by Irina Lagunina
01/24/2014 16:45
Translated by Vo Lya
Source: http://www.svoboda.org/content/article/25241231.html

Irina Lagunina

What’s happening in Ukraine is disgusting. And not because of burning tires in Kyiv downtown and masked people throwing stones at police lines. It’s disgusting because Ukraine represented by its authorities violates the standards of international humanitarian law.

Flooded Maidan neighborhood. Torched and frozen cars, house fronts, balconies and pavement. There were people in soaked clothes as well. Probably they managed to survive without health issues.

Let me remind you. History book of Soviet times. General Dmitriy Karbyshev was in the Nazi concentration camp in Austria. He, along with other 500 prisoners, was stripped naked, taken to camp’s courtyard and hosed with water. This imprinted in my memory from the Soviet history book. It was the first detailed description of horror and torture of a human being for me. For Ukraine at least. Much painfully close to Eastern Ukraine as General Kabyshev was the head of engineer forces of Ukraine and the Crimea before the start of the war. What’s my point? My point is that nobody screamed “Stop!” at firefighters, policemen, Berkut or whoever was there. You use the same methods that these people remember as fascism, you use tortures that were carried out in concentration camps. Who are you? Nuremberg Trials gave judgment to such actions.

Who are you? Actually, this is a legitimate question. When you see that:

Or that:

Or this:

http://www.svoboda.org/emailtofriend/video/25236442.html?isflashembed=true 

Or this picture of Yuriy Verbitskiy from VKontakte page:

To recap, he and opposition activist Igor Lutsenko were kidnapped from hospital, taken out of Kyiv, tortured and left to freeze in the cold. Whoever these kidnappers are, acting on behalf of and with the connivance of so oddly maneuvering “Kyiv Kremlin”, they should know that kidnapping from hospital alone, not mentioning torture and dumping bodies in the snow, contradicts all international humanitarian law standards. I know, someone can say that 1949 convention is applicable to officially recorded armed conflicts. And that supplemental protocol states “it is not applicable to situations of internal disturbances and tensions, such as riots, isolated and sporadic acts of violence and other acts of a similar nature, as not being armed conflicts.”

Yes, this is right. But conventions have also set moral standards for people in uniform. These moral standards dictate that people wearing any uniform, either military or police one, don’t kidnap patients from hospitals. They shouldn’t break into medical facilities at all.

December 10th, 1984. Almost 30 years ago. It says: “Considering that, in accordance to the Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights and the Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights both of which provide that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, Having regard also to the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture or Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the General Assembly on December 9th, 1975, Desiring to make more effective the struggle against torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment throughout the world, Have agreed as follows:….”

The Convention Against Torture stated further: “the term ‘torture’ means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.

Does ‘Kyiv Kremlin’ agree with that? If not, why don’t we hear the disapproval of this orgy happening in Kyiv capital when bodies of tortured people are being dumped in Boryspil area? Or does it silently agree to what’s happening? Then follow the text above. Ukraine ratified this international document in 1987.

According to international law the government of Yanukovich has already tied itself with tortures that take place in the capital of Ukraine. Moreover, it violated not only this international document, but also its own Constitution. Article 28 of the Constitution of Ukraine prohibits torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and punishment. And Ukraine ratified European Convention Against Torture, Inhumane and Degrading Treatment and Punishment in May, 1997.

I don’t know one word in Ukrainian for Berkut, police and special forces. But in other languages – English, Russian and judicial, I know, they are called LAW enforcement. LAW is the key word. Ukrainian authorities have placed themselves above the word ‘law’ by allowing torture, kidnapping from hospitals, denial of medical care, aimed attacks on journalists and associating with torture.