The recruitment of prisoners serving sentences in Russian correctional services for the personal army and safety contractor, often known as the Wagner Group, is alarming, UN consultants stated Friday.
“We are deeply disturbed by reports of visits by members of the so-called Wagner Group to correctional facilities in various regions of Russia, offering pardons for criminal sentences to prisoners who join the group and take part in the war in Ukraine, as well as a monthly payment to their relatives,” the consultants stated.
They stated the Wagner Group has allegedly recruited Russian and international nationals serving jail sentences.
The UN consultants acquired stories of the usage of strain techniques by Wagner recruiters, suggesting that recruitment was generally carried out by threats or intimidation.
In some circumstances, whereas recruiters have been visiting services, detainees have been reportedly denied communication with their households and legal professionals, which may quantity to or expose them to enforced disappearance.
“Reports that recruited prisoners were allegedly taken to a detention facility in the Rostov region for training before being sent to Ukraine, and that they were transferred to Ukraine without identification documents and required to sign a contract with the Wagner Group, are deeply disturbing,” the consultants stated.
“We are particularly concerned that the Wagner Group has extended its recruitment to correctional facilities in the Donetsk region of Ukraine,” the consultants stated.
THREATS AND INTIMIDATION
They warned that the reported apply of recruiting prisoners below the specter of punishment or intimidation, and forcing them to take part in hostilities may additionally result in violations of the fitting to life.
“The prisoners are reported to have been deployed in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine and to have been involved in a range of activities-including providing military services, rebuilding infrastructure, and taking direct part in hostilities on the side of the Russian forces,” the consultants stated.
They additionally stated Wagner Group recruits allegedly participated in human rights and humanitarian legislation violations through the ongoing armed battle in Ukraine.
Such allegations embody enforced disappearances of Ukrainian troopers and officers captured throughout hostilities with Ukrainian forces.
“We are troubled by allegations that recruited prisoners are regularly threatened and ill-treated by their superiors,” the consultants stated.
“We have information that several recruits have been executed for attempting to escape and, in other cases, seriously injured in public as a warning to other recruits. Such tactics constitute human rights violations and may amount to war crimes,” they stated.
The consultants embody Chair-Rapporteur Ravindran Daniel, Jelena Aparac, Carlos Salazar Couto, Chris Kwaja, and Sorcha MacLeod from the UN Working Group on the usage of mercenaries as a way of violating human rights, in addition to Morris Tidball-Binz — the particular rapporteur on extra-judicial executions — and Alice Jill Edwards — the particular rapporteur on torture and different consultants.
They stated nations should regulate and monitor the actions of personal army and safety contractors, together with the recruitment of personnel, the standing of those contractors, their actions, and modes of incorporation, the consultants recalled.
“The Government of the Russian Federation has an obligation to exercise the utmost vigilance to protect detainees from violence, exploitation, and intimidation,” they stated.
The consultants additionally stated they’d expressed their issues about these allegations to the Russian authorities and the Wagner Group.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
