Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin met with President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Peter Maurer in Donetsk today, on November 6. The meeting was also attended by DPR Minister of Foreign Affairs and Republic plenipotentiary to the Contact Group negotiations in Minsk Natalia Nikonorova, the press office of the Administration of the Head of the DPR reports.
The participants in the meeting discussed the most pressing issues of the Donbass conflict resolvement and interaction with Ukraine. Thus, the Head of the Republic requested assistance in identifying and closing secret SBU prisons, where our like-minded people and supporters are still being held. In addition, Denis Pushilin noted the need for effective and productive cooperation with the ICRC on the issue of visiting the persons illegally detained in the territory of Ukraine and emphasized that it is unacceptable to politicize this issue in any way.
“The matter of most immediate concern is related to the inhuman treatment of the people who openly support the DPR and LPR. The facts of torture they are subjected to in secret SBU prisons, where people are held for political reasons, are registered in the reports of such international organizations as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,” Denis Pushilin said.
It was noted that, in particular, this is evidenced by the reports No. 29 and No. 30 of the UN OHCHR on the human rights situation in Ukraine, November 16, 2019 — February 15, 2020, February 16 — July 31, 2020.
“The very existence of such prisons and the forcible placement of people in them is a flagrant violation of international principles. We insist that the those already identified [prisons] be closed, such places of forcible retention of the Republics’ supporters be further identified and subsequently disclosed to the public for these facts to be given appropriate legal assessment,” the DPR Head said.
The Head of State also outlined a number of other topics on the humanitarian agenda, the settlement of which on the Minsk venue is being complicated by objective reasons and Kiev’s destructive behaviour.
At the end of the meeting, Denis Pushilin commended the visit of Mr. Maurer to Donetsk and presented him with a Certificate of Gratitude for the systematic support that the International Committee of the Red Cross has been providing to the Republics since the beginning of the conflict, not only within the framework of the transfer of humanitarian aid, but also in the process of peaceful settlement on the Minsk venue.
