Russia lambasts U.N. report on rights in Ukraine

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Russia criticised a U.N. report on human rights in Ukraine on Friday, saying it lacked any semblance of objectivity, and accused its authors of following "political orders" to whitewash the pro-Western leadership.

The Foreign Ministry said the report - which found a deterioration of the situation in eastern regions where pro-Moscow separatists are seeking power and serious problems emerging in Crimea, which has been annexed by Russia - ignored "the crudest violations of human rights by the self-proclaimed Kiev authorities."

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/16/ukraine-crisis-rights-russia-idUKL6N0O222120140516

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More extensive Reuters report here : http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/16/us-ukraine-crisis-rights-russia-idUSBREA4F07P20140516

U.N. monitors warn on human rights in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations monitors in Ukraine have found an alarming deterioration in the human rights situation in the east of the country and serious problems emerging in Crimea, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Friday.

"Those with influence on the armed groups responsible for much of the violence in eastern Ukraine (must) do their utmost to rein in these men who seem bent on tearing the country apart," Pillay said in a statement accompanying the 37-page monitoring report.

The 34-strong monitoring mission's report, which covers the period from April 2 to May 6, said police and local authorities in eastern Ukraine connived in illegal acts and the takeover of towns by armed groups, which undermined the rule of law and guarantees for human rights protection.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-ukraine-crisis-un-20140516,0,484131.story

[Igel]

1. Yeah, well, it requires a bit of rethinking "human rights".

Random searches of Tatars' houses, fines for not jaywalking on camera but for SWT ("standing while Tatar&quot , trying to meet with a Crimean resident barred unofficially from entering the territory, being pressured with legal threats for flying an Ukr flag on private property ...

All are the highest form of protection of human rights. One day, perhaps, we in the US will revel in having our houses searched without warrants on suspicion of being terrorists, of having film producers arrested for being "terrorists" on suspicion of working to oppose the state.

(For many, I know, these things happen daily, with 100s of thousands already being taken by black helicopters to US-based concentration camps. They, apparently, had too much vaccine as small children.)

[Demeter]

2. But the US is ALREADY at that level of human rights.

And if you want US-based concentration camps, look to the prison system, where the black population is being integrated with Muslims...

[Billy Budd]

3. war on minorities report ...USA

Portion of inmates held in US federal prisons who are nonviolent drug offenders: 1/2 ...fifty percent

Number of people fatally shot near the Mexican border since 2010 for throwing rocks at U.S. Border Patrol agents : 10

Ratio of seriously mentally ill people held in U.S. state prisons and jails to those held in state psychiatric hospitals : 10:1

http://harpers.org/archive/2014/06/harpers-index-362/

[newthinking]

9. The police need to stop any harrasment from happening but Tatars should also not block all the roads

in and out of the cities there.

[another_liberal]

4. There are some rather glaring omissions in the report . . .

The Russian Foreign Ministry found it peculiar, for one example:

“In some 30 pages of text, there is not one mention of any manifestation of aggressive nationalism and neo-Nazism in Ukraine.”

No mention of "Right Sector," or "Svoboda" and their violent, ultra-nationalist brand of public fascism and antisemitism? Was Mussolini the editor in chief of this whitewash?

http://rt.com/news/159388-un-report-ukraine-criticism/

[EmilyAnne]

7. Well, bless your heart. nt

[another_liberal]

13. Ah, thanks . . .

I guess?

[uhnope]

5. Russia can STFU on this one

and start rejoining the international community by reversing its disgraceful course on human rights, taking over sovereign countries, staging fake and rigged elections. And let's not mention its internal policies...

[pampango]

6. Crimea's new prime minister has banned public demonstrations to prevent Tatars' annual rally on

the anniversary of Stalin's deportation of Tatars in 1944.

Vladimir Putin tells Crimea's Tatars their future lies with Russia

Vladimir Putin has told Crimea's Tatars that they must accept that their future lies with Russia, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of their mass deportation from their ancestral homeland. Putin's comments came as the UN warned that the Tatars have been the subject of harassment and persecution since the Black Sea peninsula was annexed from Ukraine in March.

Meanwhile, Crimea's prime minister issued a decree forbidding all public demonstrations until 6 June, in an apparent attempt to prevent the annual rally on Sunday commemorating Stalin's deportation of the Tatars in 1944.

But thousands of Tatars are expected to gather for an event that experts say will determine the course of the burgeoning conflict between the Tatars and the pro-Russia regional government. Tensions between the Tatars and Crimea's ethnic Russians have grown steadily since the independence referendum in March. Most Russian speakers supported the move to join Russia; the Tatars – a Muslim minority who make up about 12% of the population – largely boycotted the vote and wanted to remain in Ukraine.


Crimean Tatars gather at a cemetery outside Simferopol for the funeral of
Reshat Ametov, who disappeared and was later found dead after protesting
against the Russian takeover of Crimea.

In a report released on Friday, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said the Tatars faced numerous problems including physical harassment, fear of religious persecution and internal displacement.


Crimean Tatars protest on 3 May after their unofficial leader Mustafa Dzhemilev was banned from re-entering the peninsula.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/16/vladimir-putin-crimea-tatars-russian-ukraine

[newthinking]

10. They are not completely innocent. They have not been doing simple protest, they have been blocking

Last edited Sat May 17, 2014, 01:03 PM - Edit history (1)

ingress and egress and bypassing border checks etc.

The government needs to do a better job to protect them from harassment by locals.

What they do not report, for instance, that the Tatar's primary language is now elevated to the same status as Russian (as is Ukrainian). All government documents must have Tatar language versions and the government must provide translators as a common service. That is actually more language recognition than Ukraine had.

[freshwest]

8. There was an LBN thread citing the BBC on this. From that link, this photo:

Looks like every country has decided to have their own version of the Bundies. No matter how they dress it up, the behavior is the same.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27438422

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014805256

[EmilyAnne]

11. It really is too bad that the main article here is about Russia's response to the UN report...

while the very important, BREAKING UN report has to be buried at the bottom.
But twice it has been posted in LBN, and twice the moderator has decided that it is just fine to hide the article about a frickin' United Nations report on current human rights abuses under an article about Putin's persecution complex.

Thank you for posting this, freshwest.

[dipsydoodle]

12. That was no more than the sequence in which I found the news.

I first found Russia's response in Kiev Post quoting Reuters and then used the Reuters link. I then found the UN report ref. and added it for context.

[EmilyAnne]

14. Sorry if I implied that you did anything wrong here.

I don't think that you wrote your article this way to "hide" the report.
You were just seeking to provide more information about your main article which makes sense and is entirely fair.
I just disagree with a moderator over whether the report on the UN report is worthy of its own thread.
But no big deal.

I have to admit that this issue is very personal to me.
I lived in Putin's Russia. I left behind many friends who are, quite simply, terrified.
It is very frustrating for me to see what looks like a defense of Putin all over DU and other "liberal"/ Democratic message boards and blogs.
Some things can really only be understood by living there.
Not visting, not touring, etc. Actually living there, absorbing the media, paying the bribes, listening to the people, seeing journalist friends blacklisted, watching newspapers be taken over and then retooled under control of the state, etc.
There has been a tremendous step back in the past 8 years or so and its only going to get worse unless Putin is truly challenged.
The problem, of course, is what such a challenge looks like and who it should come from.
That is probably the true nature of our disagreement and it is a complex one, indeed.

[dipsydoodle]

15. Yes that is odd.

I'd have thought the subject was worthy of its own post. As I'd said I added the referecence just for context. I hadn't noticed the locks until you mentioned them.