On November 1, 2018, the Ukrainian Ministry for the Currently Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons published information that a new decree had become force of law, a regulation called “about the forming of a commission for the consideration of questions concerning assistance to persons, who have been deprived of their personal liberty by illegal armed groups”.
The legal base to form such a commission was laid by the Cabinet of Ministers. A resolution issued in April 2018 stated former detainees of the separatist militias should be paid a compensation of 100.000 UAH (about 3150 Euro) by the occupying forces or by the government of the Russian Federation.
To get this compensation paid out of the Ukrainian budget, former detainees or their relatives can apply to the ministry in writing and by presenting a series of documents, such as copies of a passport, documents that confirm their detention, as well as documents that confirm the applicant has a tax number and a bank account. Scans of these documents can be sent to the ministry electronically, if the applicant will provide the paper originals later.
Of the many thousand Ukrainian citizens, who became prisoners for their political views in the illegal prisons of “DPR” and “LPR”, many enthusiastically started to gather their documents and to apply to the ministry. So did I. After I sent the package of documents electronically, I received a phone call from the ministry and was told I should hand in copies of the documents in paper form, open a bank account and send my bank details. After that, I received an electronic confirmation, that my documents had been received and that the commission was looking into them.
However, as is often the case, something went wrong along the way.
In the commission’s first hearing at the beginning of December 2018, the bulk of the cases were not brought up. The discussion only evolved around how the families of the 24 sailors kidnapped by the FSB in the Azov Sea could be helped. Other detainees had emphatically applied to the ministry for assistance, but the commission was in no hurry to decide anything. Their next hearing was set only on the 28 of December.
Former prisoners started to anticipate this commission’s hearings more than New Year’s Eve. After four and a half years of war, the government for the first time considered the plight that we have gone through. This was certainly an important step. A couple of thousand Hryvnias won’t heal the strained mental and physical health of former detainees. What is more, many have lost their homes and have no place to return to. My own home, for instance, was ruined in a hail of bombs.
New Year’s Eve past, and the Orthodox New Year (13 of January) past too, with no news from the commission. The bank account that I opened especially to receive government support did not grow even by one Hryvnia. I started to call the ministry and the head of the department for illegally detained people, Igor Hrib, all without a useful answer. At the same time it sank in on me that there wasn’t too much to expect anyway: Those who were refused compensation were never offered an explanation why. I had to wait for a written answer which I received only at the end of January.
In response to two of my own letters, I only received a long list of euphemisms and bureaucratic slang. The answer could have been a lot shorter and clearer.
The Commission for the Consideration of the Concerns in Relation to the Allocation of Assistance to Persons, who have been deprived of their Personal Liberty by the Illegal Armed Groups, by the Occupying Administration and/or State Organs of the Russian Federation on the Currently Occupied Territory of Ukraine or the Territory of the Russian Federation in Connection with the Civic or Political Activities of these Persons as well as the Assistance to Family Members of these Persons, on their hearing of December 28, 2018 came to the decision not to allocate public resources in the amount designated by law to you, in connection with the lack of documents or other evidence, that confirm the fact of deprivation of personal freedom in the current year.
I don’t know how to comment on such a decision. Apparently the commission finds that the conditions one can now find in these illegal prisons—conditions that are akin to those in normal prisons—are somehow more worthy of compensations than the people who have been held in the hazardous basement conditions that prevailed in 2014 and 2015. Coming out of these basements alive was a miracle all by itself. The government apparently does not consider this reason enough for a compensation.
This attitude towards former detainees considerably damages confidence in the government that first raised hopes for compensation payments just to destroy it later. The commission’s own rules contradict the resolution of the ministry. This means it is completely impossible in some cases to obtain such assistance. It make a mockery of the loud words of some highly positioned government officials.
Nevertheless, the attorneys of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union studied the legal basis of these decisions and they insist that the condition that a person needed to be detained in 2018 in order to be eligible for compensation finds no mentioning in the ministry’s resolution. The refusal of the ministry to make compensations available for people who had been detained before 2018 is a unilateral decision by the ministry. To insist on my right, I and other former detainees will have to appeal to court. But even a positive decision by a court would not guarantee anything. Would it mean that the government acknowledges the suffering of former detainees? Will a victory in court lead to a compensation payment or just to another dismissal? Rhetorical questions.
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