UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia’s torture of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war is a crime against humanity, U.N.-backed human rights experts said Thursday.
Erik Møse, chairman of the independent commission investigating human rights abuses in Ukraine, told reporters that the panel previously described Russia’s widespread and systematic use of torture in Ukraine and Russia against civilians and prisoners, both men and women, as a war crime.
“Our recent findings show that Russian authorities committed torture in all provinces of Ukraine that came under their control, as well as in the detention centers that the commission investigated in the Russian Federation,” he said.
Russia’s U.N. mission said it had no comment on the news conference or the report by the commission, which was appointed by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council.
Møse said the committee is an investigative body. He noted that the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the International Criminal Court are investigating possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine and that the commission may be asked to provide evidence.
The commissioners investigated reports of 41 different detention centers, from makeshift centers to established facilities, in nine occupied regions of Ukraine and eight areas in Russia, Møse said.
He said the committee found further evidence that violent practices common in Russian detention centers are also being carried out in similar facilities in Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine, he said.
The committee also found additional evidence of the repeated use of sexual violence as a form of torture, Møse said.
Detainees were subjected to rape, long periods of forced nudity, body searches and more, said committee member Vrinda Gover. She said most POWs reported being exposed to sexual violence and suffering long-term psychological trauma.
Ukrainians in detention centers in Ukraine and Russia also reported “a cruel so-called admission procedure,” Gover said.
“Harsh practices designed to frighten, break, humiliate, coerce and punish prisoners were routinely used,” she said.
Surveillance cameras were used to monitor prisoners and prisoners were severely punished collectively for any violation of the rules, while “interrogations involved some of the most violent treatment documented,” Gover said.
Commission member Pablo de Greiff told reporters that there is now evidence of the Russian organizational structure that coordinated and enabled torture in the detention centers.
“Furthermore, the Commission now has evidence that detention center management or other high-level Russian authorities have ordered, encouraged, tolerated or failed to take action to end torture or ill-treatment,” De Grieff said.
Møse said the commission’s investigation also found that violent practices against detainees in Russia were transferred by Russian security forces and personnel to Russia’s detention centers in Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine.
“Based on this body of evidence, we have concluded that Russian authorities acted in accordance with a coordinated state policy of torturing Ukrainian citizens and prisoners of war,” he said. “That is why, in addition to torture as a war crime, they also committed torture as a crime against humanity.”
