Tens of thousands of Ukrainians kidnapped?
Reports of “brutal interrogations” in Russian camps
05/13/2022 8:24 am
For weeks, Ukraine has been accusing the Russian army of interrogating civilians in “filtration camps” and then kidnapping them to Russia. The US assumes tens of thousands have been kidnapped, Kyiv 1.2 million. The procedure would not be new – it has its origins in the Soviet Union.
The United States assumes that Russia has forcibly abducted tens of thousands of Ukrainians since the start of its war of aggression. From the besieged port city of Mariupol alone, thousands were taken to Russia or Russian-controlled areas, said US Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Michael Carpenter, in Vienna.
The Ukrainian government estimates the number of kidnapped Ukrainians at almost 1.2 million. According to the ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova, at least 200,000 children are among them. According to Kiev, Moscow also operates so-called filtration camps in which arrested Ukrainians are interrogated. Eyewitnesses reported “brutal interrogations” in those camps, Carpenter said. This and the enforced deportations would amount to war crimes. “We must not allow this evil to happen,” he said.
“Filtration camps” were first set up in the Soviet Union in the early 1940s. At that time they were used to track down traitors among the returning soldiers of the “Red Army”. Russia also ran such internment camps during the Chechen wars – ostensibly to find terrorists and separatists. Non-governmental organizations reported human rights violations, including torture during the Second Chechen War.
Ukrainians evacuated from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol have recently made serious allegations against Russia. A bus driver transporting evacuees reported that people had been taken to the eastern Ukrainian village of Bezimenne, where a Russian “filtration camp” was located. There was a control that some did not “survive”. They were then separated. “We have no idea where to go,” said the bus driver. “They will probably be taken to Russia.”
Threatened with shooting?
According to the official statement, any fighters in the camps are to be separated from civilians. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “The honest name for it is different – these are concentration camps. Just as the Nazis built them at the time.” Zelenskyj criticized that Ukrainians from these camps were also taken to Russia. “Among other things, they deport children in the hope that they will forget where they come from, where their home is.”
The Federal Foreign Office has recently expressed concern about the establishment of Russian “filtration camps” in Ukraine. The Ministry had consistent reports on such camps that “suggested the worst,” reported the “World on Sunday” with reference to unnamed sources. “They describe interrogation practices that include coercion and even torture.” The reports have not yet been checked by independent aid organizations. However, there were numerous and unanimous reports about the use of coercion during the evacuations, and there were also threats of shooting.
The Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War prohibits “compulsory individual or mass resettlement and deportation of protected persons from occupied territory” to the territory of the occupying power (Article 49). The UN Human Rights Council voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to launch an investigation into alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
Kyiv has accused the Russian army of having committed war crimes in numerous places since invading Ukraine on February 24. The broadcasters CNN and BBC published footage of such a possible crime in mid-March on Thursday. Surveillance footage showed Russian soldiers apparently shooting two unarmed civilians in the back near a car dealership outside of Kyiv. One of the men died on the spot, the other shortly afterwards.