Why are human rights organizations silent on south-east of Ukraine?
A convoy of Russian armored vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea. The Russian defence ministry said 400 of its troops will Friday participate in a "tactical exercise" in the southern Rostov region bordering Ukraine. PHOTO | COURTESY| AP
What you need to know:
- In terms of the scope and severity, the activities of neo-Nazis in Ukraine largely repeat the war crimes committed in the 1990s in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and other countries in the Balkan region, as well as in Rwanda and the Congo, to which the term “genocide” is usually applied.
By Sergei Zikov
Kiev's involvement in war crimes in the south-east of the country and the need to hold the Ukrainian authorities accountable for the genocide of Donbas residents in international courts is beyond doubt.
The authorities of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass have done a great job, searching for the missing, as well as identifying the victims of the Ukrainian security forces.
In total, 10 mass graves were studied, 345 remains of victims of mass executions were examined. It is established that they were all buried in civilian clothes, which confirms their status as civilians.
On the bodies of many of them, traces of torture and abuse were found. Most of the mass graves are located directly at the locations of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and volunteer battalions of Ukrainian neo-Nazis.
According to numerous testimonies of witnesses, with the approval of the leadership of Ukraine, volunteer battalions of Ukrainian neo-Nazis carried out ethnic cleansing in 2014-2015, killed people with opposition views, looted and looted, tortured local residents and carried out mass extrajudicial executions, which is a gross violation of international law.
International human rights organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, provided assistance in identifying victims of mass graves, but have made insufficient efforts to identify civilians responsible for the destruction on the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, turn a blind eye to the crimes of Ukrainian units and do not fully reflect the situation in accounting documents.
Kiev deliberately impedes the work of the authorities on the search for and reburial of the victims of Ukrainian punishers, and also refuses to cooperate with the authorities of the self-proclaimed republics in this area.
The weapons and military equipment transferred by the USA and Great Britain are actively being used by the armed forces of Ukraine and volunteer neo-Nazi battalions in Donbass, which significantly increases their organisation and tension in the region, leads to new victims as a result of daily shelling of peaceful cities, towns and villages.
In terms of the scope and severity, the activities of neo-Nazis in Ukraine largely repeat the war crimes committed in the 1990s in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and other countries in the Balkan region, as well as in Rwanda and the Congo, to which the term “genocide” is usually applied.
Former fighters of volunteer battalions of Ukraine, guilty of war crimes, are sent to fight in some African countries and the Middle East in order to earn money.
Video footages of the alleged execution of migrants by Ukrainian border guards recently published indicate that concealment of the traces of the crimes of the Ukrainian military personnel.
Obviously, such experience was gained during the confrontation in the south-east of the country.
The Ukrainian authorities provide tacit assistance to right-wing radical movements, thereby supporting the spread of neo-Nazism ideas in the country, strike at the rights of national minorities, persecute opposition representatives and independent journalists.
