The OSCE is "seriously concerned" by Moscow's treatment of Ukrainian civilians in "filtration camps" intended to identify those suspected of links with the kyiv authorities, according to a report published Thursday.
How do these Russian "filtration camps" work?
"According to witnesses", this procedure "involves brutal interrogations and humiliating body searches", write the three authors of this 115-page document consulted by AFP, referring to an "alarming" development.
Ukrainians evacuated from besieged cities, such as the strategic port of Mariupol, or those leaving territories occupied by Russian troops are forced to transit through these centers.
“Their personal data are recorded there, their fingerprints taken and their identity documents copied”, details the report of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Men identified as agents of the FSB, the Russian secret service, “asked me what I thought of Ukraine, of Putin, of the conflict.
Everything was degrading,” a woman told the Guardian.
The aim is apparently to determine whether the people fought on the Ukrainian side or have connections to the Azov regiment or the Ukrainian authorities.
“If this is the case, these people are separated from the others and often simply disappear,” underline the experts, two of whom traveled to Ukraine in June to complete their work written on the basis of multiple sources.
"Some are transferred" to the self-declared separatist territories of Lugansk and Donetsk, "where they are detained or even killed", he adds, "a practice suggesting that Russia uses these two entities to circumvent its international obligations".
Those who pass the test “are often sent to Russia, “with or without their consent.”
What are they for ?
Russian soldiers are looking for any sign of opposition to the war in Ukraine.
During the evacuation of Mariupol, they ask Anna Zaytseva, a French teacher in Mariupol, to undress, revealing a tattoo in French:
"Life is beautiful"
.
“They didn't think it was French, but German.
They saw it as proof that I had, in one way or another, links with the Nazis
, ”she laments to France 24.
Once there, they are promised employment and free housing.
They are certainly free of their movements but “they often do not have enough information, money, or no telephone” to be able to leave the country, notes the report.
kyiv has been denouncing for several weeks “deportations” which would have affected more than a million Ukrainians, Moscow assuring for its part that its only goal is to allow civilians to “evacuate” from “dangerous zones”.
The OSCE strongly condemns
There are "about 20 structures of this type", estimates Yevhenii Tsybalium, Ambassador of Ukraine to the OSCE, quoted in the document.
This is the second OSCE report since the beginning of the conflict within the framework of the so-called “Moscow” mechanism, in which Russia has refused to cooperate.
Covering the period from April to June, it confirms the discovery of "manifest violations of rights" that may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“It's a horror story in the real world (…).
It is an affront to humanity, perversity incarnate,” commented British Ambassador Neil Bush before the OSCE Permanent Council, promising to “document” the facts.
“We will work tirelessly to ensure that the culprits are held accountable for their actions,” he insisted.
The organization, established in 1975, at the heart of the Cold War, to promote East-West dialogue, had carried out a similar initiative in 2018 to examine crimes in Chechnya against LGBT + people or in 2020, following the fraudulent elections and repression in Belarus.