The NGO is offended by these “apparent war crimes” and recalls in particular that international law prohibits attacks against civilians and the inhuman treatment of detainees.
Article written by
Posted
Update
Reading time : 1 min.
Russian forces that controlled much of Kyiv and Chernihiv regions in northeastern Ukraine between late February and March 2022 subjected civilians to “summary executions”to acts of “torture” and to others “serious abuse” which are “apparent war crimes”according to a report by the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) published on Wednesday 18 May.
>> Follow the evolution of the war in Ukraine, hour by hour, in our live
The latter investigated “22 apparent summary executions, nine other unlawful killings, six possible enforced disappearances and seven cases of torture” in “17 villages and small towns of Kyiv and Chernihiv regions visited in April”. Some “65 people” were interviewed between April 10 and May 10, “including former detainees, survivors of torture, families of victims and other witnesses”. The NGO also relied on “material evidence” like photos and videos.
Among the testimonies collected, civilians claim to have been detained by Russian forces “for days or weeks in filthy, suffocating conditions in sites such as a school basement, a room in a window manufacturing plant, and a pit in a boiler room, with little or no food, inadequate water and no access to toilets”. Detainees said they were beaten by Russian soldiers who “used electric shocks or mock executions to coerce them into providing information”.
“They put a gun to my head, loaded it and I heard three shots.”
A former Ukrainian prisonerat HRW
The NGO recalls in its report that “the laws of war prohibit attacks against civilians, summary executions, torture, enforced disappearances, unlawful detention and inhuman treatment of detainees”.