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War crimes rampant in Ukraine: Amnesty

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Sat, 23 May 2015, 6:45AM
n elderly woman wipes her eye as she stands in front of a damaged house in Nikishyne, south east of Debaltseve March 11, 2015 (Getty Images)
n elderly woman wipes her eye as she stands in front of a damaged house in Nikishyne, south east of Debaltseve March 11, 2015 (Getty Images)

War crimes rampant in Ukraine: Amnesty

Author
AAP,
Publish Date
Sat, 23 May 2015, 6:45AM

Amnesty International has accused Ukrainian forces of torture and pro-Russian rebels of even more serious war crimes, such as summary executions, committed both before and after a February truce deal.

"Former prisoners described being beaten until their bones broke, tortured with electric shocks, kicked, stabbed, hung from the ceiling, deprived of sleep for days, threatened with death, denied urgent medical care and subjected to mock executions," the global human rights organisation said in a new report on Friday.

Almost daily exchanges of loosely-aimed heavy weapons have killed at least 6250 people and left nearly two million homeless since the conflict broke out 13 months ago.

Much of the fighting on the pro-Kiev side is being waged by irregular forces who follow their own nationalist commanders and appear to pay little attention to orders from the Ukrainian general staff.

Kiev and the West accuse the rebels on the other side of being supported by Russian special forces.

Amnesty's report focused on explosive prisoner abuse allegations.

Its researchers said 32 of the 33 former detainees interviewed from both sides of the conflict described "severe beatings or other serious abuse".

"Accounts of detainee torture are as commonplace as they are shocking," Amnesty's Europe and Central Asia Program director John Dalhuisen said.

"Prisoners on both sides have been beaten and subjected to mock executions," said Dalhuisen. "We have also documented summary killings of those held by separatist groups. It is a war crime to torture or deliberately kill captives taken during conflict."

Amnesty said it had identified three recent cases in which the rebels executed at least eight pro-Kiev fighters.

"Most of the worst abuses take place in informal places of detention. This typically occurs during the initial days of captivity, and groups outside the official or de facto chain of command tend to be especially violent and lawless," the report said.

One reported episode involved a Ukrainian soldier who was wounded during Kiev's failed defence of the airport on the outskirts of the rebels' de facto capital Donetsk.

Insurgents blew up the hub on January 20 and ordered surviving members of the government contingent to load themselves on to rebel trucks. A 34-year-old soldier named Andriy Gavrilyuk had his legs crushed during the explosion and could not properly move.

"There were no stretchers, no nothing, so they couldn't carry him (Gavrilyuk) up. Seconds later I heard three shots," a fellow soldier told Amnesty.

The report said a video from the airport posted on YouTube four days later showed Gavrilyuk lying dead with "a clear gunshot wound to the middle of his forehead".

Russia casts the pro-EU uprising in Ukraine as being led by armed "fascists" from the Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) paramilitary group.

Amnesty said "Right Sector members systematically extorted money from people in their custody and collected ransoms from the prisoners' relatives."

Its research discovered that the far-right fighters crammed prisoners into an overcrowded basement cell near the peaceful government-controlled city of Dnipropetrovsk.

"People had to use plastic bags to collect their urine and excrement, and they had no means of washing or showering. Some prisoners were brought outside to work; others remained inside all of the time," the report said.

The "evidence appears credible and merits a full criminal investigation," the report concluded.

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