War crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine: torture and inhumane treatment. Second report
The second report about the war crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine by The Foundation for the Study of Democracy (the director – M. S. Grigoryev), in which the data is given about large-scale and systematic violation of the European convention of human rights by the representatives of the Ukrainian armed forces, the National Guard, and other units of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs, and also of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). We give some quotes from the report that we obtained.
Cover photo: Ukrainian citizen Alexander Agafonov, tortured to death by SBU officers in Izyum on 14 November 2014.
Yana, victim’s wife on SBU officials:
They have beaten him to death simply. When they came — they took him away to torture him. When they brought his body back — the heels were blue, the feet were blue. He’s got some traces of punctures on his hands... I don’t know... what they did to him, punctured him or drove the needles under his nails — there were holes on his hands. Each bone has a hole in it. They tortured him like... when there was a real war no one has tortured people the way they tortured him.
The data that has been accumulated since the first report by the Foundation for Democracy Studies provides ground to conclude that torture and inhumane treatment inflicted by the Security Forces of Ukraine (SBU), by the Ukrainian armed forces, the National Guard and other formations within the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, as well as by illegal armed groups, such as Right Sector, have not only continued but are gaining in scale and are becoming systematic.
[Translation of the text in the picture shown below:
The second report of The Foundation for the Study of Democracy "War crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine: torture and inhumane treatment."
"I was captured by the Right Sector . For seven days, they kept me in some mine galleries. At any moment, they could take me out, execute and throw into some trash container and that would be it."
Olga Verbitskaya, who suffered at the hands of the Ukrainian security personnel.]
In order to investigate specific cases of torture, inhumane or degrading treatment, experts of the Foundation for Democracy Studies interviewed the ex-prisoners released by the Ukrainian side . This report includes the results of interviews with over 200 prisoners released by the Ukrainian side . The interviews were conducted by experts of the Foundation during the period from 25 August 2014 to 20 January 2015.
The prisoners were electrocuted, beaten cruelly and for multiple days in a row with different objects (iron bars, baseball bats, sticks, rifle butts, bayonet knives, rubber batons).
[Translation of the text in the picture shown below:
The second report of The Foundation for the Study of Democracy "War crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine: torture and inhumane treatment."
"They attached wires from a battery to my hand, poured water and switched on the current . I blacked out several times and just as I came to, they would pour water and after some time continued the questioning."
Alexander Svoevolin, who suffered at the hands of the Ukrainian security personnel.]
Other torture methods used by the Ukrainian armed forces and security forces include bone-crashing, stabbing and cutting with a knife, branding with red-hot objects, shooting different body parts with small arms.
The prisoners taken captive by the Ukrainian armed forces and security forces are kept for days at freezing temperatures, with no access to food or medical assistance, and are often forced to take psychotropic substances that cause agony.
An absolute majority of prisoners are put through mock firing squads and suffer death and rape threats to their families.
Many of those tortured are not members of the self-defense forces of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR).
The Convention on Human Rights prohibits in absolute terms torture, irrespective of other circumstances . Moreover, it is assumed in the law of the European Union that ‘the State is responsible for the actions of all of its agencies, such as the police, security forces, other law enforcement officials, and any other State bodies who hold an individual under their control, whether they act under orders, or on their own accord .’ Unlike other clauses of the Convention related to rights, Article 3 makes no provision for derogation (reservations) in the event of a war or any other emergency threatening national security . Article 15 (2) explicitly states, that there can be no derogation from Article 3 within the Convention.
The information collected by the Foundation for Democracy Studies gives grounds to believe that the Ukrainian armed forces (VSU), the National Guard and other military units of the Ministry of the Interior of Ukraine, as well as the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) systematically and on purpose violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights that reads, ‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment .’
The extent to which torture is being used and the fact that this is done systematically prove that torture is an intentional strategy of the said institutions, authorized by their leadership.
A full version of the report in Russian can be downloaded here: https://yadi.sk/i/jPWPSdqTfERRC
English version here: https://yadi.sk/i/xYfcPJMHfERVJ