Oleksandra Matviichuk on the efforts civil society undertakes in regard to the detainees` release

On June 25-26 CivilM+ Platform and CSP Platform members met for an expert seminar “Re-establishment of justice and dialogue in the OSCE conflict regions – two angles of transitional justice“. We publish selected fragments of expert statements.

Oleksandra Matviichuk, (Center for Civil Liberties):

“When working with the issue of detainees in the context of the conflict in the Crimea and in Donbas, we conditionally divide the cases into the following categories: 1) fabricated cases on the territory of the Russian Federation; 2) war hostages on the ORDLO territory; 3) persons detained on the territory of Ukraine due to participation in the conflict. The latter category can also be divided into subcategories: citizens of Ukraine, detained due to participation in the conflict; Russian citizens detained in connection with participation in the conflict; and the third subgroup is constituted of citizens of Ukraine, who are being detained due to suspicion of participation in the conflict, but in whose cases there are no sufficient grounds.

We have verified information about 98 people who are illegally detained on the territory of the Russian Federation and the Crimea, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are about 120 people on our list detained on the territory of the occupied Donbas. The list is kept by the SBU (National Security Agency of Ukraine), it is classified. And even if it were open, an understanding of the processes that take place there suggests that the exact number is unknown. Among these people is the Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, a farmer Vladimir Balukh who was detained for refusing to remove the Ukrainian flag from his house, prisoner of conscience Emir-Usain Kuku, Donetsk journalist Stanislav Aseev and many others.

The tasks we set for ourselves are divided into two levels. The first level is release. But since there is no clear understanding of how to achieve this, we concentrate on another level: people who are in Russian prisons must survive until the moment of their release, therefore it is necessary that they are provided with medical assistance, are not being tortured, and that attorneys are entitled to represent them. A 58-year-old Crimean Tatar Edem Bekirov is dying in the Simferopol jail. He was returning to Crimea to see his mother before a severe heart surgery. He is not able to lift a bottle of water but was accused of carrying 12 kg of TNT. He is in the SIZO (pre-trial detention center), where there is no possibility for providing medical aid and, where he is still being kept despite the decision of the ECHR.

We are trying to use international mechanisms, but we see that they do not work. This does not mean that one should not apply them but that one should not be limited by this. Therefore, our organization has chosen to put an emphasis on creating international networks of solidarity and putting pressure on states that consider themselves democratic so that they too are involved in solving this issue. In 2014 we launched the “Let my people go” information campaign, which was aimed at telling about such cases, and in 2018 the global campaign “Save Oleg Sentsov”, launched by our organization, has already taken an aim of a different order. We have united public groups in 40 countries of the world, and we were the first to introduce the practice of simultaneous demonstrations around the world with the same slogans. Indeed, there is a difference: when there are 7 cities in France, 8 in Germany and in each particular case, the number of people is not significant, but due to the fact that 40 countries demonstrate parallelly, the action becomes very visible. We have achieved such results as, for example, the phone call Macron has made to Putin and the conversation about Sentsov, for which the President of France interrupted his vacation. This became possible because French intellectuals and press joined the flash mob “send a leaflet to Macron”. We ensured that the resolution of the European Parliament listed the names of all political prisoners, and not only 2-3 most important ones. After a

letter campaign to the Council of Europe, Secretary General Jagland appealed to Putin to grant a pardon to Sentsov.

There are several issues that we can only solve in cooperation:

1) The issue regarding the categories of criteria and list of detainees. The problem lies in the conceptional framework: who should be considered as a political prisoner? Can we apply a guide to those who are detained in connection with the conflict?

2) The issue of tactics and strategy. We need international experience in order to avoid doing harm.

3) The issue of negotiation platforms. Minsk negotiations cover issues only in regard to Donbas. Detainees in Russia and in the Crimea are not included in the framework of the Minsk process, and therefore there is a need for another negotiation platform”.