[Joint House and Senate Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
114th Congress Printed for the use of the
1st Session Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
_____________________________________________________________________
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN RUSSIAN-OCCUPIED CRIMEA
DECEMBER 11, 2015
Briefing of the
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
_____________________________________________________________________
Washington: 2016
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
234 Ford House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-1901
csce@mail.house.gov
http://www.csce.gov
@HelsinkiComm
Legislative Branch Commissioners
HOUSE SENATE
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ROGER WICKER, Mississippi,
Chairman Co-Chairman
ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida BENJAMIN L. CARDIN. Maryland
ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
ALAN GRAYSON, Florida TOM UDALL, New Mexico
RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania
LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER,
New York
Executive Branch Commissioners
Department of State
Department of Defense
Department of Commerce
[ii]
ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
The Helsinki process, formally titled the Conference on Security and
Cooperation in Europe, traces its origin to the signing of the Helsinki
Final Act in Finland on August 1, 1975, by the leaders of 33 European
countries, the United States and Canada. As of January 1, 1995, the
Helsinki process was renamed the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe [OSCE]. The membership of the OSCE has expanded to 56
participating States, reflecting the breakup of the Soviet Union,
Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.
The OSCE Secretariat is in Vienna, Austria, where weekly meetings of the
participating States' permanent representatives are held. In addition,
specialized seminars and meetings are convened in various locations.
Periodic consultations are held among Senior Officials, Ministers and Heads
of State or Government.
Although the OSCE continues to engage in standard setting in the fields of
military security, economic and environmental cooperation, and human rights
and humanitarian concerns, the Organization is primarily focused on
initiatives designed to prevent, manage and resolve conflict within and
among the participating States. The Organization deploys numerous missions
and field activities located in Southeastern and Eastern Europe, the
Caucasus, and Central Asia. The website of the OSCE is: .
ABOUT THE COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the
Helsinki Commission, is a U.S. Government agency created in 1976 to monitor
and encourage compliance by the participating States with their OSCE
commitments, with a particular emphasis on human rights.
The Commission consists of nine members from the United States Senate, nine
members from the House of Representatives, and one member each from the
Departments of State, Defense and Commerce. The positions of Chair and Co-
Chair rotate between the Senate and House every two years, when a new
Congress convenes. A professional staff assists the Commissioners in their
work.
In fulfilling its mandate, the Commission gathers and disseminates relevant
information to the U.S. Congress and the public by convening hearings,
issuing reports that reflect the views of Members of the Commission and/or
its staff, and providing details about the activities of the Helsinki
process and developments in OSCE participating States.
The Commission also contributes to the formulation and execution of U.S.
policy regarding the OSCE, including through Member and staff participation
on U.S. Delegations to OSCE meetings. Members of the Commission have
regular contact with parliamentarians, government officials,
representatives of non-governmental organizations, and private individuals
from participating States. The website of the Commission is:
.
[iii]
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN
RUSSIAN-OCCUPIED CRIMEA
December 11, 2015
COMMISSIONERS
Page
Orest Deychakiwsky, Policy Adviser, Commission on Security and Cooperation
in Europe............................................................... 1
Jonas Wechsler, Senior Adviser, U.S. Department of State, Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe...................................... 20
PARTICIPANTS
Ivanna Bilych, Co-Founder and President of VOLYA Institute for Contemporary
Law and Society, Board Member of the Ukrainian American Bar Association... 3
Bohdan Yaremenko, Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Nongovernmental
Organization, Maidan of Foreign Affairs, Former Ukrainian Diplomat....... 7
Andriy Klymenko, Chief Editor of Black Sea News, Economist [with
interpreter Svitlana Krasynska].......................................... 12
Yuriy Yatsenko, Maidan Revolution Activist, Recently Released Political
Prisoner [with interpreter Bohdan Pechenyak]............................. 14
Yaroslav Brisiuck, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Ukraine to the
United States............................................................ 16
APPENDIX
Prepared statement of Ivanna Bilych...................................... 27
Prepared statement of Bohdan Yaremenko................................... 31
Prepared statement of Andriy Klymenko....................................
Prepared statement of Yuriy Yatsenko.....................................
Prepared statement of Anna Fotyga, Member of the European Parliament, Chair
of the Subcommittee on Security and Defense..............................
[iv]
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN
RUSSIAN-OCCUPIED CRIMEA
___________
DECEMBER 11, 2015
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Washington, DC
The briefing was held at 2 p.m. in room B-318, Rayburn House Office
Building, Washington, DC, Mr. Orest Deychakiwsky, Policy Adviser for the
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, moderating.
Commissioner present: Jonas Wechsler, Senior Adviser, U.S. Department of
State, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Panelists present: Ivanna Bilych, Co-Founder and President of VOLYA
Institute for Contemporary Law and Society, Board Member of the Ukrainian
American Bar Association; Andriy Klymenko, Chief Editor of Black Sea News,
Economist; Bohdan Yaremenko, Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian
Nongovernmental Organization, Maidan of Foreign Affairs, Former Ukrainian
Diplomat; Yuriy Yatsenko, Maidan Revolution Activist, Recently Released
Political Prisoner; and Yaroslav Brisiuck, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy
of Ukraine to the United States.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. Good afternoon. My name is Orest Deychakiwsky. I'm a
policy adviser here at the U.S. Helsinki Commission.
On behalf of Chairman Congressman Chris Smith and the leadership of the
Commission, welcome to this Helsinki Commission briefing entitled ``Human
Rights Violations in Russia and Occupied Crimea.''
Russia's forcible and illegal occupation of Ukraine's sovereign territory
of Crimea in March 2014 resulted in a deplorable human rights situation as
well as other serious consequences that continue to this day.
Changes in government and legal framework in Crimea following the attempted
annexation have had a toxic impact on human rights and fundamental
freedoms. Violations of civil, political, social, economic and cultural
rights are widespread, especially against those who oppose Russian
occupation, including Crimean Tatars and other ethnic, including, of
course, Ukrainian and other ethnic political and religious groups.
Except for a recent spike because of the disruption of electricity
supplies, Crimea has not been in the news all that much lately, certainly
not compared to the months immediately following Russia's occupation.
Now, this egregious act of aggression stands in flagrant violation of both
bilateral Russian/Ukrainian and numerous, numerous international agreements
and international law. The international community has not recognized the
attempted annexation.
As far as the United States, both the administration and Congress have
addressed the Russian occupation of Crimea in various ways, including
through legislation and through concrete sanctions against Russia,
including Crimea-specific sanctions.
And just a few days ago, in Kyiv, Vice President Biden repeatedly vowed
that the U.S. will never recognize Russia's occupation of Crimea. Just one
of his quotes was, ``This attempted annexation is contrary to international
law, it is wrong, and we will never accept it under any circumstances.''
The Helsinki Commission, too, has addressed this issue, repeatedly
stressing that Russia's invasion and subsequent behavior has violated not
one, not two, but all ten core OSCE principles enshrined in the 1975
Helsinki Final Act.
And to cite one example or activity, at last year's annual session of the
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, which encompasses 56 OSCE country parliaments,
our then-chairman Senator Ben Cardin's resolution strongly condemned, and I
quote, ``the clear, gross and uncorrected violation of the Helsinki
principles of the Russian Federation with respect to Ukraine, including the
particularly egregious violations of that country's sovereignty and
territorial integrity.''
The resolution passed by a substantial margin, despite fierce Russian
opposition. And then this last year there was a follow-up Canadian
resolution, a follow-up to Senator Cardin's resolution of 2014, which also
passed despite Russian opposition. That's just one illustrative example.
