United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres decided Thursday to dismantle the fact-finding mission at the Ukrainian prison in Olenivka, where 50 prisoners were killed by shelling, due to the lack of security.
Guterres’ spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, announced the dissolution of the team, due to «the lack of conditions required for its deployment at the site of the events», referring to the lack of security guarantees.
«We have the political agreement, but for such a complicated and dangerous scenario in a war zone, we require guarantees of security and access to both parties and we did not receive them,» Dujarric explained.
However, the spokesman has indicated that the UN hopes to have «the necessary conditions» and to be able to rebuild the team. «Of course, the secretary general will be ready to reassemble the mission quickly when we are given the guarantees,» he explained.
He also urged full respect for international humanitarian and human rights laws, including the defense of the rights of prisoners of war.
The incident in Olenivka took place on July 29 last year, according to the authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, who accused the Ukrainian Army of the attack. The Ukrainian Armed Forces, however, denied having carried out an attack in that area, pointing to Russian forces as responsible.
Following this, Guterres set up the above-mentioned fact-finding mission on August 3, at the request of the Ukrainian and Russian governments, the United Nations recalls.
The war in Ukraine broke out on February 24 following the invasion order signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who days earlier had recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (east), the scene of an armed conflict since 2014.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
