Brussels – Militants of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic have shown monitors of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe working in Ukraine three mass graves outside Donetsk, the OSCE said in a report, which was published on its Web site on Sept. 24.
‘The ‘military police’ of ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ (DPR) told the SMM that three unmarked graves allegedly containing multiple bodies had been found; two of them were located in a coal mine Komunar near the village of Nyzhnia Krynka (35km north-east of Donetsk) and one inside the village,’ the OSCE said in its report.
The SMM monitors saw in the coalmine two areas located fifty meters apart, each containing two human bodies, all in the process of decomposition. The SMM also saw ‘eight 9mm Makarov pistol cartridges approximately five meters away from the bodies,’ according to the report.
In addition, near the road on the outskirts of the village of Nyzhnia Krynka, the SMM found a pile of earth resembling a grave which had a stick with a plaque, written in Russian and containing the names or initials of five individuals.
‘The plaque indicated that the individuals died on Aug. 27, 2014. On top of the plaque there was another inscription saying: ‘Died for Putin’s lies’,’ the report reads.
The OSCE said its monitors cannot provide a forensic assessment of the sites because they lack forensic experts.
