“My sister ran into here (apartment). She can see that our father face had the bruise from this tool. His face had been beaten. It looked like they’ve beaten his head on the table. The man took him away after beating him.”
This is the chilling testimony of Mariupol resident Anna about her father being kidnapped by “unknown men without identification”. They’ve beaten her father and threatened to shoot her. She has no idea where he is now. “No one is protected and if you criticize the local administration you are considered to be a separatist” concludes desperate and frightened Anna.
It is estimated that more than 3,000 Ukrainian citizens are either detained or “mysteriously disappeared” when arrested by the Ukrainian secret service for allegedly being separatist or spying against Ukrainian state.
In a surprisingly honest video report, State Department-funded Voice of America sheds light on state terror imposed upon Mariupol residents who are mostly pro-Russian.
Summary of this video provided by VOA stated:
“Since the last month’s cease fire went into effect, shelling around the port city of Mariupol has decreased, but it is thought pro-Russian separatists remain poised to attack.”
It is worth noticing that Neo-Nazi Azov battalion has for several times repeatedly and openly stating that they will not respect the Minsk 2 cease fire and they will continue their fight against “Russian terrorists”. This is well documented with numerous footages of Azov paramilitary attacking position of rebels in Shirokino 20 km outside of Mariupol. So it seems that the ones eager to continue fighting around Mariupol are Kiev forces, not so much Donetsk ones.
VOA continues:
“For the city’s authorities, a major challenge is gaining the trust of residents, while at the same time rooting out informants who are passing sensitive information to the rebels.”
According to pro-Kiev city authorities, Mariupol remains a deeply divided and the estimation is that just 30% supports the government. And this is said by the government sources who are not to be trusted as we experienced in the past.
Even US government-funded VOA can not ignore the fact that many Mariupol residents consider Ukrainian forces, especially Azov battalion, as marauders, invaders and occupiers. A similar sentiment is shared by Slavyansk residents.
Other media recently reported that there has been over one hundred arrests as Kiev tries to root out “suspected spies” from Mariupol:
According to the local mass media, over a hundred people were detained within a few days. In social networks, there are messages that “they catch everyone who looks wrong or says something wrong: the “rats” are seen walking at the markets and in the buses listening to what the passengers say.
There are assumptions in the mass media that the detentions are connected with the coming POW’s exchange between Ukraine and Novorossiya and the wish of the Ukrainian side to give away, figuratively speaking, these “baby’s dummies” – the people accidently caught in the city streets instead of the “political prisoners”.
It seems that any resident that is not supporting Kiev authorities is treated as a potential suspect and “Russian spy”.
In addition, most of the Mariupol residents believe that the rocket attack in January that killed more than 30 people is a false flag operation executed by Ukrainian forces in order to blame rebels. A local who is afraid to speak openly gave his estimation:
“75% of people here are sure that this was provocation by the Ukrainian government”.
It is especially hypocritical that VOA, which is so dedicated to promoting freedom and human rights, apologetically describes state terrorism as “rooting out informants”. It is obvious that arresting citizens that disappear without trace and torturing them presents unconstitutional practice and flagrant violation of human rights.
Complete lawless continues to dominate in Ukraine. Unfortunately, even the human-rights-loving West turned a blind eye on Kiev blatant violation of basic human rights and complete disregard of basic principle of any civilized modern state – Rule of Law.