127 People Killed in Weeks of Violence in Ukraine: Senior UN Official

United Nations (Antara/Xinhua-OANA) - A senior UN official said here Wednesday that 127 people have died in several weeks of violence in east and south Ukraine, which will make it more difficult for the country to hold presidential elections in the region on Sunday. Ivan Simonovic, the UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, made the statement while speaking to reporters outside the Security Council chamber, where he just briefed the 15-nation council at a closed-door meeting on the current situation in the eastern Ukraine following his trip to Ukraine on May 14-19. "There are numerous cases of illegal detentions, of abductions, especially affecting journalists as well as members of the electoral commissions, which certainly will make the elections in the east of the country much more difficult," he said. "Apart of the difficult security situation in the east of the country, conditions are worsened by common criminality and its rise," he said. "In addition to that, the social and economic rights of the people are being affected," he said, citing a shortage of medicine and a danger of undermining social services in the region.(*)