Special envoy to Ukraine
few “filtration centersconfirmed by the Russians in the occupied territories of Donbass, according to the report of the Human Rights Media Initiative presented to the OSCE on Wednesday, July 28. The organization has collected testimonies from civilians describing acts that constitute war crimes: strip searches, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture or mock executions. At least 18 filtration centers have been found in the Russian-controlled areas of two Donbas regions: Donetsk and Luhansk.
The report states that this filtering process was carried out in all areas occupied by Russian forces. “These facts are done by the Russians, probably in connection with the FSB. They are looking for patriotic tattoos, traces of use of weapons on men’s bodies. They search phones for threatening photos or messages. In some cases, they use forced interrogations to test a person’s loyalty to the occupying authorities.– explains Olga Reshetilova, coordinator of the Media Initiative for Human Rights.
Condescending attitude
These checks, which specifically target men suspected of carrying weapons or being secret agents, also target women or people who are not old enough to fight. In particular, they are placed at checkpoints where suspects can be detained for additional checks. “At the Starobilsk police station, they threatened me and said that they would put me in prison. They brutalized me, hit my face, back and whole bodysays Yuriy Berezovsky from Luhansk region. They tried to reveal my supposed membership in the Ukrainian army.»
Some civilians went through this process for days or even weeks. During these inspections, physical and psychological pressure was applied to them. Cases of executions have been recorded, the report says. A woman from Mariupol was arrested with her husband Victoria in Bezimene, Donetsk region. “After midnight, half a soldier entered the room, called my husband by his last name and ordered to leave. That was the last time I saw him. His mother tried to find out where he was taken. They said no one would tell us and that he should be shot.Another woman, Maria Vdovichenko, recounts a conversation between two Donbas separatist soldiers in the village of Manhush, where she was interrogated.What did you do to the filtered ones?“; “I killed 10 then stopped counting it was boring.He remembers that his knees began to tremble when the soldier lying on the mattress in the room where he was kept said about him:Don’t you like it? There will be more women, we will find something.They pushed him out, but then, according to his testimony, they hit his father. “As a result, he lost one eye and the other can see through a plastic bag.“, He says.
There were 40 of us in the cell, 30 of us were sleeping, and the others were standing.
Oleksii was detained in Olenivka prison
For some, the screening process has taken them to detention centers where there have been reports of degrading treatment, torture and even murder. “I saw what they did to Ukrainian soldiers. they were tortured with electric shocks. There was no mention of any Geneva Convention“Reports to Oleksii about the actions taken in the detention center of the Donetsk region. He was transferred to Olenivka prison.Living conditions there were terrible. There were 40 of us in the cell, 30 of us were sleeping, and the others were standing.Detainees were rationed with water, had no sanitary conditions and wereconstantly beaten“, still according to Oleksi’s testimony.
In Nikolske, Zaporozhye region, where Mariupol residents underwent this filtering process, there is evidence of torture. “They showed me Sergi twicesays Irina Dubchenko. For the first time before the interrogation, his hands were tied and beaten. Then, after the interrogation, he was already without handcuffs, sitting in a chair. I understood that he could no longer stand up.
“We demand an end to these illegal activitiesThe day after the presentation of the report to the delegation of 30 OSCE countries in Geneva, Olga Reshetilova said. The international community should pressure Russia to allow the presence of independent international organizations such as the Red Cross in the filtration centers.»
list “filtration centersis not exhaustive, the NGO notes. According to the General Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, civilians from the occupied city of Rubizhne in Luhansk were transferred to filtering centers in Starobylsk, Luhansk and Sorokine, and people from Popasnaya were transferred to Pervomaysk and Kadyivka. Other information mentions the filtration center created in the village of Velika Lepetikha, Kherson region. In addition, cases were also registered on the territory of Russia.
Source: Le Figaro
