Quote: The rebels say they never target civilians, and accuse Ukrainian forces of abuses and shelling the population. Yet Igor Druz, chief adviser to rebel military commander Igor “Strelkov” Girkin, admitted to the BBC that rebels used executions to keep “marauding” rebels in line. Human Rights Watch says they went further, reporting that insurgents “systematically kidnapped, abducted, beat, and sometimes tortured” those they suspected of supporting Kiev, in a “pattern” of abuse that stretched across rebel-controlled territory. After Slaviansk fell, journalists found an order signed by Strelkov himself for a firing squad execution of a man for petty theft. Locals here back this up, describing how people were beaten and sometimes tortured in the basement of the former KGB headquarters, a heavyset brick building near the center of town, or at the police station, which was also occupied by rebels. Protestants in Slaviansk had felt particularly under threat from the rebels. Despite about half of the town having fled the violence, several thousand Protestants, belonging to 15 or so non-Orthodox denominations, including the Church of the Transfiguration, still remained. And a number of them had been arrested by the separatists, accused of being “Satanists” or of helping the Ukrainian Army. “Their logic is: ‘We brought the Orthodox Church, ours is right and there are no others. Your church is linked to America, our enemy, so we will destroy you,’” says Peter Dudnik, a priest at the local Christian Center of the Good News Church, who also runs a charity for orphans.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 01:41:06 +0000
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