The problem of impunity for massive human rights violations is one of the main problems of Ukraine, Amnesty International said.
“One of the biggest problems registered by Amnesty International in Ukraine, and this is not new to our state, is the impunity problem for gross violation of human rights,” Tatyana Mazur, acting executive director of Amnesty International in Ukraine, told a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday while presenting an annual report of the organization for 2015.
She reiterated that this applies to the war crimes committed by both conflict parties in eastern Ukraine and the abuse registered during the so-called Euromaidan. “Some progress was observed in the investigation into this case, and even less progress was observed in the issue of the culprits’ prosecution,” Mazur said.
Mazur said the absence of steps to create and finance the State Investigation Bureau creates risks for the investigation into cases involving crimes committed during the Kyiv Euromaidan.
“The adoption of a law on the creation of the State Investigation Bureau should become a long-waited for and desirable step in the direction of the establishment of an effective mechanism for investigating crimes committed by law enforcement offices […] Unfortunately, we don’t see any steps to create this bureau now. We also know that no funding is envisaged for the State Investigation Bureau in the 2016 budget, whereas the budget should take effect on March 1, that is, in a week,” Mazur said.
She added that the absence of actions to create a state investigation bureau and finance it creates risks for the investigation into Euromaidan cases.
Mazur recalled that these cases are now being investigated by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, which may lose these powers when the law on the State Investigation Bureau takes effect. “That is, the investigation may virtually be halted,” she said.
Speaking about the investigation into Euromaidan cases and the prosecution of the culprits, Mazur said not enough was done in the past two years to subject to liability the law enforcement officials who were involved in excessive use of force against the protesters.
Krasimir Yankov, Amnesty International human rights researcher in Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus, said, referring to the violations in Donbas, that “pro-Ukrainian journalists cannot work there at all, and foreign journalists who are trying to get there and obtain accreditation of the so-called LPR and DPR go through a very tough filter.”
He said, citing Amnesty International, that attacks on civilians continued during the aggravation of the fighting in Donbas in 2015. “Both sides, Ukraine and virtual separatists, blamed the casualties on each other. Both sides committed war crimes, including torture and cruel treatment of prisoners,” he said.
Speaking about human rights violations in Crimea, Yankov said: “We personally met with people who are being subjected to repression, it’s Crimean Tatars and a small number of Ukrainians who are there. Last year and in early 2016, we saw that this organized systemic campaign against dissent only continues, we see arrests in Crimea and new cases that are being opened.”
