KYIV, Ukraine (AP). Prisoners captured by warring parties in the separatist conflict of eastern Ukraine suffered systematic torture, sexual violence, and other abuses, according to a UN human rights report. This was released on Friday.According to the Office of the United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner (OHCHR), prisoners were abused in the early stages of the seven-year conflict. However, it was noted that this abuse continues to this day.It is unacceptable that seven years have passed since the outbreak and continual violations of human rights continue to go unresolved. Matilda Bogner, Head, UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, stated, "It is unacceptable that such egregious violations of human rights remain largely unaddressed." Absolute prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Torture cannot be justifiable.In April 2014, the conflict in Ukraine's eastern industrial center called the Donbas began weeks after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. This was following the ouster by the country's previous Moscow-leaning president. Russia-backed separatists seized large areas of the Donetsk, Luhansk and other regions and established the so-called "peoples republics" and defeated the government forces trying to reclaim power. More than 14,000 people were killed.According to the OHCHR, the total number detained in conflict related cases between April 14, 2014 and April 30, 2021 was 7,900-8700. This includes 3,600-4,700 government-side detentions and 4,300-4.700 separatists.The report stated that both sides used secret detention centers, which were not subject to any prosecutorial oversight and are inaccessible by rights monitors. They were closed down by the government in 2017, but they are still used by the separatists, who deny access to their families and monitors at the moment, according to the OHCHR.More than 1,300 cases of conflict-related detention were examined by the OHCHR. According to the OHCHR, in cases that took place between 2014 and 2015, 74% of the detainees were held by government forces while 82.2% to 85.77% were held by rebels in the Donetsk or Luhansk regions. They were often subject to torture and ill treatment.Continue the storyThe total number of conflict-related detainees who were tortured and ill-treated in 2014-2021 was estimated at approximately 4,000 to 1,500 by government agents, and about 2,500 by separatists. These included 340 victims of sexual abuse.According to the OHCHR, torture and ill treatment, including conflict-related, sexual violence, were used in both government-controlled and separatist territories to obtain confessions or other information or force detainees into cooperating.Both sides used torture and ill treatment, including beatings, wet and dry asphyxiation and electrocution.Stanislav Aseyev was a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He spent 28 months in the Izoliatsia separatist prison in Donetsk. Aseyev said that the facility featured an elaborate torture system, with a strong emphasis on electric shock.Aseyev, who was freed in a prisoner swap for 2019, said that they would strip a person and tie them to a chair made of metal. Then, they would apply electric shocks to different parts of the body.Aseyev also suffered from torture and said that the trauma was compounded by hearing other torture victims screaming in pain in a nearby cell. According to Aseyev, it is unbearable for someone to cry from torture in a nearby room.OHCHR pointed out that the Security Service of Ukraine was the most frequent perpetrator of torture, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of the government side. It also added that volunteer battalions were also involved in the initial stages of conflict.The report stated that torture and abuse of prisoners was committed by various armed groups, as well as later members of the separatist ministries for state security.It was noted in the report that many of these abuses remain unpunished.Bogner stated that "we have seen a lack in political will and motivation to investigate cases allegedly perpetrated government actors as well as misused procedures to avoid proper investigations of such cases. We can count victims in the thousands but the perpetrators we have brought to justice are only a handful.
