GENEVA, June 29 - Unless urgent action is taken in Ukraine to separate sides and remove heavy weaponry, widespread hostilities in the country's east could re-escalate, a senior United Nations human rights official warned on Wednesday.

Addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Ivan Šimonovic, the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, appealed to the leaders of the warring sides to respect a ceasefire agreement and said he was people he had met on both sides of the front lines.

“I have heard them loud and clear: they want peace, human rights and the rule of law,” he said.

The conflict has claimed the lives of nearly 9,500 people since fighting erupted two years ago – more than one in four civilians – and left nearly 22,000 people injured.

While the rate of casualties has slowed substantially since a ceasefire in September 2015 and the signing of the Minsk Peace Accords – an agreement signed under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to halt fighting in the Donbas region of Ukraine – some 10 people are killed each month.

These dire figures are part of the latest report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) covering the period between 16 February and 15 May 2016.
It notes that since 15 May, half of all civilian casualties were caused by shelling from mortars and howitzers – weapons which use in the conflict zone are prohibited by the Minsk Agreements.

Šimonovic said that clashes and exchange of fire happened “on a daily basis” near Donetsk and Horlivka – cities controlled by the armed groups – and in the towns of Avdiivka and Mariinka, which are under Government protection.

Those living on either side of the contact zone also face severe restrictions on their freedom of movement, the UN official said, in reference to the 20,000-30,000 people who cross the front line every day to get their pensions or see a doctor.

He also voiced concerns about hundreds of people still missing in Government and rebel-held areas in the east, and reported human rights violations in the Crimea. Minorities there, such as the Tatars, have seen their situation deteriorate considerably in the two years since the Russian Federation extended its control over the peninsula.

“Anti-extremism and anti-terrorism laws have been used to criminalize non-violent behavior and stifle dissenting opinion, while the judicial and law enforcement systems have been used to clamp down on opposition voices,” he said. “Worst affected are Crimean Tatars, whose main representatives body, Mejlis, has been banned, and whose representatives I met during my visit.”

In addition, accounts of torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary and incommunicado detention by the armed groups have continued to surface in the conflict zone, where 2.7 million people live.

Those responsible “will be held to account sooner or later,” Šimonovic said, before adding that war crimes, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of human rights cannot be the subject of any amnesty. (un/ez)