Russian diplomat calls on UN, OSCE to help investigate crimes in Ukraine

Russia October 07, 2014, 19:32

Inetrnational organizations “must do their best to ensure that an efficient investigation is carried out and those responsible are punished,” Russia's commissioner Konstantin Dolgov says

MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. Investigation of crimes in Ukraine proceeds in a really bad way, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law Konstantin Dolgov told TASS on Tuesday.

“We will be closely, very attentively watching the investigation of all major episodes of gross violations of human rights and war crimes (in Ukraine). It (the investigation) is proceeding in a really bad way,” he said, adding that the Ukrainian authorities had done next to nothing to promote the investigation of the Maidan (Maidan is the name for downtown Kiev's Independence Square, the starting point of mass protests) developments, including the so-called 'sniper case,' the Odessa massacre and the Mariupol developments. “There is no progress in any of these cases,” Dolgov noted.

Russia thinks that the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe “should not be mere observers but must do their best to ensure that an efficient investigation is carried out and those responsible are punished,” he said, adding that Russia wanted a more substantial involvement of sectoral international organizations.

Dolgov did not rule out that a new edition of the White Book (on violations of human rights in Ukraine) would be issued. “A new edition is possible in the near future. We continue collecting information. There have been two editions already. We shall see. We never ruled that out. It will depend on the situation,” he said.

At the same time, Dolgov noted that there already were a lot of materials. “Strictly speaking, these facts are already known. Not only the Russian mass media are telling about them. The two existing books will prove helpful in the investigation,” he added.

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