More than 9,000 killed since start of Ukraine conflict: UN

GENEVA – Agence France-Presse

Pro-Russian separatists soldiers withdraw their tanks from positions near the town of Novoazovsk in the Donetsk region on October 21, 2015. AFP Photo

More than 9,000 people have been killed since the conflict in Ukraine began 20 months ago, the United Nations said Dec. 9, warning that even though fighting had abated, millions were in precarious situations.

The U.N. human rights office hailed “a sharp de-escalation of hostilities” in the conflict zones in eastern Ukraine since the warring sides signed a new truce on Sept. 1, following a fragile truce agreed in Minsk in February.

In its latest report on Ukraine, the rights office said that between Aug.16 and Nov.15, 47 civilians were killed and 131 injured in the conflict zones of eastern Ukraine, sharply down from the previous three-month period.

But nonetheless, at least 9,098 people - including civilians, soldiers and militia members - have perished since the beginning of the conflict in mid-April 2014 until the middle of last month, with another 20,732 injured, the report said.

Fifty-two percent of the casualties since August were caused by landmines and other explosive devices, the report said, underscoring “the urgent need for extensive mine clearance and mine awareness actions on both sides of the contact line.”  

Ukraine’s emergencies ministry said that by last month it had cleared the separatist Donetsk and Lugansk regions in the former Soviet republic’s once-booming industrial heartland of more than 44,000 mines.

But the warring sides and foreign monitors are struggling to estimate how many unexploded devices remain.

“Mapping of the minefields is so far incomplete and inaccurate, and signs posting is urgently required to warn the population about their presence,” the report said, cautioning that the arrival of snow would make the situation even more dangerous, since it would cover and even displace booby-traps.

Arms and fighters continue pouring 

The report also stated that arms and fighters were still pouring into rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine from Russia, according to Reuters. 

A fresh ceasefire last August has led to a big drop in hostilities, particularly due to the withdrawal of certain heavy weapons by the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian armed groups from the contact line, it said. 

It went on: “There remains, however, an inflow of ammunition, weaponry and fighters from the Russian Federation into the territories controlled by the armed groups, leaving the situation highly flammable.”
 
The rights office meanwhile warned that “serious human rights concerns persist”, including “continuing impunity, torture and an absence of the rule of law in the east.” 

The humanitarian situation also remained dire for many of the nearly three million living in the affected areas, as well as for the more than 1.5 million who have been displaced inside Ukraine.

“Civilians in the conflict-afflicted eastern parts of Ukraine end the year as they began it, in a very difficult humanitarian and human rights situation,” U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

“Elderly people have no access to their life savings, people with disabilities have little assistance, and reduced access to healthcare has left many in dismal, precarious, even life-threatening situations,” he cautioned.

The report said civilians in areas controlled by armed groups in the rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Lugansk continued to face serious rights abuses, including killings, forced labor, and extortion, while the government forces were slammed for using arbitrary and secret detention.

Sides of the conflict ‘can be held accountable’ for human rights abuses 

Zeid reminded all sides in the conflict that they can be held criminally accountable for the human rights abuses in territories under their control.

The report stressed that “amnesty cannot be provided for individuals responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and grave human rights violations, including summary executions, torture or similar cruel inhuman or degrading treatment, and enforced disappearances.”

To reach a lasting peace, all sides must fully implement the Minsk Agreements, it said.

But it warned that the “continuing presence of foreign fighters,” including some identified as members of the Russian military, “as well as the reported influx of heavy and sophisticated weaponry from the Russian Federation and the lack of effective control by the Government of Ukraine of the state border with the Russian Federation remain the major impediments to this solution.”