Tensions Exasperated as Rival Demonstrations Held All Across Ukraine

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

Sevastopol, UKRAINE – Activists supporting Russian occupation of Ukraine attacked a group of pro-Ukraine activists in the Crimean city of Sevastopol on Sunday.

The Pro-Russian rally in Simferopol. (Photo courtesy of Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty)

Hundreds of activists flooded the streets on Sunday to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the life of Ukranian poet Taras Shevchenko. Pro-Russian demonstrators intervened and attacked the activists with clubs and whips.

Russian forces have occupied the Crimean region in Ukraine for roughly a week as of Sunday. The latest violence occurs amidst rival demonstrations all across the Ukraine on Sunday. Rival protests both in support of Ukrainian independence and against it peacefully occurred in Crimea’s capital city of Simferopol.

Former opposition leader Vitali Klitschko stated that the Ukraine should not be allowed to split over the current violence during a speech in the city of Donetsk. “The key priority today for all Ukrainians is to unite, to come together and to prevent provocations, prevent separatists from realizing their plans, which are partition of the country and loss of independence.”

During Klitschko’s speech, several thousand protestors gathered at Donetsk’s Lenin Square and marched to the administration building after it was seized twice this week by pro-Russian activists. The protestors lowered the Ukraine flag and raised the Russian flag.

In Kyiv, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated to a group of thousands that the Ukraine would not willingly cede its territory to Russia. “This is our land, our parents and grandparents spilled their blood for this land. We will not give up a single centimeter of Ukrainian land. Let Russia and Russian President [Vladimir Putin] know this.”

Prime Minister Yatsenyuk later also stated that he would be traveling to Washington, D.C. this week to discuss the impasse with Russia. U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Yatsenyuk on the 12th to discuss the situation. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday to advise that any steps taken by Russia to annex Crimea to Russia would close diplomatic relations with the United States.

Russia is continuing to exercise greater control over Crimea. Ukraine’s State Border Service stated that Russian military forces took control of a Ukrainian border guard post early this morning, and now control eleven border guard posts in Crimea.

Pro-Russian authorities in Crimea have called a referendum to be held on the 16th to decide on whether to split from Ukraine and join Russia.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from office last month after months of protests against his free-trade agreement with the European Union. Russian military forces quickly after Yanukovych left office.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended the planned referendum to European leaders.

For information, please see:

9News World – Violent Clashes at Rival Ukraine Rallies – 9 March 2014

Al Jazeera – Ukraine Plans Rallies as Crisis Deepens – 9 March 2014

BBC News – Ukraine Gripped by Rival Rallies – 9 March 2014

Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty – Ukraine Clashes as Rival Rallies Boost Tensions – 9 March 2014

 

Alleged Former Auschwitz Guards Released

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BERLIN, Germany – Amidst the last chance effort to bring Nazi war criminals to justice before they die, German courts have released four alleged former SS guards in two weeks.

Auschwitz was the largest death camp during World War II, and killed approximately 1.5 million people. (Photo courtesy of Chicago Tribune)

In February 2014, police arrested three elderly men after searching six homes in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Police based their search on information from the Central Office of the Judicial Authorities for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes.

Prosecutors stated that “significant evidence” suggested the men could be charged as accessories to murder for serving as Auschwitz guards. The complex of camps at Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland witnessed the deaths of approximately 1.5 million Jewish, Roma, and Polish persons. Under German privacy guidelines, their names were withheld.

During the week of 3 March 2014, the alleged SS guards of the Auschwitz death camp have been released from custody. However, prosecutors claim the investigation against them will continue.

Germany began a push to prosecute all remaining SS guards under a new legal doctrine, which considers an accessory to murder anyone who worked at extermination camps, even absent evidence of any personal violent acts.

One of the men was freed due to failing health, while another was released on bail, and the third’s detention was successfully challenged. A week before, yet another man, Hans Lipschis, was released because he suffers from dementia.

