Ukraine: End Politically Motivated Abuses, Says HRW
The escalating crisis in Ukraine is putting journalists and political activists at increasing risk of political-motivated violence, such as unlawful detention, abduction and assaults, Human Rights Watch said today. Steps to address the political crisis should include undertakings to end abuses against perceived opponents, the immediate release of all those held unlawfully, and accountability for criminal acts.
In several towns and cities in eastern Ukraine, anti-Kyiv forces and their supporters threatened and harassed journalists, political activists, and others they suspect of supporting the authorities in Kyiv. The abuses are most acute in Sloviansk, where armed men who seized control of the city have kidnapped more than two dozen people, including journalists, political activists, international military observers, and those they have accused of being “spies.”
“All politically motivated violence against journalists and activists is unacceptable and has to stop,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Ukrainian authorities need to redouble efforts to protect people of all political stripes. International actors with leverage over the parties should press them to end abuses, release those unlawfully held, and ensure those responsible will be held to account.”
A pro-Kyiv politician, Vladimir Rybak, was found dead near Sloviansk on April 19, after he was last seen being pushed into a car by masked men. Found with him was the body of a 19-year-old student, Yuriy Propavko, who had been active in the Maidan protest movement. Journalists in several other cities have received serious threats from anonymous sources.
In Kyiv members of the pro-Kyiv nationalist political party Svoboda attackedthe director of a television station Channel 1, claiming the station’s reporting was pro-Russian. Mobs in Kyiv and Kharkiv have attacked political activists on both sides of the political divide.
Human Rights Watch said authorities throughout Ukraine should thoroughly investigate all incidents of abuse and hold perpetrators to account. Russia pledged to help secure the release of the international observers held in Sloviansk and Human Rights Watch urged Moscow also to press pro-Russian militants to release all those they have captured and to halt abuses.
Human Rights Watch also urged the European Union and the United States to press the interim government in Kyiv to ensure that efforts to disarm members of paramilitary groups holding illegal weapons include the extreme nationalist paramilitary group Right Sector. The government should hold Right Sector to account for all criminal acts attributable to its members.
Human Rights Watch researchers in eastern Ukraine documented abuses committed by non-state actors in Sloviansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, and Konstantinovka. The situation was most acute in Sloviansk, where on April 25 armed militants kidnapped eight military observers with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), together with five Ukrainian military escorts. One of the observers was released on April 27 on medical grounds. Others being unlawfully held include Serhiy Lefter, a 24-year old Ukrainian freelance journalist whose last contact with his family or friends was April 15; a computer programmer, Artem Deyneha; a deputy in Sloviansk city council, Vadim Sukhonos; a journalist and Kyiv-based Euromaidan activist, Irma Krat.
On April 20, anti-Kyiv forces seized control of the Sloviansk television transmitter and forced off the air two local stations, CTV and CTV+, which were replaced with Russian channels. Two days later, armed men stopped and threatened at gunpoint local journalists who wanted to get their equipment from the transmitter building, searched their car and forced them to leave.
On April 16, 10 men, some armed, broke into the dormitory room of Roman Guba, 20, a journalist who is openly pro-united Ukraine in his reporting. They waited for him for an hour and left, taking his identity documents and computer and other equipment. Guba later left Sloviansk for safety reasons.
On April 6, in Kharkiv a large, anti-Kyiv mob attacked about 20 people who had participated in a pro-Ukraine unity concert that day. The police had tried to create a security corridor to facilitate the concert participants’ escape, but the anti-Kyiv mob reached the participants, beating them for over an hour as they tried to move along the corridor. One of the victims, Viktor Ryabko, lost seven teeth and sustained multiple injuries, including a broken finger, cuts, bruising and internal injuries. On April 14 in Kyiv, an angry mob of about 150 attacked Oleg Tsarev, an anti-Kyiv presidential candidate, as he was leaving a television studio, pelting him with eggs and screaming, “Kill him!”
Human Rights Watch also received information about other human rights abuses connected to the political conflict. A lawyer for a pro-federation political leader, Pavel Gubarev, told Human Rights Watch that Gubarev was denied access to a lawyer for 16 hours after he was detained in Donetsk and transferred to Kyiv overnight on April 6. The lawyer also told Human Rights Watch that she was aware of several cases in which anti-Kyiv activists were arrested in Donetsk and transferred to Kyiv with what she alleged were due process violations under Ukrainian law, such as not informing the detainees’ relatives about their arrest or whereabouts.
“Many people in Ukraine, on both sides of the political divide, have deep grievances that derive from human rights abuses, impunity, corruption and distrust in authorities,” said Williamson. “To end the violence the authorities need to address grievances in a manner that is meaningful and based on rule of law.”
In the current environment of politically motivated violence, it is critical that the OSCE and the United Nations continue their independent, impartial, timely and public human rights reporting. Human Rights Watch urged both bodies to provide spot reports focused on human rights developments, and where possible identify those considered responsible for violations.
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