OMINOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF UKRAINIAN PUBLICIST SERGEY BELOUS NEAR DONETSK

SREBRENICA HISTORICAL PROJECT
August 4, 2014.

Sergey Belous, M. A. in history, a native of Harkov, Ukraine, disappeared late in the evening on Friday, August 2, 2014, shortly after crossing the border from Russia into Ukraine.

Sergey Belous has been residing in Belgrade, Serbia, since September 2013. He arrived in Belgrade before current unrest began in the Ukraine with the intention of collecting data for his doctoral dissertation on the internationalization of the Kosovo issue in the 1990s. Civil disorder in the Ukraine disrupted his plans to return to his homeland. As a member of the Russian-speaking population under threat from the profascist junta which seized power in February, Sergey decided that it would be safer to remain in Serbia for the time being. In the meantime, Sergey wrote a number of analytical articles for Belgrade weekly “Pechat” and other publications.

As part of his academic research he visited Kosovo and Metohija on numerous occasions. As an associate of Srebrenica Historical Project he took part in several Project activities, including a presentation on the coup in the Ukraine in Belgrade in February of this year and conference on “coloured revolutions” at the Republic of Srpska Academy of Sciences in Banja Luka in April 2014. The unambiguously critical positions Sergey articulated in relation to the policies pursued by the fascist junta, whose forces apparently captured him a few days ago, potentially puts his life in jeopardy.

Immediately after the February 22, 2014 coup in Kiev the Third Secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Belgrade revealed to Sergey that he had been a secret member of the pro-nazi Right Sector for some time and he warned Sergey threateningly that the embassy was following his journalistic activities closely and “keeping an eye” on him.

Sergey has been in Donetsk, on territory under the control of local freedom fighters for the last month and has been travelling frequently from there to the Russian Federation and back. The disappearance of Sergey Belous, last seen in the proximity of a junta checkpoint on the territory of the Donetsk Republic on Friday evening, August 2, raises extraordinary concern. Similarly to British journalist Graham Phillips, who was working for “Russia Today,” and whose objective reporting caused immense distress to the junta, Sergey Belous is now also in grave danger. Junta military forces captured Phillips twice during the last several months but were compelled on both occasions to release him due to an international outcry and negative publicity. It is now necessary to help Sergey Belous by using identical methods.

We urge you to contact the Embassy of Ukraine nearest to you [a partial list and contact information are below for your convenience] to demand categorically that the condition of Ukrainian citizen Sergey Belous be promptly clarified and that he be set free without delay if he has been detained, as suspected, by forces under Ukrainian junta control.

If you have media influence or connections of any sort, we urge you to disseminate the news of Sergey Belous’ disappearance in Eastern Ukraine as widely as possible and to encourage the public to express active concern in relation to his case.

Ukrainian diplomatic missions:

Embassy of Ukraine, London, UK

Ambassador: Andrii Kuzmenko
Address: 60 Holland Park, London W11 3SJ.
Phone: 00 44 207 727 63 12
Fax: 00 44 207 702 17 08
Email: emb_gb@mfa.gov.ua

Embassy of Ukraine, Washington D.C., USA

Ambassador: Olexander Motsyk
Address: 3350 M Street N.W., Washington D.C., 20007, USA.
Phone: + 1 (202) 349 2920 (main), + 1 (202) 349 3376 (consular section)
Fax: +1 (202) 333-0817
Email: emb_us@mfa.gov.ua

Embassy of Ukraine, Paris, France

Ambassador: Oleg Kobzistiy
Address: 21, avenue de Saxe, 75007 Paris.
Phone: +331 43 06 07 37
Fax: + 33 (0) 1 43 06 02 94
Email: ambassade-ukraine@wanadoo.fr

Embassy of Ukraine, Belgrade, Serbia

Address: 4, Paje Adamova St. Belgrade, The Republic of Serbia
Phone: (00 381 11) 367 24 11, (00 381 11) 367 24 12
Fax: (00 381 11) 367 24 13
Email: emb_sm@mfa.gov.ua

Embassy of Ukraine, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
[Ukrainian embassy in Zagreb, Croatia, also covers Bosnia and Herzegovina]
Address: Voćarska cesta 52, Zagreb, 10 000 Croatia
Phone+385-1-4616296
Fax+385-1-4633726
Email: emb_hr@mfa.gov.ua, ukremb@zg.t-com.hr

August 4, 2014.