OSCE Observers Held in Ukraine Released
Auto Start: On | Off
The observers, members of an Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe observer team, were seized on April 25 in Slovyansk, the
epicenter of eastern Ukraine's unrest. The insurgents said the team
possessed unspecified suspicious material and alleged they were spying
for NATO.
A team member from Sweden was also seized but was released earlier.
Unlike the other observers' countries, Sweden is not a member of NATO
and the Swede reportedly suffers from a mild form of diabetes.
The insurgents' leader in Slovyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, was quoted by
the Interfax news agency as saying he ordered the release because of
increasing insecurity in the city. But he later The Associated Press
that "they are not being released — they are leaving us, as we promised
them."
Two Ukrainian helicopters were reported shot down outside the city on
Friday, killing two crew members. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said
two other soldiers were killed in a clash on the city's edge.
Ponomarev said 10 local people were killed in a confrontation with
soldiers on Slovyansk's outskirts. On Saturday, an Associated Press
reporter saw the body of a middle-aged man at the site of that clash,
lying on ground strewn with bullet casings, but the claim of 10 dead
could not be confirmed.
On Saturday, news reports claimed fighting broke out in the city of
Kramatorsk, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) south of Slovyansk.
Despite the release, tensions in Ukraine heightened sharply after at
least 42 people died in clashes between government supporters and
opponents in the Black Sea port of Odessa on Friday. The clash began
with street fighting between the two sides in which as least three
people were reported killed by gunfire, then turned into a grisly
conflagration when government opponents took refuge in a building that
caught fire after protesters threw firebombs inside.
At least 36 people died in the fire, according to the emergencies
ministry. An Interior Ministry statement gave the overall death toll for
the day at 42, but did not give a breakdown.
The city's police chief, Petr Lutsyuk, on Saturday issued a statement
calling for calm in the city of about 1 million, but hours later he was
fired by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman on Saturday decried the
Odessa deaths as evidence that the interim government in Kiev, which
came to power following the toppling of the pro-Russia president after
months of protests, encourages nationalist extremists.
"Their arms are up to their elbows in blood," Russian news agencies quoted Dmitry Peskov as saying.
Odessa, some 550 kilometers (330 miles) southwest of Slovyansk, had not
previously seen significant confrontations in Ukraine's crisis, and the
deaths there suggested that violent unrest could spread far from the
relatively compact area in the east where it has been concentrated so
far
Odessa is the major city between the Crimean peninsula, which Russia
annexed in March, and the Moldovan separatist region of Trans-Dniester
where Russia has a military peacekeeping contingent. Some analysts
speculate that Russia ultimately aims to take control of a huge swath of
Ukraine from Transdniester to the east.
A three-day mourning period was declared in Odessa on Saturday; mourners
came to the fire site to lay flowers. There were no signs of new
unrest, but Valery Kaurov, a leader of the anti-government contingent in
the city, told Russian state television that protests could resume once
the mourning period ends.
There were also signs of a desire for revenge. A page appeared on
Vkontakte, a Russian analogue of Facebook, showing photos and stating
home addresses of people allegedly responsible for the fire deaths.
One of the released observers, German Col. Axel Schneider, told The Associated Press that all 12 of the detainees held up well.
"They had a very good attitude and that gave them the strength to stand
the situation," he said. "According to the word of (Ponomarev), we have
been treated as good as possible. This is a miserable situation, but we
were under his protection."
Those held included three other Germans and one soldier each from Poland, Denmark and the Czech Republic.
Although Russia denies allegations that it is fomenting the unrest in
eastern Ukraine, where insurgents have seized government buildings in
about a dozen cities and towns, it sent Vladimir Lukin, Russia's former
human rights ombudsman, to negotiate for the release of the observers as
a representative of Putin. The initiative to send him came from Counil
of Europe head Thorbjorn Jagland, according to his spokesman Daniel
Hoeltgen.
Lukin was quoted by the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti as saying the release was "a voluntary humanitarian act."
———
Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.
COPY http://abcnews.go.com/international
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário