Ukraine Refugee Situation Causing Problems in Nearby Countries
By Kyle Herda
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
KIEV, Ukraine – As the unrest in Eastern Ukraine continues on, those living in the east are facing severe problems that compile more by the day. In particular, economic woes are plaguing Eastern Ukraine, as well as a constant military threat and plenty of destruction to civilian areas. Many from the east have been displaced in the past year and more continue to look elsewhere to escape the instability, but nearby countries are beginning to close up their borders to Ukrainian refugees.
Over 1 million people have been displaced since fighting began over a year ago in Eastern Ukraine, and applications for refugee status have typically been denied in countries around Ukraine. Only 70 people sought asylum in Lithuania, but only 31 were granted that status. Further, Lithuania states that it is suspending asylum applications from Ukraine due to the increase (Lithuania typically only receives around 5 asylum applications per year). A U.N. refugee agency claims that non-EU countries like Moldova and Belarus received 300,000 applications for asylum, while even further EU countries also received numerous applications. For example, France received 1,415 asylum applications last year, and only accepted 35. Russia also saw roughly 300,000 refugees seeking asylum who fled east after the conflict sparked up.
While fighting in Eastern Ukraine appears to have died down some momentarily, both sides appear to be taking the down time to fortify and dig in. This may actually be an opportunity for both sides to bulk up, as is furthered by a new report claiming that both pro-Russian rebels as well as Kiev and the United States believe a major offensive by Russia is due to occur within the next two months. 60,000 Russian troops are along the border with Ukraine, and Mariupol may be the target of an impending attack. While over 6,000 have been killed in fighting over the past year, only about 100 have died since the February 12th ceasefire deal in Minsk was agreed to.
Given that the situation in Eastern Ukraine is already bad, compounded by the impending reawakening of heavy fighting, many civilians are fleeing before things heat up again. Times are already tough as is, and the future looks dark for now. Other countries, however, are unsure of what will come of all this fighting and unrest, and so they are even more hesitant to take action, much to the dismay of those seeking asylum.
For more information, please see:
Newsweek – Pro-Russian Rebels Told: Major Attack on Ukraine Imminent – 8 April 2015
IBT – Lithuania Suspends Asylum Applications for Ukrainians Fleeing War – 8 April 2015
The Local – Norway sees Ukrainian asylum seeker boom – 31 March 2015
The Local – France rejects hundreds of Ukrainian asylum bids – 26 March 2015
The Local – Sweden sees Ukrainian asylum seeker boom – 26 March 2015
Gulf Times – Ukrainian refugees facing dwindling options in Poland – 26 March 2015
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty – Russia Says Almost 300,000 Ukrainians Asked For Asylum – 16 February 2015
The Weekly Statistical Report of victims From 28 March 2015 till 3 April 2015 Violations Documentation Center in Syria – VDC
US Holocaust Memorial Museum: Lessons Learned from Rwanda
Dear friend,On this day, 21 years ago, the Rwandan genocide began, and in just 100 days between 500,000 and one million Rwandans, predominantly Tutsi, were killed.
This genocide remains one of the most horrifying examples of state-directed mass violence against civilians since the Holocaust.
The Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide is today releasing the findings from a conference examining the failure of the international community to prevent or effectively respond to the genocide and exploring whether and how it might have been averted. Review the findings now.
Co-organized by the Museum, the National Security Archive at George Washington University, and The Hague Institute for Global Justice, the conference, held in June 2014, brought together former peacemakers, peacekeepers, and peace monitors from more than a dozen countries. 
The conference findings include an annotated transcript of the discussion, with references to over 100 newly declassified documents; a report detailing the main areas of discussion, debate, and lessons learned that emerged; and a compendium of original source documents that reconstruct key moments in the international decision-making up to and throughout the genocide.
This Rwanda conference is part of a broader Museum initiative to examine pivotal moments when international action could have prevented genocide. In the coming months and timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the event, we will analyze the international decision-making surrounding the fall of the “safe area” of Srebrenica in July 1995, termed a genocide through ICTY proceedings in 2004, where over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed.
We hope this initiative will lead to greater understanding of the causes of genocide and how to prevent it, as well as new scholarship and research about these tragic events.
Sincerely,
Cameron Hudson
Director, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of GenocidePhoto: A display of victims’ photographs at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda. US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Syria Justice and Accountability Centre: Recent Prisoner Release Fails to Build Trust Among Syrians
April 6, 2015
In late March, Russia facilitated the release of nearly 700 prisoners held by the Assad regime. While Russia’s Foreign Ministry lauded the decision as a confidence building measure designed to demonstrate Assad’s willingness to begin negotiating a political solution, the arbitrary nature of the prisoner release illustrated the serious rule of law concerns that plague detention conditions in Syria.
Principally, the prisoner releases lacked transparency, information on the detainees’ original charges, and details on the legal justification for their amnesty. Instead, the prisoners were used as political ploys by Assad to garner international support while ignoring the many problems plaguing Syrians — particularly the more than 60,900political prisoners who remain in government custody under inhumane conditions.
According to Syrian law, the government can order the release of prisoners through either parliamentary action or presidential decree. In both situations, information about the decision must be disclosed. However, no such procedure was followed in this case, and as a result, Syrians on both sides of the conflict regard the regime’s decision with suspicion. For regime supporters, the prisoner release was baseless because the government failed to provide grounds for why the prisoners were no longer a threat to society.
For regime opponents, there seemed to be little justification for why these prisoners were released while many prominent human rights activists remain in detention, leading to speculation that the released prisoners were nothing more than petty criminals.
Syrian Human Rights Lawyer Michaal Shammas’ comments on the matter:
The prisoner release came as a surprise and without prior notification — it appears that most of those freed are regular civilians and not [political] activists. Maybe — and I repeat, maybe — the prisoner release is related to the upcoming Moscow II conference. All of those freed were released from security branches…none were released by the Terrorism Court, nor from civilian or military prisons. Until now, we have been unable to obtain the names of those freed; in the event we do acquire that information, we will post their names on my personal facebook page.
The military’s actions shortly after the release also cast a shadow over the government’s sincerity. Before retreating from a rebel advance on Idlib, military intelligence officials arbitrarily executed at least 15 prisoners who had been held at the Idlib detention facility. The executions were a gross violation of international criminal and human rights law and signals that the regime does not intend to sincerely pursue reconciliation.
In principle the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre welcomes the release of prisoners as an important component of the transitional justice process, but cautions that such decisions must be transparent and not arbitrary. In Northern Ireland, where prisoner releases were central to the peace process, the Good Friday Agreement providedspecific guidelines on the individuals eligible as well as the justification and conditions of the releases. The provisions explained to society what they could expect, an essential component of citizen buy-in to the reconciliation process. Unless similar protocols are followed for future prisoner releases in Syria, such actions will continue to be viewed with derision by the vast majority of Syrians and fail to fulfill Syria’s need for principled and open justice processes.
A corresponding duty of the Syrian regime is to address ongoing human rights concerns vis-a-vis detentions, including the situation of the tens of thousands not released. The regime is obligated to prosecute detainees still awaiting trial in a fair and timely manner, and release all prisoners held without charge as well as those who have completed their sentences.
Basic human rights principles also require that the regime make information regarding the number of detainees and their status publically available, and allow families, lawyers, and international monitoring groups like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit detainees and monitor prison conditions.
Finally, confidence building is a fantasy as long as the Assad regime refuses to respond officially to allegations of torture, such as those explicitly documented in the Caesar report, and detail methods of holding officials accused of committing torture accountable.