UNITED NATIONS - A senior United Nations diplomat sent to Ukraine's Crimea region to assess the Russian military takeover there was threatened by armed men at gunpoint on Wednesday a day after his arrival, and a journalist who witnessed the confrontation said the diplomat was aborting his mission.
The diplomat, Robert Serry, a United Nations veteran, was confronted by a group of 10-15 unidentified gunmen as he departed a meeting at a naval facility in the Crimea regional capital of Simferopol, according to an account of the incident provided by Jan Eliasson, the United Nations deputy secretary general, who spoke in a telephone news conference from Kiev, the Ukraine capital.
Mr. Eliasson said that when Mr. Serry refused, the gunmen surrounded his car, but he was allowed to go to a cafe to call Mr. Eliasson. The identities of the gunmen were not clear.
'He is in good shape physically. He is not kidnapped,' Mr. Eliasson said.
He also said he hoped the mission would proceed unhindered. But a journalist for the ITV network, James Mates, who was traveling with Mr. Serry, said Mr. Serry was ending the trip. United Nations officials could not immediately confirm Mr. Mates's account.
Mr. Mates said police had broken through an angry crowd blockading the door of the cafe and had permitted Mr. Serry to get inside his car.
Mr. Serry was formerly posted as the ambassador of The Netherlands in Kiev. He is the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.
Mr. Eliasson said he welcomed the move by the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe to send monitors to Crimea to look into minority rights. The United Nations will dispatch the head of its human rights office, Ivan Simonovic, to lead a team in western and eastern Ukraine, including Crimea. Mr. Eliasson said he hoped Russia would welcome the monitors, as its leaders have repeatedly expressed concern about the plight of Russian minorities in the country.
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