Volunteers Document Crimes in the Donbass more thoroughly than the Government

Volunteer groups cannot replace the work of professional experts, as they only document violations, not carry out proceedings. However, the state does not conduct this work well enough.

This was announced by Olexandra Matviichuk, the Head of the board of the Center for Civil Liberties and Coordinator of Euromaidan SOS, reports a correspondent of the Human Rights Information Center.

The first Euromaidan SOS mobile group went to Crimea as early as March 3rd of the last year, says Matviichuk. Now, volunteers are engaged in monitoring in the liberated territories of Donbass because there is an insufficient number of human rights organizations and resources for such documentation. In addition, conducting such work may be dangerous to the people who are there permanently.

One of the principles of the mobile group is autonomy. That is, while generally coordinating with the center, the group makes its own decisions on-site and in unexpected situations. Taking this into account, a team leader responsible for security is selected.

In contrast to the mobile units operating in Chechnya, Euromaidan SOS volunteers often are not lawyers and do not conduct legal proceedings, but only collect facts about violations.

 “But, we cannot under any circumstance replace the work of professional experts who need to work on this issue in the government,” says Matviichuk.

She notes that many specific cases show that the authorities do not do a good enough job of documenting.

 “The mobile team, which arrived in Sloviansk, went to the basements where the hostages had been held after they were opened and saw everything on the floor. The walls were being washed right before their eyes and one of the team members realized that if she does not pick up these documents from the floor now, they will simply be destroyed. She took them and it turned out to be a hit list bearing the signature of Girkin himself (Transl. note: Igor Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, is a main organizer of the DPR insurgency). Unfortunately, such situations are not uncommon and even our non-professional volunteer mobile groups register them,” says Matviichuk.