“The court has refused to open the trial,” a court statement said of Lipschis. “The chamber is of the opinion that the 94-year-old is incapable of standing trial. It bases this judgment on its own personal impression and the opinion of a psychiatrist.”

In 2013, Lipschis claimed that he left his position as a cook at Auschwitz to fight on the Eastern Front toward the end of World War II. However, he could not remember which unit he joined.

For a total of thirty, 26 other living men are believed to be former SS guards from Auschwitz. In February 2014, prosecutors ordered a search for Nazi-era documents from several German states, as several crimes from that era have gone unpunished in Germany.

Much difficulty came from a 1969 federal court ruling, which required proof of individual guilt to prosecute a defendant. In 2011, the precedent changed when a Munich court relied on personnel records to convict former Sobibor guard John Demjanjuk of aiding and abetting 28,000 murders. Demjanjuk died in a nursing home.

To achieve justice, strong efforts must be made to collect sufficient evidence that will be determinative of whether alleged war criminals are who prosecutors believe they are.

For further information, please see:

Washington Post – 3 Auschwitz Guard Suspects Released from Custody – March 6, 2014

Haaretz – Ailing  Auschwitz Guard Suspect Granted Bail in Germany – March 5, 2014

Chicago Tribune – Ex-Chicagoan, a Suspected Auschwitz Guard, Found Unfit for Trial – February 28, 2014

Independent – Three Suspected Ex-SS Auschwitz Guards Arrested in Germany – February 21, 2014

Reuters – Three Suspected Former Auschwitz Guards Arrested in Germany – February 20, 2014

Nurse Paralyzed in Beating by Chinese Official

By Kevin M. Mathewson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NANJING, China – A Chinese official and her husband have been detained over an attack on a nurse in Jiangsu province which left the nurse paralyzed, police and state media say.

Chen Xingyu, the nurse injured in the alleged attack. (Photo Courtesy of Weibo)

The incident occurred when the Nanjing Stomatological Hospital arranged for a critically ill male patient to be placed in the same ward where the couple’s daughter was being cared for. After the couple unsuccessfully protested about the male patients placement, Yuan Yaping, the mother, struck a nurse on the back and shoulder with an umbrella and dragged her out of the nurse’s station.

Yuan is deputy director of the government-run Jiangsu Science and Technology Museum in Nanjing and Dong is a senior publicity official at the Jiangsu Provincial Procuratorate office. Both have been suspended by their employers following the alleged attack, media reports said.

Chen Xingyu, the 20-year-old victim remains in the hospital receiving treatment, according to authorities in Nanjing. She has been diagnosed with paralysis of the lower limbs.

“Given that Chen Xingyu has not recovered her functions after a week of medical care, we have decided to place suspect Yuan Yapin under criminal detention, in accordance with the public security bureau’s regulations for injury cases,” police said in a statement.

The case has prompted outrage in China, with the term “Nanjing nurse beaten” becoming the third-most-popular search term on Thursday.

The fact that police took more than a week to detain Yuan has especially angered observers online. Many have blamed police for yielding to the political influence of Yuan’s family and speculated they had hidden major evidence from the public.

Nanjing police later explained they were only able to detain Yuan after the seriousness of Chen’s injuries had been determined by medical experts.

Since the attack, more than 30,000 medical workers have added their names to a website calling for a harmonious relationship between patients and hospitals after the attack. Since the online signature drive was launched on February 28 it has attracted thousands of medical professionals from across the country.

China has seen an outburst of violence against medical staff in recent years and the problem of patient-doctor conflicts has drawn the attention of the central government.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – China nurse ‘paralysed by beating’ from official – 6 March 2014

South China Morning Post – Nurse paralysed as shocking hospital attack by Nanjing official is caught on camera – 6 March 2014

China Daily – Medical workers call for harmony – 6 March 2014

English News – Gov’t official couple punished over nurse’s attack – 6 March 2014