U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that "this violation of international law, given the prevailing circumstances, may amount to a war crime. It is imperative that a prompt, thorough, effective, independent and impartial investigation be conducted into this event."
Time omits broad dimensions of Ukrainian crisis
While Time quotes accurately from and links to the UN human rights press release with this comment from Pillay, Time gives no hint that the subject of the release is a 65-page report from the Human Rights Commissioner's office detailing the state of human rights in Ukraine as disastrous, with violations on all sides, but especially by "armed groups" who are among the separatists, but not identified as such:
A total breakdown of law and order and a reign of fear and terror have been inflicted by armed groups on the population of eastern Ukraine, according to a new report issued today".
The report documents how these armed groups continue to abduct, detain, torture and execute people kept as hostages in order to intimidate and "to exercise their power over the population in raw and brutal ways." Well organized and well equipped militarily, these armed groups have intensified their challenge to the Government of Ukraine, the report says. In response, there has been an acceleration of Government security operations during July in the areas still under the control of the armed groups, with heavy fighting located in and around population centres, resulting in loss of life, property and infrastructure and causing thousands to flee".
"Both sides must take great care to prevent more civilians from being killed or injured," [Pillay] added. "Already increasing numbers of people are being killed with serious damage to civilian infrastructure, which -- depending on circumstances -- could amount to violations of international humanitarian law. The fighting must stop."
According to the human rights report, more than 100,000 people have fled their homes in eastern Ukraine (86%) and Crimea (24%). These people are now internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are the responsibility of the Ukraine government that can ill afford to take care of them. That government started coming apart July 24, when the prime minister resigned, saying in part: "because laws have not been passed, we now have no means with which to pay soldiers, doctors, police, we have no fuel for armored vehicles, and no way of freeing ourselves from dependence on Russian gas."
The human rights report does not address estimates of as many as another 500,000 people from eastern Ukraine seeking shelter in Russia since April. Russia reported July 29 that it has given refugee status to 233,114 Ukrainians, including 34,503 children. Ukraine's total population of more than 45 million has been declining for about two decades. (The BBC reports, without attribution: "The conflict has displaced more than 200,000 people, many of whom have fled east to neighbouring Russia.")
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