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Don't Shoot at the Red Cross.
In the history of all armed conflicts, medical personnel receive special protections under the Geneva Conventions --
-- rules, traditions, and customary laws of warware, ratified at the highest international level.
Violation of these conventions, as well as open, unmotivated violence towards medical personnel on the battlefield, is a crime --
-- punishable under the norms of national as well as international law.
How did it happen, then, that during the last armed confrontation in Kyiv, on January 22, not only did the Berkut special forces shoot at the battlefield medics --
-- and destroy makeshift clinics, but they also detained and beat the medics?
"Znak Oklyku" [Exclamation Mark!] managed to film an exclusive video, showing Oleksiy Tutov, a Maidan medical service volunteer --
-- who was violently beaten and detained by special forces, in violation of all possible international laws.
Daryna Chyzh reports on the fate of the one medic who personally experienced what it's like to fail to get away in time, and to feel the heavy hand of the Berkut.
Such medical service could even make some European countries jealous.
Over three months, Maidan medical volunteers have created an ideal health care system.
You don't have to bring any bribes with you; medical professionals give aid quickly and selflessly; and the patients are 100% supplied with all the necessary medications.
People are being saved at six makeshift hospitals, by 1,500 medical professionals of various specializations.
"Nobody can buy us, we are not for sale. We come over here to help."
"We're doing this free of charge, of course, from the bottom of our hearts."
"Medic! MEDIC! Don't shoot!"
Yet for some reason, the very people with the Red Cross became a live target for Berkut.
"They aimed at my eyes with a shotgun."
"I donĂt know whose idea it was to test the strength of my Red Cross helmet, but I distinctly felt a shot to my head."
"I shouted I'm a medic, I'm a medic, please don't hit me."
"I was beaten by the Berkut police."
They were shot in the faces and in the legs.
The makeshift hospital was trashed mercilessly, while the surgeons were saving lives.
"The police trashed the medical post in Hrushevskiy street, where over 20 representatives of the Maidan medical service were present."
"Seven grenades were thrown into the premises of the medical unit in Hrushevskiy street."
"The place was designated as a medical facility. It had a large white flag with a red cross on it."
"They crossed the line."
Ukranian special forces have definitely crossed all the lines.
These lines are drawn in the rules and laws of military conduct, and secured by the Geneva Convention.
For 150 years, the military forces of all the armies in the world have followed the laws stipulated in this Convention.
THE GENEVA CONVENTION: "Article 19. Fixed establishments and mobile medical units of the Medical Service may in no circumstances be attacked -
-- but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.
Should they fall into the hands of the adverse Party, their personnel shall be free to pursue their duties --
as long as the capturing Power has not itself ensured the necessary care of the wounded and sick found in such establishments and units."
The International Criminal Court punishes violence against medical personnel in violation of Geneva Convention by imprisonment - up to life in prison.
OLGA BOGOMOLETS, coordinator of the Maidan medical services: "During military action, the world practice is to avoid sending doctors under the bullets --
-- because the doctors are busy stitching up the wounds. However, volunteers are the people who have not graduated from college or even high school, but who only received a special training.
They are the people who go under bullets and risk their lives to drag the wounded away from the action."
Oleksiy Tutov, a resident of Kerch [Crimea region in Ukraine] became the first arrested medic from Maidan.
Risking his own life under bullets, explosions and thrown rocks, this 26-year-old volunteer carried the wounded away from the action and gave his medical aid to people injured during the clashes on January 22.
This is an exclusive video by "Znak Oklyku!". After the morning attack, the Berkut officers grabbed Oleksiy Tutov and are dragging him to their lair.
His white T-shirt with the Red Cross on it is being utterly ignored. On the way, he is being beaten.
This video is irrefutable evidence that this young man is a medical volunteer, not a participant in the mass protests.
OLEH MUSIY, coordinator of Euromaidan Medical Service Team: "In addition to video that shows he was wearing a medical uniform when detained, there is a body of documentary evidence.
I personally hereby testify, in front of the cameras, that he is a volunteer of the medical service --
-- and he was doing his professional duty directly next to barricades, on January 22 - as a medical volunteer."
"Doctors are not targets!" "Hands off the white coats!" "Save the doctors!" "Support the medical community!"
DARYNA CHYZH, journalist: "The National Resistance Medical Team Service demands immediate release of Oleksiy Tutov from the pre-trial detention facility --
-- and objects to the persecution of volunteers who were providing medical care at Hrushevskiy street.
Today, Kyiv Court of Appeal is reviewing a complaint filed by a member of a mobile medical team, detained by the riot police --
-- while providing medical care to victims at the barricades, in direct violation of international law and the Geneva Convention."
Video coverage of the trial was prohibited by the court. The first-instance court sentenced Oleksiy Tutov to two months in a detention facility as an interim measure.
The Court of Appeal ruled to release him from custody, in favor of house arrest.
NATALIA LISNEVSKA, Oleksiy's attorney: "He was released to house arrest, during which he is supposed to stay in Kerch. This is partial house arrest - Oleksiy is required to be at home between 7 pm and morning. At other times, he can work."
"Znak Oklyku!" TV team, together with some Euromaidan volunteers, met the incarcerated doctor by the walls of the Lukyanivska detention facility.
OLEKSIY TUTOV, volunteer of a mobile medical team: "I was brought to the detention facility on the 24th [of January], and I've been here since. Today is the first time I got to step outside and breathe the air of freedom.
I was released to house arrest, so I have to return to Kerch soon."
Oleksiy recalls how he fell into the hands of the Berkut.
He says that riot policemen hunt doctors intentionally. Only a blind man would be unable to see the white shirt with a Red Cross that Oleksiy was wearing that day.
OLEKSIY: "One of the Berkut officers said to another - grab him. They grabbed me, knocked me off my feet, shook me --
-- then dragged me, all the way from the European Square to the burned-out buses. Then they took me behind those buses, tore my Red Cross t-shirt off and started to beat me like I were an old carpet.
Smashed my phone, took everything I had with me."
REPORTER: Did they know you were a medical volunteer?
OLEKSIY:"Of course. I was in a white shirt with a Red Cross and text that said 'Medical Aid' on it. They just tore the T-shirt off, all I had left was a white collar around my neck."
Oleksiy tells us that Lukyanivka, Kyiv's notorious detention facility, is packed with Euromaidan activists like sardines in a can.
But all of them are scattered to different cells and kept separated at all costs.
OLEKSIY: "Everyone from the protests - Euromaidan, or Automaidan, they make no disctinction - is put in one of the so-called triple cells, but only one protester per cell."
Now, with numerous bruises and chemical burns, Oleksiy returns to his hometown for two months.
After that, he will stand before the court again, and try to prove to the people in black robes that he is a medical volunteer, not an extremist or a rioter.
Will the distinction be obvious to the Ukrainian Lady Justice - who isn't only blind, but also deaf?
Znak Oklyku! ["Exclamation Mark!"] Translated by Olia Knight Subtitles by Maria Stanislav