ERRC Letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Yuriy Mazur
03 September 1996
Honorable Minister of Internal Affairs Mazur,
The European Roma Rights Center is an international non-governmental organization which defends the rights of Roma.
A recent independent investigation conducted by the European Roma Rights Center revealed that a Romany woman was raped by two police officers in the street outside the Franka Ulica Romany Tabor in Mukachevo in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine in March of this year.
The police officers, who were evidently searching for a Romany man in connection with the theft of a bicycle, broke into the house of 19-year-old Mrs. Anna D. at around 10:30 in the evening. According to witnesses, three police officers entered, all of whom were drunk, and dragged Mrs. D.'s father-in-law from bed and began beating him. After they had pulled the man outside, they returned to the house where Mrs. D. lived with her husband and two children, aged 2 and 4.
The third policeman evidently left the scene when one of the other policemen, a major in rank and the leader of the group, told the others, "you can do whatever you like here; there are no witnesses". The remaining two officers then attempted to rape Mrs. D., but she managed to break free and suffered only a beating. Her husband, who had hid himself in the room, was witness to the event.
Evidently enraged at having lost their prey, the two police officers came upon a Romany couple, Mr. and Mrs. H., and their two children, walking in Franka Ulica in front of the tabor. Having chased off the man and the children, the two policemen proceeded to beat, rape and sexually abuse the woman, 28-year-old Eva H., while shouting that this was revenge for being rejected by Mrs. D.
Two non-Romanies living outside the tabor witnessed the rape, and one of them narrowly escaped being beaten himself when he attempted to intervene. Eventually, according to the witnesses, a second police car arrived and then an ambulance, and this took Mrs. H. to the hospital. The hospital evidently admitted Mrs. H., sewed up a tear from the left side of her mouth which had been torn open in the incident, and then released her; she was found in the morning, unconscious, in the street outside the tabor.
Her family then had her readmitted to the hospital, although they had difficulty finding one which would accept her as a patient. While in the hospital, Mrs. H. was visited by members of the police department who offered her money to forget the whole affair. She refused the bribe. A short while later, the father-in-law of Mrs. D. was summoned to the police department, where it was "suggested" to him that he not make any written complaint about the incident.
The Mukachevo police would not release the names of the officers involved to the ERRC. Mukachevo Deputy Chief of Police Viktor Chepak claimed to be aware of the incident and said that the officers concerned had been disciplined. Independent sources having access to inside information within the police department claim that no file exists on the case and that no one within the department has been officially disciplined in the period since March. Despite fear of police retaliation, all of the victims expressed a desire to bring the guilty parties to justice.
Current ERRC research gives ground to the belief that this is not the only case of its kind in recent months in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine. The ERRC therefore appeals to you as minister responsible for police in Ukraine, as well as to President Kuchma, Minister of Justice Holovatyi and to the Parliament of Ukraine, to act swifty to bring the police officers in question to justice, as well as to take definite action to prevent any similar episodes from taking place in the future.
Respectfully,
Claude Cahn
