Ukraine: End Politically Motivated Abuses | Human Rights Watch

Ukraine: End Politically Motivated Abuses | Human Rights Watch:

 (Berlin) – The escalating crisis in Ukraine is putting journalists and political activists at increasing risk of political-motivated violence, such as unlawful detention, abduction and assaults, Human Rights Watch said today. Steps to address the political crisis should include undertakings to end abuses against perceived opponents, the immediate release of all those held unlawfully, and accountability for criminal acts.

In several towns and cities in eastern Ukraine, anti-Kiev forces and their supporters threatened and harassed journalists, political activists, and others they suspect of supporting the authorities in Kiev. The abuses are most acute in Sloviansk, where armed men who seized control of the city have kidnapped more than two dozen people, including journalists, political activists, international military observers, and those they have accused of being “spies.”

 

 

Self-proclaimed
mayor of Sloviansk Vyacheslav Ponomarev and detained international
observers take part in a meeting with journalists in Sloviansk, Ukraine
on April 27, 2013.