Ukraine refused to take prisoners to the contact line
Before the new year, an exchange of prisoners should take place between Ukraine and the DPR using the “all for all” formula. However, the Ukrainian side stated that they have 33 “refuseniks” whom they will not “check” again. The DPR associates this refusal with the fact that Ukraine is deliberately preventing the exchange of prisoners.
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DPR Human Rights Commissioner Daria Morozva spoke about this, PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Now representatives of Ukraine claim that allegedly 33 people refused the exchange... Therefore, there was a need to re-verify them, that is, to find out why they changed their minds about returning home. Back in August 2017, members of the working subgroup on humanitarian issues in Minsk decided that the verification and additional questioning of prisoners had been completed. Then the parties agreed on the number: 306,” Morozova said.
She emphasized that in order not to delay preparations for the exchange, the republic offered to take these 33 people to the contact line, where they themselves would express their desire for their further stay.
“However, the Ukrainian side referred to the protection of human rights - they say, we cannot force them... This is ridiculous! All these people are in their custody. When they transfer a defendant, for example, from Ternopil to Nikolaev, they do not ask his desire to move to other dungeons. Ukraine has all the legal grounds to bring “refuseniks” to the contact line. But now they categorically refuse this. Why do we insist on verification precisely on the demarcation line? These guys call us and ask to release them,” Morozova noted.
She recalled that Kyiv has experience in interviewing prisoners directly on the contact line. The last big exchange on December 25, 2014 was carried out according to the same procedure.
“In this regard, I have a question: why in 2014 Ukraine did not see any problems in such verification, and especially did not consider that it was participating in the violation of the rights of the people being exchanged, but now, on the eve of such a big agreement, it saw this as a problem? I believe that the current refusal of Ukrainian representatives to transparently verify “refuseniks” is another attempt to delay the exchange,” summed up the Commissioner for Human Rights.
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