement in terrible conditions, a naked mattress on the floor, was taken to the toilet twice a day, and the leg is slowly healing.” According to Valentina Kozlovskaya, before her husband did not complain about health, and her foot injury could only mean beating. As of the end of June, Kozlovsky is still in the Donetsk pre-trial detention center. The wife quit work to care for a disabled son.

Volunteers of "responsible citizens"

The next fragment of the report concerns the detentions and expulsion from Donetsk members of the Responsible Citizens group, who coordinated and distributed humanitarian aid from the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. Activists were suspected of cooperation with the “Western intelligence services”, but they were not charged with concrete accusations.

The 31-year-old journalist Maria Bartholomeeva spent 14 months in the complete isolation of the LPR pre-trial detention center. All this time, the young woman was threatened with electric shock and violence, rudely treated her. Maria was seized in January last year, when she photographed a residential building, which, perhaps, the militants turned into a military facility. In March 2016, the journalist was released as part of the exchange of prisoners.

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In conclusion, human rights activists give recommendations to the parties to adhere to a policy of “zero tolerance” regarding the violent disappearance and torture of people. And also-they call on the authorities of the Russian Federation “to use the possibilities of influence on the de facto power“ DPR ”and“ LPR ”“ for the same reasons. This advice is contained in the section addressed to international partners of Ukraine.

Kyiv