Erstellt am: 28. 2. 2015 - 07:07 Uhr

Tortured By Both Sides

Abductions, summary executions and a media war. Amnesty's Bogdan Ovcharuk on why no side is innocent in the Ukraine conflict.

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“We’ve spoken to people who have been tortured twice,” says Bogdan Ovcharuk of Amnesty International’s Ukraine office, “once from the separatists and once from the pro-Kiev side.”

Ovcharuk paints a nightmarish picture of random abductions and civilians held in darkened basements with no access to water. But he insists that no side is innocent in this brutal conflict, saying that the militants in the volunteer battalions, fighting alongside the government troops are carrying out “violations just as violent as those perpetrated by separatists.”

EPA/ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO

In its annual report, released this week, Amnesty International accused both sides of the indiscriminate firing of unguided mortars and rockets in populated areas.

But alongside the shooting war, a media war is being waged in Ukraine and Ovcharuk complains that “in the Ukrainian media, violations by the Ukrainian side are not reported.” Last December a Ministry of Information was established, aimed at coordinating “information policies that would help to enhance national security.”

Amnesty has uncovered evidence pointing at summary executions from both the opposing sides. Ovcharuck, my guest for this Saturday’s Reality Check special, says “There is a huge need to be impartial and to cover abuses from both sides.”

But that mission is often unpopular in his hometown Kiev where the members volunteer battalions, so criticised by Amnesty, are celebrated as heroes.

EPA/ANASTASIA VLASOVA

In rebel-held areas the situation is murkier still since access for the human rights investigators is proving increasingly difficult. Ovcharuk says that often the political representatives of the separatists, understanding that Amnesty is a neutral organisation, give their tentative support, but their influence is limited: When we get there, you meet militants who have guns and they try to intimidate you.”

Ukraine is a country in crisis. Bogdan Ovcharuk is in no doubt that the separatists are supported by Russia and the Ukrainian government feels under intense pressure. It’s a state of emergency and not surprisingly they don’t want to respond to aggression by meekly turning the other cheek.

However Ovcharuk insists that that doesn’t mean that Kiev can forfeit the rule of law: “You can have a strong military response without violating human rights. Combatants can kill combatants. But they shouldn’t target civilians; they shouldn’t use explosive artillery in heavily populated areas nor return fire if it comes from heavily populated areas.”

Political change came to Ukraine because young people took to the streets of the Maidan in Kiev: “The Government owes its power to hundreds and thousands of protesters who stood in the freezing cold last year,” says Ovcharuk. They wanted a pro-Western Ukraine where the rule of law and media freedom would reign supreme.

EPA/LUCA PIERGIOVANNI

But there have been worrying developments in Kiev recently. Ovcharuk tells the story of the renowned journalist Ruslan Kotsaba who was was arrested and charged with treason on February the 7th after blogging his disagreement towards the military mobilization in Ukraine.

Those protesters from the Euromaidan waved European Union flags and Ovcharuk feels it is imperative that Brussels now reminds its friends in Kiev what pro-Western outlook should actually mean. “The EU should send a clear message that human rights are not a matter for compromise.”

But Ovcharuk adds that the onus is on Russia to end this conflict. “Ukraine is not leading in this conference, it is giving a response. But it must give the right response; with a focus on human rights.” And meanwhile, he says, Russia should stop supplying the separatists: “It’s the only way to stop this conflict.”