Two Ukrainian sailors still in Iraqi prison (05/30/04)

Two Ukrainian sailors still in Iraqi prison

by Askold Krushelnycky
RFE/RL Belarus and Ukraine Report

Last summer the Navstar-1, a Panamanian-flagged vessel belonging to a United Arab Emirates company, was detained off the southern coast of Iraq. Its Ukrainian crew was arrested and charged with smuggling Iraqi oil from the port of Umm Qasr.

Most of the crew was eventually released. But the ship's captain and second in command, Mykola Mazurenko and Ivan Soschenko, respectively, were brought to trial. The two men denied knowing that the 1,100 tons of oil aboard the Navstar-1 were banned for export. But in October 2003, an Iraqi court sentenced the men to seven years in jail and fined them $1.2 million each.

Since then, Messrs. Mazurenko and Soschenko - both in their 60s and suffering from poor health - have been languishing in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison complex. Infamous under Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as a place where opponents of the regime were routinely tortured and murdered, Abu Ghraib is at the heart of a new controversy involving abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S. forces.

The recent publication of photographs detailing the abuses has outraged the Arab world and put the United States on the defensive. It has also alarmed the families of the two Ukrainian detainees and raised questions in Kyiv about how the men are being treated.

The Ukrainian prisoners' wives told RFE/RL they have been unable to speak to their husbands by phone since February. Mrs. Mazurenko said her husband had complained of a sinister atmosphere at Abu Ghraib, saying he was being held in cramped conditions and that prison guards had attacked some detainees.

A spokesman for Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry said diplomats had not been able to visit the two men for some time because of continued fighting between coalition forces and Iraqi insurgents.

At the end of April the Ukrainian ombudsman for human rights, Nina Karpachova, asked U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, for his country's diplomatic support to enable Ukrainian diplomats to visit the two sailors and assess their conditions. Ms. Karpachova reiterated her call last week after the abuse photos from Abu Ghraib were aired. She said she "could not exclude absolutely" that the two Ukrainians were not being subjected to similar treatment.

Patricia Guy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, said Embassy officials were looking into the matter. "We have seen the letter from ombudswoman Karpachova about the Navstar crewmen, and we are inquiring into the situation of the Ukrainian seamen," Ms. Guy said.

Ms. Guy said the U.S. government condemned the way some of its soldiers had treated the Iraqi prisoners, but she said the situation of the two sailors was different. "We have no information suggesting that the crewmen are not receiving proper care. If we were to receive such information, we would address these concerns with the appropriate authorities," she added.

Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Markian Lubkivskyi said the U.S. military on May 2 allowed Ukrainian diplomats to visit Messrs. Mazurenko and Soschenko, who were deemed to be in satisfactory condition. "According to the information that our diplomats got directly from the Ukrainian sailors, there are no complaints about the behavior towards them of other prisoners or the guards," Mr. Lubkivskyi said.

He said the two sailors had been transferred to slightly better conditions than the ones they were initially held in. However, he said the conditions were still extremely grim. "Mazurenko and Soschenko have been transferred to a cell for older people," Mr. Lubkivskyi continued. "There are 56 people in that cell - you can imagine they all sleep on mattresses on the floor next to one another. Therefore, conditions are not straightforward even from the point of view of their accommodation. Even though from the point of view of food, the information we get is that they receive food regularly and there are no complaints on that count."

Mr. Lubkivskyi said that the health of the two men is poor. The ministry spokesman said Captain Mazurenko, who is 66, is at particular risk because he suffers from diabetes, but reportedly is able to receive medicine only when his symptoms become acute. "The state of their health in these conditions and the understandable stress they are undergoing causes us concern," he said.

"They do not have regular contact with doctors. Doctors have restricted access to the prison. Therefore, we are troubled by this situation and we have called the attention of both the Iraqi transitional government and the effective [U.S.] authorities to the situation of our sailors," he noted.

Mr. Lubkivskyi said the two men, who are awaiting a second appeal of their sentence, have become a top priority for the Foreign Affairs Ministry. He said Ukraine, which is contributing 1,650 troops in Iraq, hopes the United States will lend its weight to help the two sailors in their forthcoming appeal.

"The Iraqi courts will have the last word. But at the same time, we rely on the support of the Americans as our partners in the coalition. I think that they are listened to, and their role and their influence will not be the least important factor in the resolution of this issue," he said. Mr. Lubkivskyi commented that he hopes that, even if the appeal is unsuccessful, a deal can be worked out to allow the two sailors to serve their prison sentences in Ukraine.

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