COE Spokesman/Communication Director Holtgen to EuroFora on ICRC Head Maurer visit: Ukraine+MISSING

*Strasbourg/Angelo Marcopolo/- The critical Humanitarian Situation in Eastern Ukraine (where Winter-time has already started to arrive with Snow), and "MISSING" People particularly in "Frozen Conflicts", were among the main issues discussed by the President of the International Committee of Red Cross, Peter Maurer, during his exceptional Visits, Today, to CoE's Secretary General, Thornbjorn Jagland, and to the European Court of Human Rights, (the same Day that the PanEuropean Organisations' Committee of Ministers deals, here in Strasbourg, with a Crucial U-Turn in the  long-standing cases of Massive Violations of Human Rights by Turkey against Cyprus' Refugees/Displaced Persons and "MISSING" People, after a landmark ECHR Grand Chamber new Jugdement which slamed blatant Lacunas and Failures to really Press Ankara to Execute ECHR's case-law which has repeatedly Condemned the Turkish Authorities for Serious Violations of the Right to Life, ill-Treatments, Usurpation of Private Properties and/or Interferences against Family Lives, etc of Thousands of People - Comp. : ...), as it results from what CoE's Communications Director and Spokesman, Daniel Holtgen, as well as other CoE's sources, revealed to "EuroFora" :

    Due from the outset to deal with ICRC - CoE cooperation, the Humanitarian Crisis in Eastern Ukraine, as well as some other areas not included inside CoE's jurisdiction, (such as Syria, Iraq, etc), but also on certain General Questions about "MISSING" persons and relevant Humanitarian issues in "Frozen Conflcts", according to its Agenda, finally, Today Afternoon's meeting between the Heads of the two Organisations took Longer than expected, but appeared more Focused on main issues of common and Topical interest for Strasbourg's and Geneva's bodies' respective activities :

    After "visiting also the ECHR (See Infra) and the rest of the CoE", (Comp. f.ex. Supra : ICRC chairs, indeed, the controversial "Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus", composed by a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot Members, whose notoriously Insufficient and often obstructed but useful work was reviewd these Days by CoE's Committee of Ministers), Meyer heard Jagland "commend ICRC's activities accross the World and in Europe, and the rest of the encounter reportedly Focused on the Humanitarian Crisis in Ukraine, (even if Mayer mentioned ICRC''s activities also at Nagorno-Karabach", etc).

    In this regard, "Jagland welcomed ICRC activities in Eastern Ukraine, as well as in Crimea, and the meeting concluded with an Agreement to Intensify the Cooperation between the two Organisaations, including the Dialogue between COE's Secretary General and ICRC's President in the foreseable future".

     Significantly, the move comes at the same time that also OSCE, CoE, and EU are reportedly Coordinating their Activities, particularly on Ukraine, especially since the recent beginning of the Belgian CoE Presidency in Strasbourg : November 2014 - May 2015, and in view of the forthcoming OSCE Annual Summit at Basel, later this week, etc, clearly pointing at an Intensification of the European, PanEuropean and/or International action apparently on Ukraine.  

    - In concreto, ICRC's President announced that the Geneva-based International NGO has managed to have "Access" at the Eastern Ukraine areas", including even those of the Autonomist Regions of Donetsk/Luhansk, where CoE's Secretary General had recently joined his voice to those who called for a "Humanitarian Aid" to be delivered.

    - And "the ICRC is actually able to deliver" it now, "Not in Easy Circonstances, but in circonstances which allow it, nevertheless, to operate",  as CoE's Spokesm, Daniel Holtgen, (who was present at that meeting, as well as during Jagland's recent visit to Moscow), carefully told "EuroFora".

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    Meanwhile, a Draft Report of CoE's Parliamentary Assembly on the Humanitarian situation in Ukraine, denounces the fact that, in the Autonomist Regions of Lugansk/Luhansk, "Weeks of fighting" during the Attacks of Kiev's Military, "have left the area Damaged, with Demolished Houses and Infrastructure".

- In particular, there is still "No Electricity and Water; the latter being supplied by Trucks Irregularly. The Population (of some 4 Millions People before the Clashes) is very much Dependent on Humanitarian Aid". Moreover,"Health remains a primary Concern, as there is a Lack of essential Medicines, and many Hospitals and clinics are Closed because of the Damage" provoked during Kiev's Military attacks..

+ Moreover, ". On 5 November 2014, Ukraine’s Prime Minister (Yantsenuk) announced that the government would Freeze payments, mostly for public sector Wages and .... to parts of eastern Ukraine under separatists’ control. This move ... is likely to Worsen the already Dire conditions in which the Population is living",PACE's Draft Resoluition notes, while Luhansk Region's leadership has Denounced an Attempt from Kiev to "commit a Genocide" agains the Russian-speaking Autonomist regiions' Population.

- But, COE Assembly's Rapporteur, Jim Sheridan from the UK, after a 3-Day fact-finding visit to Kyiv and Kharkiv, stressed that the Ukranian "Government should Continue to fulfil its essential Responsibilities towards those still living in the rebel-held territories, who remain Ukrainian Citizens entitled to full enjoyment of their Rights. This will require increased assistance from the international community, all the more important as the first Snows of winter began to fall during my visit”, Sheridan added.

=> A Draft Resolution of CoE Assembly's Social affairs Committee for Social affairs, Migration and Refugees/IDPs, "Calls on the International Community to: ... provide Immediate and long-term Support for essential ReConstruction efforts, projects to Restore Water and Other essential Services", as well as it "invites the CoE's  Development Bank ...to Assist.... the ReConstruction process in the Devastated Areas".  
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    During his visit at the ECHR, Maurer, who met particularly with the PanEuropean Court's President Spielmann, apparently discussed also several "Humanitarian Issues", in an additional fact which indicates that EuroJudges trend to take them more and more seriously into account recently.

