Violence in Donestk Oblast has escalated today, in spite of the international talks that Russia and Ukraine purportedly entered into. Putin continues to blame Ukrainian government agression even though NATO satelite imagery and reports from the ground in Eastern Ukraine (of civilians, government officials and military personnel) verify the arrival of Russian tanks and military into Ukraine as of yesterday. Violence and deaths as a result of the conflict between the 'pro-Russian separatists' and Ukrainian 'anti-terrorism' operation continue. It seems Putin is hoping the World Cup and the horrors in Iraq will distract attention away from his military invasion of Ukraine.
However, what is silently continuing to terrorise the population of Ukrainians in the eastern regions, as well as the Crimean Tatar communities in Crimea, is the ongoing kidnapping, torture and hostage-taking: the Meijlis of the Crimean Tatar people have appealed to a number of international organizations in connection with frequent cases of people going missing on the peninsula. In particular, an appeal titled ‘Prevention of cases of abduction and disappearances in Crimea’, adopted at a meeting of the Meijlis, has been sent to the United Nations Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as a number of international human rights organizations.
The writer Liudmila Ulitskaya said that the Russian mass media are manipulating the Russians’ mass consciousness. In particular, the writer claims, TV channels broadcast footage from Syria and Venezuela under the guise of the events in Donetsk. The Russian intelligentsia cannot do anything as, according to her, freedom of speech in Russia is being oppressed.
“At the moment we are witnesses to an unprecedented manipulation of collective consciousness. The responsibility of the journalists has never been as high as it is now, especially those who is trying to maintain objectivity, regardless of the pressure on part of the government. Some information websites have been closed, the bloggers are being controlled, freedom of speech is being suffocated like never before in the last 20 years,” said Ulitskaya in her interview.
(http://euromaidanpr.com/2014/06/13/ulitskaya-the-russian-mass-media-beat-the-world-record-in-lies/#more-11933)
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| Strelkov, the commander of the self-proclaimed peoples republic of Donetsk |
However, what is silently continuing to terrorise the population of Ukrainians in the eastern regions, as well as the Crimean Tatar communities in Crimea, is the ongoing kidnapping, torture and hostage-taking: the Meijlis of the Crimean Tatar people have appealed to a number of international organizations in connection with frequent cases of people going missing on the peninsula. In particular, an appeal titled ‘Prevention of cases of abduction and disappearances in Crimea’, adopted at a meeting of the Meijlis, has been sent to the United Nations Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as a number of international human rights organizations.
According to the appeal, in recent months Crimean society has faced a very dangerous phenomenon previously uncharacteristic of Crimea—kidnapping. The Meijlis also noted that at the end of May 2014 in Crimea three activists of the NGO Ukrainskiy Dom [Ukrainian House], Simferopol residents Leonid Korzh, Tymur Shaymardanov, and Seyran Zinedinov, disappeared one by one. Their fate remains unknown to this day. (http://ru.krymr.com/content/article/25420400.html)
Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice, together with human rights representatives, is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights regarding the illegal abduction and transfer to the Russian Federation of orphaned children. Additionally, Ukraine has given Russia 48 hours to return the abducted children, said the Minister of Justice Pavlo Petrenko during a Cabinet briefing, as reported on the Ministry’s website today.
But if Russia does not comply, what will Ukraine do? Who is listening?
The writer Liudmila Ulitskaya said that the Russian mass media are manipulating the Russians’ mass consciousness. In particular, the writer claims, TV channels broadcast footage from Syria and Venezuela under the guise of the events in Donetsk. The Russian intelligentsia cannot do anything as, according to her, freedom of speech in Russia is being oppressed.
“At the moment we are witnesses to an unprecedented manipulation of collective consciousness. The responsibility of the journalists has never been as high as it is now, especially those who is trying to maintain objectivity, regardless of the pressure on part of the government. Some information websites have been closed, the bloggers are being controlled, freedom of speech is being suffocated like never before in the last 20 years,” said Ulitskaya in her interview.
(http://euromaidanpr.com/2014/06/13/ulitskaya-the-russian-mass-media-beat-the-world-record-in-lies/#more-11933)
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