Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Journalist: Hello, my name is Mateusz Murawski and I traveled to Crimea from Poland. I am a documentary journalist,
and wanted to see for myself and film the events that are taking place here.
Voiceover: Mateusz, recently in Crimea, there have been frequent incidents of journalists disappearing, kidnapped, their equipment brazenly and brutally stolen.
This happened to you yesterday, on March 14, near voenkomat (military enlistment headquarters). Please give us the details of what happened.
Journalist: I just arrived in Crimea. Have been here for no more than 3 hours.
We received information that three activists were kidnapped the night before,
and one of the kidnapped activists' phone GPS
was sending signals from inside voenkomat.
A large group of international journalists gathered there, from Ukraine, Poland and Norway.
And we were there looking for any information. There was not really anything happening there. It was quiet there.
There appeared people in the uniforms without any insignia.
Voiceover: What time was that?
Journalist: About two or three hours after I arrived in Crimea. Voiceover: Around 1 pm?
Journalist: Somewhere after 1 pm, you can say so, yes.
Uniformed people came out, very aggressive, wearing head masks, you could not see their faces.
And they immediately started taking away filming equipment, tablets, phones.
Two people attacked me, forcefully took away my camera,
and went inside the building.
Voiceover: Hold on a second. Did they have any identifying insignia?
Journalist: No, they were wearing green uniforms, probablythe same uniforms that people are given in voenkomat, when they come there to enlist. I think they are citizens of Crimea
who came to join the so-called self-defense units of Crimea. But there was no identification on them.
Voiceover: But quite strong guys? Journalist: Yes, quite strong guys. And there were about seven of them.
They were very aggressive. Voiceover: Did they say anything to you?
Journalist: They told me to give my camera to them, using expletives which I don't want to describe
now, but you can say it was a fight. I did not want to continue fighting, because I did not want them to break my camera,
so after a while I had to give my camera to them, it's a very delicate machine.
After that, a uniformed man came out, without a head mask
that told us that special services would check the material that was filmed with our cameras,
delete all of it, and only then give our equipment back to us.
At the end, only
Norwegian journalists got their equipment back.
Together with the Ukrainian journalists, we waited for five hours. Nobody came
to explain anything to us. They just continued telling us to wait and wait.
In the evening, we inquired whether we should wait or not,
and another masked man took our phone numbers
and asked us to write our equipment description down,
but so far, nobody called us yet.
Voiceover: Officially, as I understand it, they returned equipment only to foreigners.
Perhaps, at least before the referendum, they are still a bit frightened by that (foreign) factor.
Did they say why they have not given the equipment of a Polish citizen back?
How can I say it, it seems to me that Poles are not all that foreign. Not the type of foreigner
that they would feel pressured to give the equipment back.
But I did have a feeling that together with the Ukrainians,
I was considered the enemy of the Russian people.
They did not say it out loud, but I felt it. Yes to Norwegians, no to Poles.
Voiceover: Tell me please, how pricey is the equipment that they stole from you?
Journalist: It was not a new camera, but it was good, and I got very used to filming with it.
Everything all together with lenses, probably about $2,500.
Voiceover: So, we can say that the Russia occupiers, or whoever they are,
there is a Russian flag on the gates of voenkomat, stole your equipment, worth $2,500.
Voiceover: Are you going to somehow report this? Journalist: Yes, but I want to first try to go this morning to try to talk to a commander,
perhaps they will return it, but yes, I will report it.
What else can I do? I can also say that as an experienced documentary journalist,
I have been to many countries,
and in the last few years, I have been to Libya, Jordan, have filmed on the border between Libya and Jordan,
I have been to Palestine and spoken to varies
types of military representatives.
I filmed in conflict zones, hotter spots than this, and no other army have ever done this
to me, officially.
This is the new experience to me, that the army can treat this way a journalist.
I've been to Europe, but I haven't seen anything like this. Voiceover: Even in Lebanon?
Journalist: In Lebanon is a total anarchy.
In one tiny country they have five different militaries that do not get alone.
But no army in the world ever treated me like this. I was very surprised.