Human Rights report on Ukraine gives impression of being fabricated - Moscow
15 April 2014, 21:17 -- The document on the human rights situation in Ukraine, prepared by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, abounds in flagrant selectiveness and was not worth visiting the country for, Moscow says.
'We have to acknowledge that the report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation in Ukraine is one-sided, politicized and unobjective, and does not reflect the real situation in this country,' Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich said in a commentary posted on the ministry's website on Tuesday evening.
'The authors of the report chose not to notice that the current 'authorities' in Ukraine have become such as a result of an armed coup d'etat. There is not a word about the February 22 events, including an attack and takeover by illegal armed formations of administrative buildings. The individuals who gained power illegally are positioned as a legitimate government. Facts testifying that from their first minutes the 'new' authorities have been working in the atmosphere of violence and lawlessness are being deliberately omitted,' the ministry said.
'No attention is being paid to a very dangerous trend - the unchecked rise of aggressive nationalism and neo-Nazism. The almost 30-page document makes no use of the term 'neo-Nazism' at all. The rampant chauvinism staged by Right Sector and other ultra-right groups in western and central Ukraine is described as certain sources sharing their feelings that the minorities' right to take part in the political life is not fully taken into consideration,' the commentary said.
The report 'ignores a whole host of other gross human rights violations by the self-proclaimed authorities, including, in particular, kidnappings, tortures, extrajudicial killings, encroachments on the independence of the judicial system, the suppression of mass media and civil society,' the ministry said.
'The document abounds in flagrant selectiveness. It depicts radical actions on Maidan in late February as a peaceful protest and manifestation of popular discontent and effectively justifies it. Its attitude towards protests in the country's southeast is different - the 'observers' failed to see the legitimate interests of the Russian population of this region,' Lukashevich said.
'The report gives odious opinions on the situation around freedom of speech and press as if ignoring the ongoing attempts by the Ukrainian 'authorities' to resist objective coverage of the situation in the country, threats and intimidation of reporters, denying entry to foreign reporters,' the commentary said.
'Overall, the impression is that the report was fabricated in accordance with preset conclusions, for which one need not have travelled to Ukraine,' the Foreign Ministry said, Interfax reports.
Russian Public Chamber to complain to ECHR because of human rights violations in Ukraine
Russia's Public Chamber outrages by massive violations of human rights in Ukraine and prepare complaints to the European Court of Human Rights, a member of Russian Public Chamber Georgij Fedorov said.
'A lot of people complained of the human rights violations in Ukraine, such as a clamp down of freedom of speech, cases of unjustified dismissal, forced participation in public events, assault. Approximately every 20th appeal contained similar information,' he said.
Fedorov recalled that in Kharkiv 70 activists occupied the regional administration building was delayed. According to him, 'the courts were held at night, lawyers were not allowed, and people were without food, in fact tortured.'
According to him, Public Chamber will hold a special hearing on human rights violations on April 17. Fedorov promised that the relevant complaints will be forwarded to the European court and other international organizations, TASS reports.
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