DISINFO: UN and German statements about the "terror" of Crimean Tatars are fiction
SUMMARY
Statements of Germany and the UN about the “terror” of the indigenous Crimean Tatar population are fiction. Russia is doing everything it can to guarantee the respect of human rights in Crimea and is ready to accept international organisations and inspections to prove it. The reports of abductions, searches and arrests of Crimean Tatars are also groundless and not supported by facts.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative concerning the human rights situation in Crimea.
The human rights situation in Crimea has rapidly deteriorated since the beginning of the Russian occupation in early 2014 and remains dire according to watchdogs including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the UN Human Rights Council. In a comprehensive study of human rights abuses perpetrated on the peninsula between February 2014 and December 2018, the Kyiv-based NGO Crimea SOS recorded 144 instances of politically motivated criminal prosecution, 15 forced disappearances, at least 20 killings committed by the occupation regime, 290 counts of torture, and 372 arbitrary arrests (pp. 8-9).
The brunt of the repression has fallen on the Crimean Tatars, the region’s indigenous ethnic minority. Since 2014, the occupation authorities have systematically targeted Crimean Tatar media, political institutions, language, and national leaders. In 2016, the Russian Supreme Court passed an ultra vires motion outlawing the Crimean Tatar legislature. Its two consecutive chairmen - Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov - were effectively exiled from the peninsula under Russia’s catch-all “extremism” laws, whereas former deputy chairman Ilmi Umerov was confined to a mental hospital. For an overview of offences against Crimea’s indigenous people such as the seizure of property, deportation, forced conscription, murder, torture, show trials and a host of others, see this report by the International Criminal Court (p. 69).
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