International human rights activists do not reflect differences in the extent of torture used by Ukraine and militants – Ukrainian human rights activist

“You Do Not Exist”, the international report prepared by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, released on July 21, does not reflect the difference between the scale of human rights violations on the occupied territories and the territories, controlled by Ukraine.

Head of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group Yevhen Zakharov stated this in the expanded comment, posted on the website of the organization.

According to him, the report has caused controversy in the Ukrainian society. Many people are annoyed and even offended and consider the report to be biased and prejudiced.

He recalls that the information about the actions of both parties to the conflict is provided in the report symmetrically.

According to him, the report gives a detailed description of nine incidents of using torture by Ukrainian agents and militants of the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics and does reflect the difference between all those terrible events that happened on the occupied territories and the territories, controlled by Ukraine.

“There is a huge difference, and unfortunately it is not reflected in the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch report,” the human rights activist says.

According to him, first of all, such actions on the controlled territories are classified as serious and especially serious crimes, and the victims can file a report, that should be registered and investigated. The Military Prosecutor’s Office instituted criminal proceedings against the accused, and as a rule, they were taken in custody, as a pre-trial restriction. However, it does not mean that the real perpetrators were taken into custody:  sometimes the innocent are in custody and the guilty walk free. Ukraine still has some unresolved issues such as ineffective crime investigation, in particular, torture and enforced disappearances. However, it is wrong to say that there is a complete impunity.

As Zakharov says, it is not even close to the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, where such actions are not regarded as a crime, and where you cannot even complain about it, because the so-called people’s police officers are those who killed, tortured, abused and kidnapped people.

He also points out that there is a huge difference in the range of criminal activity. Human rights activists documented over 5.200 victims of the corresponding crimes and it is far from the final figure.

He added that the authors of the report should also point out that the Russian military and the Russian special services officers were taking part in tortures on the occupied territories and the prisoners were taken to the territory of the Russian Federation and were tortured there.  The relevant facts were outlined in the report “Survivors of Hell” that was prepared by a coalition of Ukrainian human rights organizations “Justice for Peace in Donbas”. This report is the result of a detailed analysis of 165 cases of illegal deprivation of liberty, subsequent detention and torture.

Zakharov thinks that another distinction is that detention conditions on the occupied territories have been much worse than on the controlled territories.

“Trying to be objective and impartial, AI and the HRW turned to be biased. But still I want to thank them for their attention to problems in the field of human rights in Ukraine. The recommendations for the Ukrainian authorities outlined in the report of our Western colleagues, are important, accurate and essential, and I am sure, that Ukrainian human rights activists would stand by every word,” the head of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group concludes.