Author Topic: Ukraine activist relives humiliation horrors  (Read 238 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline EC

  • Shanghaied Editor
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 23,804
  • Gender: Male
  • Cats rule. Dogs drool.
Ukraine activist relives humiliation horrors
« on: August 31, 2014, 07:10:22 am »
Sometimes I dislike people rather a lot.

A pro-Ukrainian activist accused of spying for the Ukrainian army in Donetsk has endured hours of public humiliation orchestrated by the armed rebels in the centre of the eastern city.

Freed with the help of foreign journalists, Iryna Dovgan was on her way out of the rebel held area when the BBC's Dina Newman spoke to her.

Ms Dovgan is a gently spoken 52-year-old resident of Yasynuvata - a town just outside Donetsk. Before the war she ran a beauty salon.

When the conflict started, she decided to help the Ukrainian army. So she collected donations from local residents - she said there were plenty - and delivered food and medication to an army unit stationed in the region.
Continue reading the main story   
“Start Quote

    One woman squashed two tomatoes against my face, and tomato juice was running into my eyes so I couldn't see much”

One day, she decided to take photos of the supplies on her tablet in order to account to her donors for the money she spent on their behalf. Those photos turned out to be a very bad idea.

"This was my mistake. Someone must have found out what I was doing, and informed the separatists," she said.

"Fighters from the rebel Vostok battalion came to my town, Yasynuvata, and detained me in the garden, while I was watering my plants. Most of our neighbours had fled by then, so no-one noticed when I went missing."

Iryna was blindfolded and taken to the battalion's base.

During the first interrogation, she revealed the passwords for her online accounts but refused to name those who helped her.

The fighters got frustrated with her and sent her to another group of interrogators, whom she believes came from North Ossetia in the North Caucasus.

"Those guys had an altogether different approach. They beat me, they threatened and tortured me, they shot pistols next to my ears, so I lost most of my hearing, they made me shout Sieg Heil.

"They threatened to rape me in the most sadistic ways they would describe to me in detail. I was crawling on the floor, begging them to shoot me."

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29001361
The universe doesn't hate you. Unless your name is Tsutomu Yamaguchi

Avatar courtesy of Oceander

I've got a website now: Smoke and Ink