Flagrant impunity for police abuse in Ukraine
11 July 2000
The Uzhorod-based Romani organisation Romani Yag has recently reported cases of police abuse of Roma in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine.
On May 25, 2000, at approximately 2 PM, two police officers in Chop, 20 kilometres west of Uzhorod, entered the home of Mr Gejza Roshtash, a 41-year-old Romani man, and without explanation or showing a warrant, brought him to the local police station. The act of detention was accompanied by abusive language humiliating the dignity of the Romani people. At the police station police officers physically abused Mr Roshtash in an effort to force him to admit to having stolen a bicycle from a person for whom he had previously worked. Mr Roshtash denied having stolen any bicycle, after which a police officer made him bend over a table and beat him intensively with a rubber truncheon and a wooden stick on his arms, legs, his chest and his buttocks. The police officer was allegedly drunk. According to Mr Roshtash, the chief of the Chop police station Mr Vasil Grigorchuk witnessed the beating, which allegedly lasted for approximately three hours. According to the victim, he lost consciousness twice during the beating. At approximately 7:00 PM, after the failure to receive a confession from Mr Roshtash, the police officers made Mr Roshtash sign a paper, took his identity card and let him go.
At home, Mr Roshtash's wife called the ambulance as Mr Roshtash's health was deteriorating. When the doctors learned that the injuries were sustained in the police station, they limited the first aid to measuring the blood pressure of the victim, despite large visible contusions on his skin. After unsuccessful attempts to receive first aid in Chop, Mr Roshtash's relatives had to take him to the neighbouring Uzhorod county hospital, where he was accepted to the surgical department. According to the hospital diagnosis, Mr Roshtash sustained injuries in the chest, in the left arm, and received a trauma of the abdomen. The doctor on duty reportedly informed the police officer on duty of the Uzhorod area police station that a patient with injuries showing signs of violence and brutality was taken to hospital, but there was no reaction on the part of the police.
Romani Yag, having the experience that the local prosecutor's office and the local police either ignore cases of police brutality or simply deny their existence, filed a criminal complaint directly with the General Prosecutor of Ukraine and sent a letter of concern to human rights commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament. According to Romani Yag, such instances of police brutality are not isolated cases in Chop. According to Romani Yag, police officers in Chop from time to time enter Romani homes, make unsanctioned searches, use abusive language, and beat Roma including women and elderly people.
In another case, on November 3, 1999, at approximately 2:30 PM, senior police lieutenant F.V. and two other police officers of the villages of Barkasovo and Rivne in the Mukachevo area, visited the Romani community of Barkasovo. According to the Roma, all three police officers were drunk, and without any reason started insulting the Roma, calling them names, using abusive language and threatening them with physical abuse. When the leader of the Romani community, Mr Fedor Varga, made a remark about the police officers' behaviour, Lieutenant F.V. allegedly started beating him on his head with his hands and called him "dirty Gypsy", "stinking pig" and other abusive names. Mr Varga claims that he received about thirty blows to his face. Mr Varga's daughter attempted to defend her father but police officers also beat her in the head. None of the other Romani villagers dared intervene. Investigation by Romani Yag lawyers found that the attack was not the first by local police officers in Barkasovo. According to the Roma, police officers sometimes come to the Romani community, take individuals out of the settlement by car, beat them with sticks and abuse them verbally. Roma are also allegedly taken to work in the police officers' gardens without payment. Following the incident, on November 11, 1999, Romani Yag sent a letter of concern to the head of the County Department of Internal Affairs, Mr Bezborodyj, and the county prosecutor, Mr Kudrjavtsev. In his December 19, 1999 response, Mukachevo prosecutor Mr Grab informed Romani Yag and the complainant, Mr Varga, that the appeal to initiate a criminal case in the alleged case of human rights abuse had been rejected.
In another case, on September 29, 1999, Mr Eduard Shugar, an 18-year-old Romani man, was in his home in the Transcarpathian city of Uzhorod, when at 7:00 PM, a man in civilian clothes entered the house without permission and asked Mr Shugar to accompany him to the police station in order to clarify something. Mr Shugar was taken to the Uzhorod city police station in a car. When Mr Shugar demanded that the man identify himself, the man said that he was Police Officer Holubka. At the police station Mr Shugar was not charged with any crime but Officer Holubka allegedly suggested that he admit to having stolen aluminium from a plant in Uzhorod. Mr Shugar refused, after which the police officer allegedly started beating him, first kicking him on his head and neck, and later hitting him with a wooden stick on his hands and legs. There were reportedly two policemen present in the room during the interrogation. While beating the Romani detainee, Officer Holubka reportedly also told him that he should become his informant and threatened that Mr Shugar would be constantly harassed if he refused to work for and provide Officer Holubka with information about crimes that take place in and around Radvanka, a Romani neighbourhood in Uzhorod. Mr Shugar was released at approximately 10:00 PM on the same day. Mr Shugar was reportedly not charged with committing any crime. Following the incident, Mr Shugar complained of constant headaches and pain in the neck vertebrae. The Romani man also feared further harassment by the police officer.
Mr Shugar sent a complaint to the prosecutor of the town of Uzhorod, Mr Bondarenko, asking to bring the police officer in this case to justice, and to protect him and his family against similar atrocities. The complaint was forwarded for investigation to Colonel V. Rebrej, Chief of the Transcarpathian County Police and to Romani Yag, which represented the victim in the complaint. The official response, on November 6, 1999, stated that the complaint had been considered, the facts constituting the complaint thoroughly examined, and that none had been found substantiated. According to the results of the investigation, Officer Holubka denied detaining Mr Shugar, let alone beating him and threatening further harassment. Also, according to the investigation, Mr Shugar's name was not found in the police station registry for September 29, 1999. The conclusion of the formal investigation was that the prosecutor found no basis for bringing charges against Officer Holubka. Police brutality against Roma in Ukraine is presently of near epidemic proportions (see ERRC Country Report The Misery of Law: The Rights of Roma in the Transcarpathian Region of Ukraine).
(Romani Yag)
