KYIV. Oct 16 (Interfax) - Ukraine will never declare an unconditional amnesty for all participants in the military conflict in Donbas, head of the Verkhovna Rada Foreign Policy Committee Bohdan Yaremenko said.
"We cannot discard the general principle of law: the unavoidability of punishment for those who have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, those involved in killings and torture. Ukraine will never agree to an amnesty," Yaremenko told reporters in parliament on Wednesday.
"In Ukraine, we have a bill that explains the amnesty in a slightly different way, our understanding of amnesty, rather than what is stipulated in the Minsk Agreements," he said.
"There is a harsh phrase there [in the Minsk Agreements] that Ukraine will provide amnesty, non-discrimination, and non-prosecution for all participants in the events in Donbas. This is not the case" Yaremenko said.
Amnesty is envisaged by a separate paragraph of the Minsk Agreements, he said.
Ukraine should move toward the adoption of laws that would clearly establish the legal status of people who remained on the occupied territories, "in some form that does not contain elements of a crime as outlined in criminal law, but can be morally condemned, etc.," Yaremenko said.
According to the head of the committee, the legislation should answer questions about what to do with such people, as well as with those who were members of illegal armed groups, but were not involved in the killings, shelling of Ukrainian territories, torture, with people who are remorseful.
"There may be separate procedures in Ukrainian legislation that will include a full confession or admitting one's guilt, automatic cancellation of the need to undergo punishment or conviction," he said.
"These are certain elements of amnesty and reconciliation. But this does not apply to those involved in killings," Yaremenko said.
"Obviously, the law on amnesty or the existence of amnesty in some form is a requirement of Russia in the framework of the peace process, which Russia is not going to yield on. But we hope that the interpretation of amnesty, the understanding of amnesty as a process of pardoning those who have admitted their crimes, and that these crimes are not so grievous, it seems to me that we can describe this process in a way that will be acceptable to Ukrainian society and will comply with the general rules of law," he said.