MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. First deputy chairman of the Federation Council’s defense and security committee, Franz Klintsevich, believes that the style of state governance in Ukraine is increasingly reminiscent of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile last century.
"The current regime in Kiev is as repressive as the one that was established in Chile after the overthrow of President Salvador Aliende," Klintsevich told the media about the publication in The Times about systematic use of torture in Ukraine. The publication quoted UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic.
Simonovic told the British daily that in some fields Kiev’s disregard for human rights had grown to become systemic and the issue should be addressed urgently. According to the daily the UN report contains documentary evidence of hundreds of illegal detentions, torture and ill-treatment of detainees. The Times says the Ukrainian security service SBU has refrained from comment.
Klintsevich believes the publication in the Times is noteworthy not because it quotes some new facts.
"It is important that the information comes from an independent source that can by no means be suspected of being biased," he said.
Klintsevich believes that illegal arrests, torture, secret jails and disappearance of people without a trace are a daily occurrence for which the security service SBU is responsible. He even speculated that the SBU has thoroughly studied the practices of Chile’s notorious national intelligence department DINA and is now widely using them.
"The similarity is glaring. We haven’t seen only concentration camps at stadiums yet," Klintsevich said.
He recalled that history had passed a very negative judgement on Augusto Pinochet.
"Even the economic reforms during his rule have been unable to influence it. Repression overshadowed everything," he said.