It's important that all of us keep shining the light on Crimea, despite the
understandable attention to the occupied territories of the Donbas where
Russia and its proxies continue to flaunt the Minsk agreements, or to the
humanitarian crisis that has resulted from Russia's aggression, or for that
matter to the whole issue of combating corruption, Ukraine's greatest
internal threat.
But it's important for us not to forget what is also happening to the
people of Crimea who suffer under Russian misrule.
So we're very pleased to have with us today four experts, including three
who reside in Ukraine, to help shine that light. They'll help us better
understand what's happening in Crimea today--not only the human rights
situation, but indeed what some have said is the peninsula's colonization
and militarization.
And we'll also hear directly from someone who himself has been a direct
victim of Russian human rights abuses.
Before we start, I just also want to introduce my colleague Jonas Wechsler,
who's our State Department senior adviser at the Helsinki Commission.
We'll start with Ivanna Bilych, who will present the findings and
recommendations of the comprehensive, truly comprehensive report, ``Human
Rights on Occupied Territories: The Case of Crimea,'' prepared by an
international team of lawyers that was led by her and supported by the
VOLYA Institute and the Ukrainian American organization Razom.
Let me at the outset thank Ivanna as this briefing was really her
brainchild. Indeed, a similar briefing was organized by Ivanna, along with
her colleague Bohdan Pechenyak, who is here and who will serve as an
interpreter at the U.N. on Wednesday.
And also I want to introduce Svitlana Krasynska who will interpret for
Andriy Klymenko. She's also a member of the VOLYA Institute.
OK, so the formal introductions. Ivanna Bilych holds a master's degree in
international affairs from Columbia University and also an L.L.M. from New
York University School of Law. She also received L.L.B. and L.L.M. degrees
from Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University. Ivanna is a lawyer and
activist. She represented Viktor Smalyy, an attorney prosecuted by the
former regime, the Yanukovych regime, in Ukraine. She's a former board
member and general counsel of Razom, a board member of the Ukrainian-
American Bar Association, a co-founder and president of the relatively
newly established VOYLA Institute.
Next after her Bohdan Yaremenko will be speaking. He's chairman of the
board of the Ukrainian nonprofit organization Maidan for Foreign Affairs.
Bohdan is a former diplomat, having worked at the ministry of foreign
affairs of Ukraine as vice-council at the consulate general of Ukraine in
New York, the head of the U.S. and Canada Department, and he was consul
general of Ukraine in Edinburgh as well as in Istanbul.
Andriy Klymenko is the chief editor of Black Sea News and a prominent
economist, originally from Crimea. He was fortunate to escape the
persecution of self-proclaimed Crimean and Russian authorities. He's the
author of another report on the situation of Crimea, an Atlantic Council
and Freedom House report that's available on the Freedom House website.
That report was produced on the first anniversary of the Crimean invasion
back in March. Some of you were probably at the rollout of that.
And finally, Yuriy Yatsenko is an activist of the Revolution of Dignity,
was illegally imprisoned in Russia on political grounds in May 2014. After
his refusal to cooperate with the Russian FSB, he suffered brutal torture
and criminal prosecution. He was released after a year imprisonment thanks
to the coordinated work of a lawyer, human rights organizations and
international pressure. After the release, Yuriy Yatsenko became a speaker
of the Let My People Go campaign as the first rescued person from the list
of Ukrainian nationals persecuted on political grounds in the Russian
Federation.
And we'll start then.
Ms. Bilych, Ivanna, the floor is yours.
Ms. Bilych. Thank you, Orest.
It is a great privilege and honor to speak at this venue today.
I am deeply grateful to Helsinki Commission, its leadership and our
moderator, Orest Deychakiwsky, for hosting this very important roundtable.
Even as a 10-year-old child growing up in Soviet Ukraine, I always knew of
the Helsinki Commission. Back then I could not possibly know what exactly
it did, but I knew it was something bigger than I could possibly comprehend
back then. I was right. It stands for democracy and human rights, rule of
law and simply, morally the right thing.
