Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 20 November 2014
This report is for media and the general public.
The SMM continued to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum and the activities of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC).
In Luhansk the SMM met with a former “Lugansk People’s Republic” (“LPR”) member who said that there were six military groups operating within the “LPR”. According to him there were armed “LPR” personnel, volunteer “LPR” armed groups and four armed independent Cossack groups. Each of these groups has its own area of responsibility he added.
In Metalist, controlled by the “LPR” (17km North of Luhansk), the SMM spoke to two female pensioners who complained that their Ukrainian pensions had not been paid for five months. They told the SMM that they were short of money and had no other choice than to buy only cheap products of low quality. The SMM also spoke to local residents who told the SMM that the security situation was improving in Metalist, with no shelling since the summer.
The SMM visited the regional department of state penitentiary services in Luhansk city and met with the deputy director, who said that they were awaiting clarification from Kyiv on how to implement the presidential decree on the removal of Ukrainian services in areas not controlled by the Government. The SMM will follow up on the implementation of the mentioned decree. According to the interlocutor a deadline by the Ukrainian authorities to civil servants to leave “LPR” has been given until 1 December 2014. The deputy director said that the institution has not received any funding from Ukrainian authorities’ since October this year. According to the interlocutor there are 14 Ukrainian prisons (12 prisons and two pre-trial detention centres) in the area controlled by the “LPR”. He added that food and medical supplies for these prisons would last until the end of the year. The situation within the prisons was stable.
On 19 November military personnel shot in the direction of a SMM convoy near government-controlled Mariinka (15km West of Donetsk) (see SMM Spot Report 19 November 2014).
In Konstiantynivka (55km North of Donetsk) the SMM met with the secretary of the city council, who said that the local pension department had registered about 3,000 pensioners from “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”)-controlled Horlivka (43km North of Donetsk), Yenakijeve (40km South-East of Donetsk ) and Donetsk city.
On 19 November the SMM monitored the activities of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) at its headquarters in Debaltseve, and at sub-sector level in Svitlodarsk (55km North-East of Donetsk) and Soledar (77km North of Donetsk). In Debaltseve the chief of staff of the Russian Representation to South-East Ukraine presented SMM with a letter he had received from Dutch team leading the MH17 recovery team. In the letter the JCCC had been asked to secure a ceasefire in one area related to the recovery process. The SMM was told that the JCCC wanted to help but asked that such letters should be sent via the General Staffs in Kyiv and Moscow. The chief of staff of the Ukrainian contingent said that the JCCC had neither the authority nor the capacity to comply with such demands. In Soledar only Russian officers were present; the SMM was told that the Ukrainian officers had been recalled to Debaltseve for the day.
In Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk the situation was calm.
On 18 November the SMM attended a lecture of Rifat Chubarov, the leader of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, in Lviv. Mr. Chubarov expressed his concerns regarding the current situation of human rights of Tatars in Crimea. In this context, Mr Chubarov stressed in particular the issues of alleged abductions and searches of private homes and Islamic religious premises (see SMM Daily Report 19 September 2014).
On 19 November the SMM attended a press conference in Kyiv organized by the “Committee for Release of Political Prisoners” and various activists (the head of the Organization of Ukranian Nationalists battalion; Members of Parliament; Commander of the “4th Cossack Sotnia” (4th Cossack Hundred) etc.). The participants expressed their discontent with the state institutions and claimed that the efforts and sacrifices made during Maidan had not yielded results. The organizers stressed that one year after Maidan there would be nothing to celebrate on 21 November, the beginning of the Maidan protests. They advised the public not to attend the events organized for 21 November in relation to the Maidan celebration, and proposed alternatively to gather on 22 November at 12:00hrs at Independence Square.
The situation in Kherson, Odesa, Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk was calm