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OHCHR / UKRAINE MARIUPOL INTERVIEW
STORY: OHCHR / UKRAINE MARIUPOL INTERVIEW
TRT: 02:42
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: English/NATS
DATELINE: May 2022 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND. Uzhhorod, Ukraine
1. Various shots, virtual interview
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Matilda Bogner, Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine:
“We obtain it in a variety of ways. We go and we interview people, usually IDPs, and other people who have left the city of Mariupol recently. And so they have information about what the conditions there were like. We interview witnesses, we interview others who have first-hand knowledge as well as we use publicly available information and satellite imagery. And when you speak with people who've come from Mariupol, they describe the deaths that their neighbors families suffered. They describe the conditions under which they were living with no electricity, with no gas, with no other services, no medical care, because all of these services deteriorated over the period of of hostilities. And we hear the suffering that these people went through.”
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Matilda Bogner, Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine:
“Certainly people who were caught in the hostilities were offered a way to leave if they were in some parts of the city. The only way to leave that was safe was to leave through into the areas that the armed groups, the Russian affiliated armed groups were controlling and then sometimes further into Russia. People didn't really have a choice if they wanted to be safe. So many people did move in that direction. The information collected by the OHCHR is very important for ensuring that there is a record of human rights violations put into into public reporting and that violations of international humanitarian law are clearly outlined. And these are important both: just for being on the official record, which I see as a form of of accountability, is already making these things public. But it can also be helpful for other criminal law investigations. It can help them to identify where to look for, to find relevant cases, how to pursue evidence. It is useful also in terms of advocacy that is done by the United Nations with the with the parties to the conflict.”
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Matilda Bogner, Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine:
“We know that thousands of people have died in in Mariupol. We don't have a fully verified numbers. We have verified over 1300 deaths directly from hostilities. But we know that the numbers are thousands higher than that. But because we have had not had access to Mariupol and because the city has been cut off, communications have been very difficult and it continues to be difficult to today, even though the hostilities have stopped. The area is now under Russian occupation and communications remain difficult.”
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has been monitoring human rights in the country since 2014, and since 24 February – when the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine – has been documenting serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross violations of human rights law in the country. Matilda Bogner is the Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
How do you obtain information about Mariupol?:
“We obtain it in a variety of ways. We go and we interview people, usually IDPs, and other people who have left the city of Mariupol recently. And so they have information about what the conditions there were like. We interview witnesses, we interview others who have first-hand knowledge as well as we use publicly available information and satellite imagery,” Bogner said.
“And when you speak with people who've come from Mariupol, they describe the deaths that their neighbors families suffered. They describe the conditions under which they were living with no electricity, with no gas, with no other services, no medical care, because all of these services deteriorated over the period of of hostilities. And we hear the suffering that these people went through,” Bogner added.
Are Ukrainians being forcebly sent to Russia from Mariupol?
“Certainly people who were caught in the hostilities were offered a way to leave if they were in some parts of the city. The only way to leave that was safe was to leave through into the areas that the armed groups, the Russian affiliated armed groups were controlling and then sometimes further into Russia. People didn't really have a choice if they wanted to be safe. So many people did move in that direction,” said Bogner.
The information collected by the OHCHR is very important for ensuring that there is a record of human rights violations put into into public reporting and that violations of international humanitarian law are clearly outlined. And these are important both: just for being on the official record, which I see as a form of of accountability, is already making these things public. But it can also be helpful for other criminal law investigations. It can help them to identify where to look for, to find relevant cases, how to pursue evidence. It is useful also in terms of advocacy that is done by the United Nations with the with the parties to the conflict.
What are the figures of civilian casualties in Mariupol?
“We know that thousands of people have died in in Mariupol. We don't have a fully verified numbers. We have verified over 1300 deaths directly from hostilities. But we know that the numbers are thousands higher than that. But because we have had not had access to Mariupol and because the city has been cut off, communications have been very difficult and it continues to be difficult to today, even though the hostilities have stopped. The area is now under Russian occupation and communications remain difficult,” Bogner said.
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