Russian forces targeting Ukrainians, Tatars in Crimea: Council of Europe

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) - The Council of Europe on Thursday expressed grave concern and condemned Russian occupying forces in Crimea over human rights violations against ethnic minorities, including Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars.

Based on a recent report by Secretary-General Marija Pejcinovic Buric, the council's Committee of Ministers noted in a meeting on Wednesday that the human rights situation in the peninsula has "deteriorated significantly."

The ministers urged Russian authorities to immediately stop violating the human rights of local residents, release all unlawfully-held detainees, provide unhindered access of international human rights organizations to Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, revoke the ban on the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, a representative body of the ethnic Turkic group.

Occupying Russian forces have denied authorities from the council physical access to the region to assess and verify the human rights situation on the ground first hand.

Buric's report on the human rights situation in Crimea and Sevastopol focused on discussions with various interlocutors, meetings with the Ukrainian authorities, international non-governmental organizations, human rights activists, and a fact-finding mission to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

- Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians disproportionately affected

The report said Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians were disproportionately affected under the increasingly controlled environment of Russian rule, with members of the two groups who oppose or criticize Moscow and the occupying forces targeted with criminal cases.

"The intimidation, prosecution, and bans targeting the Mejlis and its leadership has had a detrimental effect on the exercise of the political and civic rights of the community as a whole,” it added. According to the information from NGOs around 138 Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian activists have been arbitrarily arrested with fabricated charges.

Muslim members of the Crimean Tatar community were also being unfairly targeted with allegations of affiliation with "extremist" or "terrorist" organizations in Russia like Hizb ut Tahrir. They have been subject to routine searches in mosques, educational institutions, and their residences by authorities searching for extremist literature, arms, and drugs, said the report.

Intimidation, restrictions, and rights violations by the Russian occupation have also affected the ethnic composition of the Crimean peninsula, it noted, explaining that Russians was replacing ethnic Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, and other minorities fleeing to mainland Ukraine.