International human rights monitors should be deployed across Ukraine amid rising violence and abuses by pro-Russia forces, says Amnesty International in this statement today.
The group says police in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk let pro-Russia activists through a police cordon to attack a pro-Ukrainian unity and anti-war demonstration Thursday.
The attackers were armed with sticks, metal tubes and knives. At least two pro-Ukraine marchers were killed, while about 50 were injured, according to this report from the Kyiv Post and this one on Ukrainian-language Espreso.tv.
Reports of Russian Provocateurs, Soldiers Entering Ukraine
Earlier reports indicate Russian provocateurs have arrived by the busload in eastern Ukraine and organized protests in the region.
Ukrainian authorities have also reported detaining a number of Russian soldiers trying to enter Ukraine incognito. A Russian military intelligence spy was detained Thursday near the Crimean border with an assault rifle and ID giving different names, Espreso.tv reports.
Ukrainian security officials announced Wednesday that a Russian military reconnaissance unit had been detained also near Crimea.
The Russian foreign ministry said after the Donetsk clash it has the right to intervene in Ukraine to protect Russian citizens.
(Russian president Vladimir Putin was reported Wednesday to have said Ukraine's 1991 separation from the Soviet Union was legally questionable, even though Russia separated from the Soviet Union in a similar manner the same year.)
The incident in Donetsk is reminiscent of previous attacks by gangs of armed thugs known as titushki, who were employed by Ukraine's recently deposed pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych to attack anti-government protesters.
Pro-Ukraine Activists Missing
Amnesty International's statement also decried the disappearance of three pro-Ukrainian unity activists on Thursday in the Crimean capital of Simferopol.
The disappearance is just the latest of numerous reports of detentions of journalists and activists and other rights abuses in Crimea since thousands of Russian soldiers took over the Ukrainian region in late February.
"Reports of the harassment and intimidation of activists and journalists by the de facto military forces operating in Crimea are an extremely worrying development where human rights abuses are already rife," said Amnesty's John Dalhuisen.
"We reiterate our calls for both the Crimean authorities and those in de facto military control of the region to allow people to peacefully exercise their human rights without the threat of intimidation or violence."
Showing posts with label rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rights. Show all posts
Friday, March 14, 2014
Ukraine Crisis: Human Rights Abuses Escalate in "Lawless" Crimea
Numerous reports of rights abuses have emerged in Crimea since thousands of Russian soldiers invaded the Ukrainian autonomous region.
- Many journalists in Crimea have been detained, threatened and had equipment seized, said the group Reporters Without Borders in a March 7 statement titled "Freedom of Information in Dire State in Crimea."
"We are alarmed by the steady escalation in violations of journalists' rights in Crimea, which is turning into a lawless region controlled by armed bands whose anonymity reinforces their impunity," the group noted in a follow-up statement March 10.
"The frequency of deliberate attacks on journalists and the scale of the censorship suggest a desire to turn the region into a black hole for news and information."
Since those statements, French TV documentary maker David Geoffrion, working for France's Canal+ network, was arrested by pro-Russian gunmen on March 13, Reuters reported.
Activists Detained, Missing
- Andriy Shekun, leader of the EuroMaidan-Crimea pro-democracy group, was detained on March 9 by a pro-Russia defense militia in Simferopol, Crimea, along with a fellow activist, Anatoli Kowalski (see this and this news item). The militia seizing the men was linked with Russian Unity, the party of Crimea's self-proclaimed prime minister Sergei Aksyonov.
Both men are still missing. The police in Simferopol say they are not in their custody, reports Espreso.tv in this March 9 Ukrainian-language item.
- Also on March 9, pro-Russia militia detained two groups of Ukrainian journalists and activists while trying to enter Crimea, this item reports. They were held two nights, beaten and robbed, this Ukrainska Pravda account says.
Marchers Beaten
- Pro-Russia activists attacked and beat people attending a Ukrainian rally to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, the BBC reported March 10. Some of the Russian-speaking attackers wielded whips and threatened BBC journalists at the scene.
- Crimea's new pro-Russia government (read more about how it came to power here) has ordered nearly all Ukrainian TV channels off the air in the territory, replacing some with Russian ones, Ukrainian-language Espreso.tv reported March 9.
