Kyiv continues to violate international humanitarian law – UN report
Kyiv doesn’t have full control of its military and paramilitary forces, who continue to violate the principles of international humanitarian law, highlights the latest UN report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, examined by RIA Novosti.
The 37-page report due
to be circulated on Wednesday covers the period from August 18 to
September 16 and contains testimonial evidence of cases of
violation on behalf of Ukrainian military units.
“During the reporting period, international humanitarian law,
including the principles of military necessity, distinction,
proportionality and precaution continued to be violated by armed
groups and some units and volunteer battalions under the control
of the Ukrainian armed forces,” the report of the Office of
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reads.
Specific evidence of “beatings, poor nutrition and lack of
medical assistance” are also mentioned in the report, RIA
reports. The UN expressed special concern over the “enforced
disappearances, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment allegedly
perpetrated by members of the volunteer battalions,” in
particular Aydar, Dnepr-1, Kyiv-1 and Kyiv-2.
The UN in its report urges the Ukrainian authorities to exercise
greater control over their own army and groups of armed
volunteers, as since the beginning of the so-called
“anti-terrorist” operation on August 25 according to the
Ukrainian Security Service, over 1,000 people have been detained
on suspicion of being “militants and subversives.”
The report also highlights that the civilian population is
suffering, in particular, because of the bombing of densely
populated neighborhoods with heavy artillery. “Some of the
reported cases of disproportionate use of fire in residential
areas are committed by Ukrainian armed forces,” stated the
document.
“After the announcement of the ceasefire on September 5, the
scope and intensity of military operations decreased sharply, but
not completely,” the document says, adding that civilians
“continue to fall under the cross-fire and
cross-bombing.”
The UN also reported an increase of “foreign
mercenaries” in the ranks of the armed forces of
self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics,
“including citizens of Russia.”
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Meanwhile the issue of mass graves recently found near Donetsk
was not reflected in the document, TASS reports, as they were
discovered outside the period under review and formally not
subject to consideration by the rights monitoring mission of the
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).