Kobzar/musician Vasyl Liutyi arrested and tortured in Luhansk

The Ukrainian Kobzar community (musicians who play the kobza or the bandura) has issued the following statement:

“The Kobzar community of Ukraine is deeply worried about the fate of one of their brothers, the Kobzar and community activist Vasy Liutyi.  He was the emcee/leader of the meeting For a United Ukraine in the town of Rubizhne in Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine.

“We have learned that that on April 21, during a meeting in support of a united Ukraine in the town of Rubizhne, Liutyi was severely beaten and then arrested.  During his arrest, he was tortured. We condemn the excesses of Russian chauvinists and protest against the inaction of the law enforcement authorities. We demand the immediate release of the composer and Kobzar Vasyl Liutyi.

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Belarusian journalist on the sadists who seized Crimea

Dmitriy Galko met Ukrainians who were kidnapped in Crimea.  He spoke about their meeting in his blog:

From the very beginning, I did not like someone’s light hand in bringing into use the phrase “polite people” when referring to the invaders of Crimea.  I think it could be a part of the informational war, which works to voice Putin’s assertion that there can be no intervention if no shot has been fired and that, therefore, there was no intervention in Crimean, but rather something like an operation to restore order.

One who is familiar with the history may recall such interventions, for example, when Hitler took Sudetenland. However, I do want to talk not about the historical analogies but the false image of the “polite” occupier.  It took me one meeting in a Kherson hospital with guys who were kept captive in Crimea for nearly two weeks for that image to crumble into dust. Their names are Andrij Schekun and Yuri Shevchenko. The only thing that unites them is the Crimean captivity hell that they experienced. Before, they did not know each other.

Die Geduld des Volkes ist nicht unermesslich und der Damm des Zornes kann jederzeit brechen

Wir verstehen, dass auch die Opposition unter Druck steht, aber die Geduld des Volkes ist nicht unermesslich und der Damm des Zornes kann jederzeit brechen.

1. Pavlo Masurenko
Hat den Maidan besucht. War auf dem Dach eines Kyiwer Kaufhauses von den Sicherheitsleuten angeblich wegen des Maidan zusammengeschlagen worden. Wollte nicht ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert werden. Starb am 22. Dezember 2013 in der Notaufnahme der Kyiwer Stadtklinik №12 an den Folgen der beidseitigen Lungenentzündung.

2. Yurij Werbytskyi
War der leitende Ingenieur der Abteilung der Seismologie der Karpatenregion des Institutes der Geophysik in Lwiw (Lemberg). Wurde am 21. Januar zusammen mit dem Aktivisten Ihor Lutsenko aus dem Krankenhaus entführt. Seine Leiche wurde am nächsten Tag im Wald in der Nähe von Kyiw gefunden. Er starb an den Folgen der Folterungen – seine Hände wurden hinter dem Rücken mit dem Klebeband verbunden und über dem Kopf eine Plastiktüte gezogen, die Beine wurden mehrmals gebrochen, die Knochen stachen heraus, der Rücken war blau angelaufen, die Rippen stachen auf der rechten Seite heraus, im Gesicht Schlagspuren. Die offizielle Todesursache – Unterkühlung.

Die blutige Ukraine: Anwälte sammeln Beweise für ein “Schwarzbuch” der Gewalt

Tötungen, Folter, Entführungen, Verhaftungen – das ist die Ukraine Ende 2013 und Anfang 2014

Keine Strafverfolgung von Beamten

Zwei Monate lang hatten Menschenrechtler und Anwälte kaum die Zeit, die vielen Fälle von Schlägen, Misshandlungen, Schikanen, Missachtung der Rechte von Verhafteten und gegen Kaution Freigelassenen, die Verletzungen des Rechts auf Privatsphäre bei Durchsuchungen sowie die Verletzungen des Rechts auf Vereinigungsfreiheit und Meinungsäußerung zu dokumentieren.

