UN issues damning report on Ukraine crisis
Iran Press TV
Mon Dec 15, 2014 2:32PM GMT
The United Nations has issued a compromising report on the crisis in Ukraine, apportioning blame to both Kiev and pro-Russians.
The world body released the report on Monday, accusing the two sides of torturing and indiscriminately shelling civilians in the bloody conflict in the east.
"The efforts of the government to safeguard the territorial integrity of Ukraine and restore law and order in the conflict zone have been accompanied by arbitrary detentions, torture, and enforced disappearances of people suspected of 'separatism and terrorism'," the report said.
"Most of such human rights violations appear to have been perpetrated by certain voluntary battalions or by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)," it added.
The United Nations said the pro-Russians were, in turn, guilty of creating a criminal state in parts of the industrial regions of Lugansk and Donetsk they control with the help of "foreign fighters" -- a reference to Russian crack troops, whose presence Moscow denies.
"As law and order increasingly broke down, so more human rights abuses, such as killings, torture, abduction for ransom and forced labor, started to be committed by members of armed groups, supported by increasing numbers of foreign fighters," said the report.
The UN estimates the eight-month conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 4,630 and wounded over 10,200 people.
Washington and the European Union accuse Russia of destabilizing Ukraine and have slapped a number of sanctions against Russian and pro-Russia figures. Moscow rejects the accusation.
HN/HSN/SS
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