Observers held prisoner speak under guard
European team forced to give assurance
SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — ProRussian militants in camouflage fatigues and black balaclavas paraded captive European military observers before the media on Sunday, hours after three captured Ukrainian security guards were shown bloodied, blindfolded and stripped of their trousers and shoes, their arms bound with packing tape.
The provocative displays came as the increasingly ruthless pro-Russian insurgency in the east turns to kidnapping as an ominous new tactic.
Dozens of people are being held hostage, in- cluding journalists and pro-Ukraine activists, in makeshift jails in Slovyansk, the heart of the separatists’ territory, as the pro-Russian insurgents strengthen their control in defiance of the interim government in Kiev and its Western supporters.
Speaking on behalf of the observers, Col. Axel Schneider of Germany insisted they were not NATO spies, as claimed by the insurgents, but a military observation mission operating under the auspices of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe. “We are not fighters, we are diplomats in uniform,” he said.
The observers appeared nervous as they were escorted by the masked armed men into city hall for the news conference.
Referring to himself and his team as “guests” under the “protection” of the city’s self-proclaimed mayor, Schneider said they were being treated as well as possible under the circumstances. “The mayor of this city granted us his protection and he regarded us as his guests,” Schneider said. “We have not been touched.”
The spectacle of accredited diplomats being presented to the media provoked disgust in European capitals. German Foreign Minister FrankWalter Steinmeier condemned it as “revolting.” Four members of the team are German. The group also includes officers from Poland, Denmark and the Czech Republic.
One of the observers, a Swedish officer, was released “on humanitarian grounds” because he has diabetes, an insurgency spokeswoman said. Masked pro- Russian activists guard the entrance during their mass storming of a regional television centre in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Sunday. Insurgents in Slovyansk have taken dozens of people hostage, including journalists and pro- Ukraine activists.