Tatar Minority Afraid, Many Flee
- Crimea's Tatar minority, which is strongly opposed to the takeover of the region by Russian troops, say they fear being out at night or walking in city centres, which are patrolled by armed pro-Russia gangs.
"I don't even go to Simferopol any more," said one Tatar man in this Kyiv Post story.
"If they see me, as a Crimean Tatar man, they will attack me."
Tatar leaders have called for a boycott of Sunday's referendum on whether Crimea should join Russia, which Ukraine and the G-7 countries say they won't recognize and call illegal.
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin deported the Tatar people from Crimea to the Far East and Siberia after World War II on the pretext that some Tatars collaborated with Nazi Germany. Half of the Tatar population died in the forced deportations.
Many Tatars have since trickled back to their homeland. But now, many fear they could be deported again, this Kyiv Post story says.
The story says 150 to 200 Tatar families have left Crimea to seek refuge in western Ukraine since Russian troops invaded at the end of February.
International Observers Kept Out
- Pro-Russia gunmen have prevented international observers from entering Crimea to investigate the rights situation.
UN envoy Robert Serry was confronted by armed gunmen, threatened and forced to leave Crimea while on a fact-finding mission.
Meanwhile, observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe were turned back on three consecutive days from entering Crimea.
- Many journalists in Crimea have been detained, threatened and had equipment seized, said the group Reporters Without Borders in a March 7 statement titled "Freedom of Information in Dire State in Crimea."
"We are alarmed by the steady escalation in violations of journalists' rights in Crimea, which is turning into a lawless region controlled by armed bands whose anonymity reinforces their impunity," the group noted in a follow-up statement March 10.
"The frequency of deliberate attacks on journalists and the scale of the censorship suggest a desire to turn the region into a black hole for news and information."
Since those statements, French TV documentary maker David Geoffrion, working for France's Canal+ network, was arrested by pro-Russian gunmen on March 13, Reuters reported.
Activists Detained, Missing
- Andriy Shekun, leader of the EuroMaidan-Crimea pro-democracy group, was detained on March 9 by a pro-Russia defense militia in Simferopol, Crimea, along with a fellow activist, Anatoli Kowalski (see this and this news item). The militia seizing the men was linked with Russian Unity, the party of Crimea's self-proclaimed prime minister Sergei Aksyonov.
Both men are still missing. The police in Simferopol say they are not in their custody, reports Espreso.tv in this March 9 Ukrainian-language item.
- Also on March 9, pro-Russia militia detained two groups of Ukrainian journalists and activists while trying to enter Crimea, this item reports. They were held two nights, beaten and robbed, this Ukrainska Pravda account says.
Marchers Beaten
- Pro-Russia activists attacked and beat people attending a Ukrainian rally to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, the BBC reported March 10. Some of the Russian-speaking attackers wielded whips and threatened BBC journalists at the scene.
- Crimea's new pro-Russia government (read more about how it came to power here) has ordered nearly all Ukrainian TV channels off the air in the territory, replacing some with Russian ones, Ukrainian-language Espreso.tv reported March 9.
Tatar Minority Afraid, Many Flee
- Crimea's Tatar minority, which is strongly opposed to the takeover of the region by Russian troops, say they fear being out at night or walking in city centres, which are patrolled by armed pro-Russia gangs.
"I don't even go to Simferopol any more," said one Tatar man in this Kyiv Post story.
"If they see me, as a Crimean Tatar man, they will attack me."
Tatar leaders have called for a boycott of Sunday's referendum on whether Crimea should join Russia, which Ukraine and the G-7 countries say they won't recognize and call illegal.
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin deported the Tatar people from Crimea to the Far East and Siberia after World War II on the pretext that some Tatars collaborated with Nazi Germany. Half of the Tatar population died in the forced deportations.
Many Tatars have since trickled back to their homeland. But now, many fear they could be deported again, this Kyiv Post story says.
The story says 150 to 200 Tatar families have left Crimea to seek refuge in western Ukraine since Russian troops invaded at the end of February.
International Observers Kept Out
- Pro-Russia gunmen have prevented international observers from entering Crimea to investigate the rights situation.
UN envoy Robert Serry was confronted by armed gunmen, threatened and forced to leave Crimea while on a fact-finding mission.
Meanwhile, observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe were turned back on three consecutive days from entering Crimea.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)