The EU also suspended its military training operation in the Central African Republic to prevent it from interfering with violations of international law through Wagner.
European on monday, the union imposed sanctions on the private russian consortium Wagner and eight people and three members.
In addition, the EU suspended the training of soldiers in the Central African Republic on Wednesday. The training operation, which continued from 2016, was terminated because there is no certainty as to whether the trained soldiers could end up in Wagner’s service and thus interfere in the illegal activities.
Wagner is practically considered part of the Russian armed forces and military intelligence. However, mercenaries have been operating in Ukraine, Libya and Central Africa without the official presence of the Russian armed forces. There have been soldiers in Syria part of the official Russian military operation.
Sanctions, the cessation of military training and the reasons for these are described, among other things BBC as well as news agencies AFP and Reuters.
A landmine exploded near the Libyan capital Tripoli in July 2020. The United States has accused Wagner of placing landmines in and around Tripoli.
Sanctions The preparation was reported earlier in December by the online magazine Politico, which, however, has not yet published the names of those who have been sanctioned to protect their sources.
Read more: Politico: EU imposes sanctions on Russian mercenary Wagner
It is now known that the target of sanctions is considered to be, for example, Wagner’s founder and director Dmitry Utkin.
According to the EU, Utkin is responsible for coordinating and planning Wagner’s deployment operations.
Because of his leadership, the EU sees him responsible for a number of serious human rights violations by the group, such as torture and illegal, arbitrary or arbitrary executions committed by the Wagner Group.
For example, an EU document raises a case in which four members of the Wagner Group tortured a Syrian military fugitive to death in June 2017 in the Homs region of Syria. According to a former member of Wagner, Utkin ordered the torture and act to be described in person.
On the sanctions list is also accompanied by the most famous of the Wagner Group officers, a man from St. Petersburg Valeri Zaharov. He has served as President of the Central African Republic Faustin-Archange Touadéran as a security adviser.
Touadéra was elected for a follow-up presidential election in December, co-secured by the Wagner Mercenary.
Read more: Russia’s favorite won the presidential election in the Central African Republic, secured by hundreds of Russian soldiers
Viktor Tokmakov, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the Central African Republic of Russia (left) and Valery Zaharov, Security Adviser to the President of the Central African Republic, in Bangu in August 2018.
The EU also notes that Zaharov is responsible for human rights abuses due to his leading role, such as the murder of three Russian journalists in 2018. The EU said Zaharov was responsible for the safety of journalists sent to Central Africa for documentary filming.
Central Africa human rights violations in the republic have been investigated by, for example, the UN and France. Last August The UN released the report, which had recorded more than 500 cases in the previous year, as of July 2020.
According to the UN, the CPC, the alliance of Central African armed rebel groups, accounted for more than half, 54 percent, of the documented cases. The remaining 46% were reported by the Central African Republic’s army, internal security forces and other security forces, including Russian forces and private actors. Wagner was mentioned in the report for reference only.
However, in October, a number of UN experts called on the Central African Republic to sever ties with Wagner. In their statement, experts accused Wagner of harassing peacekeepers, journalists, aid workers and minorities. The opinion of the experts does not represent the whole line of the UN.
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