Most of you know the great importance of the topic I'm going to speak with
you about, but for those for whom it may seem a bit remote, let me remind
you of the words of one of the greatest men, William Allen White, who said
that ``Wherever a free man is in chains, we are threatened also. Whoever is
fighting for liberty is defending America.''
Another great man and our great President Franklin Roosevelt once said that
``Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes
to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is
in our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save
victory.''
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you all for coming today to
discuss our latest report.
Thank you to the esteemed coauthors for their outstanding work and
dedication to human rights, international law, global peace and security.
I would like to extend my sincere and deepest gratitude to a very special
woman who couldn't attend today, Professor Mary Holland, who supervised the
project.
Thank you to David Glasgow, assistant director for the Public Interest Law
Center, for his guidance and support.
And I would like to thank Matthew Mosner and Ethan Burger, who is here
today, thank you, for their time and valuable comments to the early drafts.
Special thank you to all the editors, designers, volunteers, experts who
gave us their feedback on the second edition.
And thank you to the wonderful team from VOLYA Institute for their superb
work and dedication to the second edition to this report.
Thank you, our Razom partners for their support and understanding of the
importance of the issues presented today.
A year ago, at a different venue in the United Nations, we gathered to
discuss the legal dimensions of Russian actions in Ukraine, the occupation
of Crimea and its illegal attempts to annex the Ukrainian territory.
To this day, the Russian Federation continues to occupy sovereign Ukrainian
territory in Crimea and has violated international law by illegal seizing
the Ukrainian peninsula.
We still have to sort out all the implications and grave consequences of
the illegal actions of the Russian Federation in Ukraine and find a
solution to restore Ukrainian sovereign territory for people of Ukraine and
for us as the international community, individually and together, as well
as for us the citizens of this great country.
What is very clear, however, is that the practice of human rights in
occupied Crimea is dire and continues to deteriorate. Every day, Ukrainian
citizens in occupied Crimea face unprecedented oppression and limitations
of their rights. Serious and consistent violations of the civil, political,
social, economic and cultural rights of Crimeans have been well-
documented by a variety of organizations, including the United Nations,
Human Rights Watch, international media outlets, reports from the
undercover journalists, activists in various local organizations, over the
previous year.
The illegitimate, self-proclaimed Crimean and Russian authorities target
those ethnic, religious and national groups that oppose the occupation.
Indigenous Crimean Tatars are frequently suspected of this sort of broadly
defined anti-Russian activity.
To help address the situation, to build on those findings and create a
pragmatic guide for people both within Crimea and outside of the peninsula
to understand the legal framework of the situation, and in an attempt to
sort out the legal chaos that has been created by the illegal actions of
the Russian Federation in Ukraine, an international team of lawyers based
in New York University School of Law prepared this report. And it's
available for you to pick up outside.
The purpose of the report is to assist individuals in Crimea, Ukraine, as
well as around the world, working in academia, governments, international
organizations, nongovernmental organizations, business and media, to
understand the nature of the human rights violations in the occupied
territory so they are better equipped to defend, to protect an
internationally recognized expression of human rights.
The report or White Paper includes four parts and the manual. We analyzed
the human rights situation in occupied Crimea, placing it within the
context of applicable international standards, conventions and treaties;
authorities and entities responsible for protecting and providing human
rights; specific abuses of human rights by self-proclaimed Crimean and
Russian authorities; legal precedence that apply to the occupied territory
and its legal regime.
The authors examined the historical and legal context, defined the primary
rights that are being violated, give recommendations on what steps people
in Crimea can take, and outline actions for organizations.
We brought together several related threats to create the context for the
current situation, covering the recent history of Crimea's transfer in 1954
to the so called March 16, 2015 referendum to unify with the Russian
Federation; the Russian Federation's use of force to occupy Crimea in 2014;
post World War international agreements and treaties on state sovereignty
and territorial integrity.
