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STORY: UN / UKRAINE
TRT: 3.00
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 16 APRIL 2014, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
16 APRIL 2014, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ivan Šimonović, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights:
“The situation in the east, if not adequately addressed as a matter of priority, risks seriously destabilizing the country as a whole. Those who exercise influence over the situation should take immediate action to halt the violence. The arming of the protesters and their transformation into quasi-paramilitary forces must be stopped.”
5. Med shot, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ivan Šimonović, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights:
“In order to deescalate tensions across the country, all parties should be encouraged to start an inclusive, sustained and meaningful national dialogue based on the respect of legal obligations of Ukraine under international human rights treaties already ratified. Such a process should take into consideration the concerns of all those who live in Ukraine, including minorities, and address issues such as language rights and decentralisation of the country.”
7. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations:
“Some delegations express their understanding for the plans of the Ukrainian authorities to use force against their fellow countrymen. Well, the results are clear, Those who as a result of the forcible coup, who set up power in Kiev, have chosen to ignore the demands of the inhabitants of the southeast and the unconstitutional use of arm force to pacify their own people, blasphemously referring to it as bandits and terrorists. Such callous steps are fraught with threat of a real civil war.”
9. Med shot, Ukrainian Ambassador
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lyall Grant, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, United Nations:
“We have heard from the Permanent Representative of Russia today, a new fantasy narrative about developments in eastern Ukraine. I have no doubts that future independent reports from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will prove this new narrative to be as false as the Russian narrative on Crimea has comprehensively shown to be. We remind Russia that it cannot use the situation in the Ukraine, for which it bears significant responsibility, as a pretext for further illegal military activity.”
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“We urge the UN to continue to provide independent reporting and not to be deterred by slander and intimidation being practiced by those who do not like facts that have proven inconvenient and truths that credibly refute Russia’s false and self-justifying claims.”
12. Med shot, Council President
13. Zoom out, Council
Briefing the Security Council, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonović said today that the situation in eastern Ukraine, “if not adequately addressed as a matter of priority, risks seriously destabilizing the country as a whole.”
Reporting on his two recent missions to Ukraine, as well as on the first few weeks of activities of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Šimonović said that “those who exercise influence over the situation should take immediate action to halt the violence” and stressed that “the arming of the protesters and their transformation into quasi-paramilitary forces must be stopped.”
Šimonović said that “all parties should be encouraged to start an inclusive, sustained and meaningful national dialogue based on the respect of legal obligations of Ukraine under international human rights treaties already ratified” taking into consideration “the concerns of all those who live in Ukraine, including minorities, and address issues such as language rights and decentralisation of the country.”
Also addressing the Council, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin accused some delegations of expressing “their understanding for the plans of the Ukrainian authorities to use force against their fellow countrymen.”
Churkin, referring to the current Ukrainian Government, said that “those who as a result of the forcible coup, who set up power in Kiev, have chosen to ignore the demands of the inhabitants of the southeast and the unconstitutional use of arm force to pacify their own people, blasphemously referring to it as bandits and terrorists.”
He warned that “such callous steps are fraught with threat of a real civil war.”
For his part, British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant described Russia’s version of events in eastern Ukraine as “a new fantasy narrative”.
He reminded Russia “that it cannot use the situation in the Ukraine, for which it bears significant responsibility, as a pretext for further illegal military activity.”
US Ambassador Samantha Power urged the UN “to continue to provide independent reporting and not to be deterred by slander and intimidation being practiced by those who do not like facts that have proven inconvenient and truths that credibly refute Russia’s false and self-justifying claims.”
Šimonović’s report looks at the root causes of the protests that have taken place in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and elsewhere since November 2013, including corruption, widespread economic inequality, lack of accountability for human rights violations and weak rule-of-law institutions. It also anticipates and draws parallels between the events unfolding in eastern Ukraine and what happened in Crimea – where a referendum was held in mid-March and voters decided that the regions should join Russia – and makes recommendations.
