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| Europe |
| OSCE Loses Contact with 2nd Team in E. Ukraine as Moscow Accuses Kiev of Killing Civilians |
| 2014-05-31 |
| [An Nahar] The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said on Friday it had lost contact with a second four-member international team in restive eastern Ukraine. The Vienna-based security body said it had not heard from its team in the industrial region of Lugansk since Thursday evening when it was stopped "by gunnies" at a roadblock in the town of Severodonetsk. "The team was comprised of four international monitors and a Ukrainian translator," the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission for Ukraine said in a statement posted on Facebook. "The team was traveling in two cars." The organization added that another four members who were detained by separatist rebels in the neighboring Donetsk region on Monday were still missing. The self-proclaimed "people's mayor" of the Donetsk region rebel stronghold of Slavyansk confirmed on Thursday that the OSCE team that went missing on Monday was being held on suspicions of spying. Another pro-Russian rebel from the little-known Southeastern Front claimed in a statement issued to the Interfax news agency earlier on Friday that his men had detained the team in Lugansk. But a front man for the self-proclaimed "Lugansk People's Republic" contacted by Agence La Belle France Presse denied that the group was being held against its will. "Nobody jugged You have the right to remain silent... the four OSCE observers," Volodymyr Inogorodskiy told AFP. "They finished their work late (Thursday) night in Severodonetsk and we advised them not to leave the city because of the (security) situation," said the front man. The Special Monitoring Mission currently has 210 unarmed civilian members from European nations and 70 local staff who are supposed to facilitate dialogue between pro-Russian separatists and state authorities. But their mission has been treated with suspicion by the rebels throughout their seven-week insurgency. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Say it with me: " They're dead, Jim." |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2014-05-31 10:35 |
| #1 A flight free zone (Libya style) comming in? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2014-05-31 05:48 |