We outlined and examined 21 distinct human rights that are provided by the
international and domestic laws. We analyzed each right individually with
respect to international, Ukrainian and Russian law. The report focuses on
civil, political rights, social, economic and cultural rights.
We discussed the suggested remedies for individuals whose human rights have
been violated, suppressed, encroached or otherwise denied. The general and
specific remedies include the use of international and Ukrainian and
Russian Federation legal instruments.
We concluded the Russian Federation's illegal occupation and attempted
annexation of Crimea has created a continuous stream of human rights
violations, encroaching on or even prohibiting basic individual rights and
freedoms.
The Russian Federation fails to comply with its obligations as an occupying
power. And the Ukrainian government is not paying enough attention to the
human rights abuses in Crimea Ukraine.
Remedies applying international law are not always available to victims
with limited resources due to complex procedures, limited jurisdiction and
resulting lengthy proceedings.
Our findings demonstrate the insufficiency of existing remedies for human
rights violations and mechanisms of the entire international system of
human rights protection with respect to Crimeans.
The following recommendations are for those entities that can help ensure
human rights enforcement and protection in Crimea. We address the Ukrainian
government, the self-proclaimed Crimean and Russian Federation's
authorities, the international community and NGOs and civil society
advocates on the ground.
Existing national and international remedies are ineffective against such
massive human rights violations as are occurring in Crimea. Self-proclaimed
Russian Federation's authorities deny responsibility and Ukrainian
Government claim the lack of ability and resources to respond properly.
For this reason, the concerted efforts of governments and institutions
worldwide are critical. Human rights organizations have reported
extensively on human rights violations in Crimea and recommended ways to
address those issues.
We concur with the recommendations and provide additional recommendations.
In addition to the recommendations that we published on April 15, 2014 in
our previous report, we built up and extend it to an additional 61
recommendations.
We expect our recommendations to Ukraine, self-proclaimed Crimean and
Russian authorities, international community and civil society and
activists will prompt a solution, which will honor the Ukrainian people's
human rights desire and support for unitary, sovereign country, Ukraine's
territorial integrity and democracy.
Among the key recommendations, we recommend that Ukraine continue to work
closely with the United Nations and other states and the international
community to ensure Russia's troop withdrawal from Crimea and from the
eastern Ukraine border.
We invented and proposed trifold logic to our recommendations. We ask the
addressees of our recommendations to work on these recommendations and
tasks according to their respective roles, responsibilities, goals and
objectives.
The Ukrainian Government is advised to implement the recommended measures.
The international community is encouraged to assist and monitor, and civil
society to demand implementation of the measures and subsequently monitor
the implementation.
The self-proclaimed Crimean and Russian authorities should comply with
international law.
We suggest several key recommendations; among them is creation of special
international tribunal, creation of special database that would help
Crimeans to store the information about the human rights abuses or just
sensitive information about their property, or just any information they
find sensitive.
And coming back from Brussels and Strasbourg we found out that something
similar like that exists regarding Chechnya. So the methods are there and
it can be practically implemented.
Securement of free communication and access to true information. Securement
of ongoing monitoring of human rights situation.
A crucial part of this report is a Human Rights Protection Guide which we
call the manual, and we translated it into Ukrainian language, Crimean
Tatar and Russian languages, which is designed to help residents of Crimea
take steps to improve their current situation directly.
We conclude that people in Crimea are economically deprived and legally
under-served, often knowing little about their rights and being unable to
demand their application.
Therefore, the aim of the manual is to provide Crimeans of all ethnic and
religious backgrounds with access to justice by explaining their
fundamental rights. The manual lists a number of fundamental rights and
their application.
And finally, the manual includes a directory of Ukrainian international and
Crimean human rights organizations where they can report and seek advice or
explanations.
Speaking about the recommendations, we believe that our recommendations are
directed towards the state-building and having a true democracy and
building a true democratic and prosperous Ukraine.
