Aletho News

3 Ukrainian atrocities lacking ‘transparent’ investigation

RT | October 10, 2014

Ukraine has been flooded with violence this year – snipers in Kiev, the Odessa massacre, the discovery of mass graves in E. Ukraine are just the tip of the iceberg. However, almost no proper investigation has been carried out so far – even of these cases.

The Ukrainian crisis that broke out almost a year ago resulted in a military conflict – which, in its turn, resulted in horrible crimes.

But current efforts to examine even the three most prominent cases seem to be not enough, RT’s Maria Finoshina found out.

On September 23, three unmarked graves with at least nine bodies were discovered, near the Eastern Ukraine city of Donetsk. The finding of self-defense forces was later confirmed by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM).

Chief medical examiner Konstantin Gerasimenko told RT that “All of them [the victims] had multiple gunshots and their hands bound.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on the international organizations to give a “clear, unbiased and responsible response.” It was followed by Washington’s words of support for a “full and thorough” investigation destined “to get to the bottom of the facts.”

However, little progress has been achieved in the investigation of the killings by the OSCE, whose monitors are currently working on the scene, as well as by the monitoring mission of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who promised to take part in the investigation of the matter.

Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy told RT via e-mail that “As underlined by the OSCE SMM and as far as we’re aware there has been no forensic analysis of the bodies so far.”

The answer of the Human Rights Watch organization is hard to call positive, as well. “At this moment we don’t have any factual information about the progress of these investigations, so it’s better not to comment.”

Another tragedy happened on May 2 in the southern city of Odessa, where nearly 40 people died in flames that burst out in a building where anti-Maidan protesters tried to take refuge. The international community was quick to condemn the massacre, though closing its eyes to the part Right Sector radicals played in setting the fire.

RT has recently contacted the EU Council, but all the spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy had to say five months after the violence was the “investigation must be swift and transparent, free of political influence, clarifying the facts and looking at the role of all parties involved, protesters as well as law enforcement services.”

As a matter of fact, the Ukrainian authorities carried out an investigation, but the resulting report called it “impossible” to arrive at an objective conclusion about the causes of the deaths “due to the lack of state-of-the-art equipment”.

The probe was slammed by the local media as “fabricated” and “lacking evidence”.

Svetlana Fabrikant, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and secretary of the parliamentary commission probing into the massacre in Odessa on May 2, even withdrew her signature from the published version, calling it “different” from what she had signed. Reportedly, the redacted final version did not contain witnesses’ accounts about the involvement of about 500 radicals who have been allegedly transferred to Odessa with the help of the region’s governor, Vladimir Nemirovsky. Also, it lacked information implicating the involvement of Andrey Parubiy, then-secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, in organizing the massacre.

In February, over a hundred people were killed on Maidan by sniper fire.

There have been complaints from human rights advocates that the investigation is going on slowly, and some important evidence has been destroyed.

The preliminary investigation blamed ousted president Viktor Yanukovich and the Berkut special division, who denied any connection to the snipers.

In a leaked tape that emerged in March Estonia’s Foreign Minister told EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton about the bloody events that “It is really disturbing that the new coalition, they don’t want to investigate what exactly happened.” He added that there was “A stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers it was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition”.

A number of Berkut special unit members have been arrested on charges of Maidan killings, and they are currently facing trial.

There has been no international investigation into either of those crimes.

READ MORE:

Odessa slaughter: How vicious mob burnt anti-govt activists alive (GRAPHIC IMAGES)

‘Taped hands, gun wounds’: RT witnesses exhumation of mass graves in E. Ukraine

October 10, 2014 - Posted by aletho | Deception, False Flag Terrorism | Human rights, Human Rights Watch, Military, Ukraine, Ukraine turmoil, Violence