Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Ukraine: Secret Detentions - VIDEO (3:52 min)

Amnesty International
Published on Jul 21, 2016

This is the story of Kostyantyn Beskorovaynyi one of a number of people who disappeared in eastern Ukraine.
     In cases documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the Ukrainian authorities and pro-Kyiv paramilitary groups detained civilians suspected of involvement with or supporting Russia-backed separatists, while the separatist forces have detained civilians suspected of supporting or spying for the Ukrainian government.
     Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch investigated in detail nine cases of arbitrary, prolonged detention of civilians by the Ukrainian authorities in informal detention sites and nine cases of arbitrary, prolonged detention of civilians by Russia-backed separatists. The report that accompanies this video details cases that took place mostly in 2015 and the first half of 2016.
In almost all of the eighteen cases investigated, release of the civilian detainees was at some point discussed by the relevant side in the context of prisoner exchanges. In nine out of the eighteen cases, they were in fact exchanged. This gives rise to serious concerns that both sides may be detaining civilians in order to have “currency” for potential exchange of prisoners.