And to conclude, I would like to remind you a quote from John Prendergast,
a great human rights activist, who said that ``The biggest roadblock to
action on genocide and other human rights crimes is ignorance. Most people
just don't know that such things are happening. And often, if they have a
vague idea they are happening, there is a feeling that there is nothing
that can be done to stop those crimes.''
Franklin Roosevelt also said that ``We must remember that any oppression,
any injustice, any hatred is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.''
Russia's actions are striking at the heart of international law and order
and the principles and values that helped to prevent war since World War
Second. And if we allow ourselves to let it be, we run into much bigger
risks.
I encourage you today to utilize your great expertise, and you'll hear many
great experts today, this venue, power and any and all means to find a
meaningful solution to stop the wedge of oppression, injustice, hatred
towards the people of Ukraine in occupied Crimea.
Thank you.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. Thank you very much, Ivanna.
As you could see, that was an overview of quite a comprehensive report. And
I think it's especially useful in that it's action-oriented in terms of
both recommendations and a manual, a practical manual.
With that, let me turn to our next speaker, and that's Bohdan Yaremenko.
Bohdan, please.
Mr. Yaremenko. Thank you, Mr. Deychakiwsky. It's a great honor for me to be
here and to address this outstanding congressional body.
I would like also to express my appreciation to everyone who made this
presentation possible, to the VOLYA Institute, Ukrainian-American group
Razom, as well as to Renaissance Foundation for supporting our trip to New
York and Washington.
So ladies and gentlemen, our NGO, Maidan of Foreign Affairs, together with
our partner web portal The Black Sea News, represented here by its editor,
Mr. Andriy Klymenko, are not only covering the Russian military aggression
in Ukraine since mid-February of 2014, but are the only Ukrainian
institutions that summarized the picture of the aggression and published
the comprehensive Crimea regain strategy, which is still the only one
existing in Ukraine and it was done last year.
We are convinced the situation in Crimea and eastern Ukraine is directly
connected and should be kept in the same frame for political analysis.
Honestly speaking, the picture will still be incomplete without analyzing
the Russian intervention into Ukraine aside of what is happening in
Transnistria, in Moldova, Abkhazia and Ossetia in Georgia. The time limits
will not allow me to do it in a proper way.
Nevertheless, the issue of human rights in the conflict areas in Ukraine
and in particular in the occupied Crimea should not and cannot be properly
addressed without broader overview of the political, military, security,
economic and social situation.
So we decided to share our responsibilities. With your permission, I will
cover the general issues in order to allow my dear friend and colleague Mr.
Andriy Klymenko to concentrate fully on the issues of the human rights.
So political preferences of the inhabitants of Crimea were not the reason
for occupation and illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The local
parliament elected in the year 2012 included only three deputies out of
100, who represented the pro-Russian movements and organizations.
A few ethnic and interreligious conflicts have been artificially enforced
by the Russian propaganda within a short period of time as the active phase
of the annexation plan was being implemented during the winter of 2014.
This fear was an additional factor to reinforce the overall concerns of the
citizens.
The main propaganda messages, directed towards the citizens of Ukraine from
the Russian side, covered the issues of the quality of life and quality of
government. The media has created the illusion of greater efficiency of the
Russian authorities compared to Ukrainian ones and of the readiness of the
Russian state to ensure the better socioeconomic life conditions without
any efforts made by the citizens of Ukraine.
So the invasion scenario is as follows. First, presence of the Russian
citizens, including the military personnel from the intelligence agency,
primarily of the principal intelligence directorate or the general staff of
the ministry of defense of the Russian Federation. Together with the pro-
Russian activists among the local residents and citizens of Ukraine, they
organized rallies, fights, massive disturbances, violent confrontations
with patriotic, pro-Ukrainian citizens.
Second, a premeditated escalation used as an excuse for creation of the
self-defense units that include both local residents and the Russian
citizens infiltrated specifically for such purposes.