    ECHR has already decided earlier to take Urgent "Interim Measures" (Rule 39 of Court's Rules) calling upon both Russia and Ukraine to refrain from taking any action, in particular Military, which might bring about Violations of the  Rights of the Civilian population, notably under Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention, about  Human Life and Torture or Inhuman/Degrading Treatments, respectively. At 104 individual applications, interim measures have been applied inviting the respective Government/s – of Russia and/or Ukraine – to ensure respect for the Rights of people deprived of Liberty (Article 5 of the Convention), or people whose whereabouts are Unknown, ("MISSING" Persons). But, meanwhile, it's only in 14 cases that Victims were Released from Detention, so that the respective interim measure was subsequently Lifted.

    Until recently, there are More than 160 Individual Applications pending before the Court of Strasbourg, lodged against the Ukranian or Russian Government, or Both, in addition to 2 InterState Applications lodged by Kiev Authorities against Moscow, as ECHR anounced.
    
    Most Eastern Ukraine cases were lodged against Both Ukraine AND Russia,and involve complaints about various forms of ill-Treatment and unlawful Deprivation of Liberty. They also include cases of alleged violations of Article 2 (right to Life), involving alleged Wounding, and Disappearances.     

    In addition, a comparatively smaller Group of cases concerns the Destruction of property, (including Family Homes, etc), and the impact of the Hostilities on the applicants Rights under Article 8 (right to respect for private and Family life).

    ECHR anounced at the End of Noivember 2014, that it communicated to the Russian Government 2 Inter-State applications lodged against it by the Ukranian Government of Kiev, asking for its comments, according to the established procedure, which was apparently Accelerated in these cases.

    One of them, the InterState application lodged  by Kiev on June 2014, concerned only an alleged "abduction" of Orphan Children, and Children withOut Parental care, who were included among a notoriously Massive Flow of Refugees seeking Help in Russia after Kiev's Deadly and/or Destructive Military Attacks against the Autonomist Regions of Lugansk/Luhansk, but were, finally, Returned back in Ukraine in only 3 of 5 Days, making the ECHR to Lift any "Interim Measures" it had taken previously.

    The other InterState complaint lodged by Ukranian as early as since March 2014, i.e. long Before Kiev's systematic Military Attacks against Lugansk/luhansk Autonomists, (which notoriously started at Easter's Night, with the Killing of 3 Young Militants at Sloyansk, just after a Geneva Agreement between Russian and USA, as well as Ukrain's Foreign MInistiers urging, on the Contrary ; "Dialogue"), arguing that Moscow would "exercice Control over" Eastern Ukrain's Autonomists, which would, reportedly, be equivalent to Ankara's Military Invasion and Occupation, by the Turkish Army, of Cyprus' Nortern Territories for more than 40 Years, chassing away the Majority of the Lawful Inhabitants : Greek Cypriots until Today ; 1974-2014), so that it would "exercise Jurisdiction over" an area in which "numerous Violations" would have been committed :  
    
    + Adding later-on, (until September 2014), subsequent data, this Kiev's complaint reportedly argues that not only "Ukranian Military" and "Law Enforcement Officers", but even "Civilians" would have been "Systematically" Killed during the 5 to 8 Months of Kiev's notorious Military Attacks against Lugansk/Luhansk Autonomists, and, reportedly,  they "also refer to  alleged ill-treatment or "Harassment" particularly against Tatar-Turks in Crimea, (where, however, both the OSCE and UNO's regular, Monthly Reports, haven't cited but only a few, comparatively lenient complaints, without any relation of magnitude to the obviously much more Grave, Massive, Deadly and Destructive Military Attacks which killed more than a Thousand of Civilian People among the Autonomist Populations of Lugansk/Luhansk Regions)...

    However, despite several Russian Journalists Killed, and more allegedly Arrested, Kidnaped and/or Ill-Treated, 22 Russian Media Muzzled in Ukraine, and at least 2 Russian People reportedly killed even inside their own Country, (etc), Moscow didn't yet lodge any Inter-State complain against Ukraine yet, (while, ECHR's Secretariat has not yet revealed if the Autonomist Regions of Lugansk/Luhansk have, eventually, lodged, or not, any kind of Collective Complaint against Kiev's Authorities, for More than a Thousand of Civilians People Killed there during Kiev's Military Attacks, including by Airplanes' Bombings and/or massive Shelling even of Family Homes, Civil Administrations, Schools, Hospitals, etc,, nor for Systematic Destructions of Vital Infrastructures Cutting Electricity, TeleCommunications and even Water Networks, which persist to provoke everyday Ill-Treatements against the Local Populations, Threatening it with a "Humanitarian Catastrophe", as several OSCE, UNO and/or CoE Reports and Officials have repeatedly Denounced recently.                                                                                     ---------------------------------------------                            
    + Moreover, other CoE's sources, have just Confirmed that, in the case of the Malaysian Airlines' Deadly Crash at Eastern Ukraine, ECHR has received and currently examines a Complaint by the Mother of one of the Victims, which reportedly accuses Kiev's Authorities to have irresponsibly led that Civilian Airplane to cross an area notoriously submitted to Armed Clashes between Kiev's Military and local Autonomists.

    After a long-awaited Preliminary Report, the Dutch Investigators leading a controversial International Enquiry have just recently arrived to the Autonomist Regions of Lugansk/Luhansk in order to Transfert a lot of remaining Debris from the crashed Airplane, before Winter time Destroys Evidence, after many Delaying Hesitations, despite reported persistent invitations by the Autonomists to come and take them earlier, (allegedly due to "Security" and/or other pretexts).