„Die Menschen vertrauen dem existierenden System der Justiz und der Regierung in der Ukraine nicht mehr. Kein einziger Beamter der Sicherheitskräfte ist wegen seiner illegalen Gewaltanwendung inhaftiert worden, auch wenn er eindeutig identifiziert wurde. Gleichzeitig wurden über 200 Personen, die man eigentlich als Geiseln ansehen muss, in Haft genommen,“ sagte der Rechtsanwalt Wasyl Kysil, Mitglied der Kommission zur Untersuchung von Menschenrechtsverletzungen in der Ukraine.

“Glory to Berkut”? – Glory to everyone that hasn’t lost their conscience!

Olesia Mamchych, especially for Ukrainska Pravda Life

January 28th is my birthday. I’m 33 years old. I am a writer, I write poems for children and adults. I have two daughters, Ivanka, who is 7 years old, and Varvara, who is 3 years old. Galya Tkachuk, also a writer, is sitting here with me now. She recently published a book about Kyiv for kids called Tempori.

And guess what we’re doing now? Are we reading Galyna’s book? Are we baking a cake and decorating the room with flowers for a birthday party? Are we citing modern poetry?

Actually, Galya is consoling me after I was intimidated by an investigator, after I finally saw my lost car that had been totally destroyed by the Berkut. She is distracting me from the thoughts that my husband, my dear husband, Oleksandr Kravtsov, has been beaten and unfairly convicted and is now in Lukyanivskiy jail.

A Crime against Humanity

On January 23-24, 2014 online resources and central TV channels published a video where a man was cruelly and publicly tortured by law enforcement authorities in Ukraine. The event consisted of the following actions: during the confrontation on Hrushevskoho street in Kyiv, “Berkut” riot police officers took one of the protesters, Mykhailo Havryluk, hostage. Havryluk is a citizen of Ukraine, from the Khotyn district of Chernivtsi Oblast. He was dragged through the snow covered street and taken to another part of Hrushevskoho Street which was controlled by the “Berkut” riot police and internal security troops, by whom Mykhailo was cruelly beaten. Afterwards, with the temperature at minus 10-15 Celsius, he was stripped of his clothes and beaten again while he was lying on the ground naked and helpless.

Dmytro Bulatov Found Tortured, Crucified, Ear Cut

Voices of Ukraine

Translated by Olia Knight  
Source: http://espreso.tv/new/2014/01/30/znayshovsya_dmytro_bulatov

One of the leaders of Automaidan, Dmytro Bulatov, who went missing on January 22, was found on the evening of January 30 in Vyshenky village in Boryspil district near Kyiv, reported by TSN.

According to Bulatov, strangers beat and tortured him, cut his ear off and even crucified him – he has puncture wounds on his hands.

The leader of Automaidan does not know who kidnapped him, but noted that men spoke with a Russian accent.  

After he was tortured for a long time, the Automaidan leader was taken and thrown out of a car. Bulatov walked around the village knocking on all doors until one of the natives let him in. Bulatov called his friends who picked him up and brought him to Kyiv.

“Batkivschyna” MP Yuriy Stets was the first to post information about Bulatov on his Facebook page.

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Perpetrators of cimes against humanity in Ukraine must be brought to justice

Poet and translator Ostap Slyvynsky about torture, abuse of prisoners, violating the rules and customs of war. For active and free sharing worldwide.

As of today, January 26, 2014, it may be concluded that atrocities currently taking place in Ukraine not only exceed the level of systematic violations of basic human rights (freedom of expression, personal freedoms and their protection, the right to life), but reach the threshold of crimes against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute as “particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of human beings” regardless of place, time and political context. These crimes are known to have no justification, and they could be considered as a symmetric response to any actions. 

Where is your Bandera? Berkut beat and tortured a detained student.

Berkut (riot police) brutally beat a student captured during the confrontation on Hrushevskoho. The victim, a 17-year old student of Chernivetsky Economic College Mikhailo Niskoguz, talked about this with journalists on Thursday. This was broadcasted by Hromadske TV (http://hromadske.tv/ru/)