Human rights abuse in eastern Ukraine
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
29.01.2016 15:52
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A look at alleged human rights abuse in eastern Ukraine
On Thursday the Polish Helsinki Foundation unveiled two reports on human rights abuse in conflict-stricken eastern Ukraine.
Communal workers clean the area near a damaged monument to Lenin in Donetsk, Ukraine, 27 January 2016. The city is part of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. EPA/ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO
The monitoring group comprised of representatives of 8 non-governmental organisations, including from Poland, conducted its mission in late 2015 in Donbas in areas controlled by Ukraine but located in the immediate vicinity of the so called “line of contact” with the separatist-controlled territory.
As Michał Owczarek reports, the creation of the self-proclaimed pseudostates of Luhansk and the Donetsk People’s Republic apparently led to numerous gross violations of human rights in Eastern Ukraine, most notoriously committed during unlawful detention.
"We interviewed only victims of detention, over 160 people," says Olexandr Pavlichenko of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, co-author of the report including testimonies of victims on places of illegal detention in Donbas.
"Some of them were witnesses and some, approximately half of them, fell victim to torture."