Wednesday, March 5, 2014

UN envoy in Crimea threatened, trapped, forced to leave

Nice.  Real nice, Crimea.  Seriously though, you didn't do yourselves any favors today, trust me. This was the UN.  The United Nations.  These are people you actually want on your side.

P.S. -- I don't mean to cast aspersions on all Crimeans.  Several hundred thousand Crimeans are fully supportive of the Maidan movement and the new government, in the hope that it will stamp out corruption and listen to the will of the people. I know many of them personally. The actions of a few deluded provocateurs (and most likely, Russian-paid stooges) should not be taken as an expression of popular sentiment in Crimea.

UPDATE (06.03.2014): Similarly, today an observer mission from the OSCE were denied entry into Crimea from mainland Ukraine at two different crossings. They said they'd try again tomorrow....




By Taylor Berman
March 5, 2014 | Gawker

On Wednesday, a gang of 10 to 15 gunmen threatened a senior U.N. diplomat in Crimea, eventually forcing him to leave the region just hours after after he arrived to evaluate the invasion by the Russian military.

Robert Serry, serving as a representative to the UN's secretary-general, had just visited a navy base in Simferopol when he was surrounded by the gunmen, who demanded that Serry leave Crimea immediately. Serry initially refused, and was forced to take shelter in a nearby coffee shop after the men surrounded his vehicle. He later made it to Simferopol's airport.

"I think this incident is just an example of how serious the situation has become and my hope is that everybody will realize that this situation is very urgent now and we must find a way to de-escalate the situation here," Serry said from Simferopol airport, according to ITV. "That is the lesson of what happened to me.

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