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UN: Civilians Caught in Eastern Ukrainian Conflict

Lisa Schlein

   GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - A report by the [1]Office of the U.N. High
   Commissioner for Human Rights finds civilians in conflict-torn eastern
   Ukraine remain at risk of human rights violations and death despite an
   easing of hostilities between the Ukrainian government and
   Russian-backed rebels in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

   The U.N. report welcomes recent diplomatic measures taken by the
   leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany to ease the plight of
   civilians caught in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. France and Germany
   mediated a December 9 meeting in Paris between Russia and Ukraine,
   aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the conflict. Some 13,000
   civilians have been killed since war broke out in April 2014.

   The U.N. reports the freedom of movement by civilians has improved. It
   says they now can move safely across the contact line that separates
   the warring parties to visit their families.

   Despite this positive development, U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for
   Human Rights Kate Gilmore says civilians in the conflict zone remain
   unprotected and are subject to abuse and gross human rights violations.

   Gilmore warns that as long as active hostilities continue, people are
   at risk of being maimed or killed. She says her office has received
   reports of killings and extrajudicial executions committed on both
   sides of the contact line.

   "We also continued to document cases of arbitrary arrests and
   detention, of torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainians occurring in
   government-controlled territory and in territory controlled by the
   so-called self-proclaimed 'republics' as well as in the Russian
   Federation."

References

   1. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/pages/home.aspx