Three, in eastern Ukraine, these units seized administrative buildings and
paralyzed the activity of the state bodies, which in turn stepped away from
solving the problem and, in some cases, supported anti-state actions.
In Crimea, the self-defense units were a cover-up that was covering the
covert operation of the special forces of the Russian army. They were the
ones who seized the governmental agencies and blocked military bases of
Ukrainian army.
Four, establishment of the pseudo government that took over the
responsibility of the management over the occupied territories. The
mentioned pseudo government imitated freedom of expression which was used
as the justification of the expansion and explanation of the aggression.
The inability and unwillingness of legitimate authorities to take matters
for quick and decisive suppression of those trends, an attempt to calm down
the protesters or aggressors were regarded as weaknesses, encouraged the
aggression and demoralized the Ukrainian supporters.
Corruption, common business interests of the local and central authorities'
representatives with the relevant public and private bodies of the
aggressor state were actively used as the mechanism to influence and
compromise the political will for resistance and defense.
The annexation of Crimea has become the first case of the invasion of
territory in Europe since the Second World War. The national situation
calls into question the existence or the effectiveness of international law
and the international security guarantees, thus threatening the existing
world order.
The ``hot face'' of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine is still ongoing.
However, the so called Minsk agreements do not function as the ceasefire
mechanism, at least as an effective mechanism, do not lead to the
establishment of a sustainable peace and do not provide a solution on the
problem of the territorial integrity restoration of Ukraine because it
doesn't cover the Crimean issue.
The escalation phases coincide with the international negotiations on peace
settlement. They are effectively used by Russia as a tool of pressure on
negotiating parties.
The occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions suffered from the large-
scale destruction of the infrastructure and residential buildings resulting
from the combat operations.
An industrial infrastructure was particularly destroyed, plundered and
transported to Russia. In particular, defense enterprises were completely
dismantled and transported to Russia.
The current condition of the industrial infrastructure does not allow to
predict the possibility of the restoration of the pre-war regional economy
structure and, consequently, of the social structure of the population.
About 2.5 million people, about the third of the overall number of
inhabitants, mainly the most educated and active part of the society,
became forced migrants and refugees. Prospects for resolving the situation
in the east of Ukraine, the problem of the specific areas of Donetsk and
Lugansk region are uncertain.
In terms of displaced people and political fugitives from Crimea, about
40,000 people represented the most active and loyal citizens of Ukraine.
In general, the public mood in Crimea can be described as follows: At the
beginning of the Crimean occupation, the residents were fully satisfied
with Ukrainian liberalism, not satisfied with the quality of life, not
satisfied with the quality of government.
As the result of occupation, as for now, the residents of Crimea have not
received the improvement of the quality of government, it actually
deteriorated, have not got better quality of life, it actually
deteriorated, have lost Ukrainian legal liberalism.
A phase of adaptation to the law of the occupying country is Crimea is
over, and the process of reclamation of the assets of the annexed territory
is ongoing. This process can be described simply as colonization.
Replacement or dilution of the Crimean population is taking place. The
import of Russians, including the military personnel and their families,
officers of the intelligence agencies and their families, officials and
their family members, members of the Russian organized crime groups from
the Northern Caucasian regions of Russia is still ongoing.
Thus, according to official Russian statistics, the increase of the number
of Russian immigrants in Sevastopol during the occupation was about 25,000
people or about 7 percent of the population. In the rest of Crimea, this
rate is somewhat lower, 10,000 people or 0.5 percent of population.
The occupying authorities are developing Crimea mainly as a military base.
The number of troops is about 50,000 people, not including the members of
the security agencies or police.
The development process and increase of the military grouping has not yet
been completed. However, according to the objectives defined by the
minister of defense of Russia, the number of Russian troops in Crimea can
be increased to up to 100,000, 120,000 people.
The invaders turned the Crimea to a rehabilitation center for the militants
fighting in the east of Ukraine. Training camps for training all the
mercenaries later directed to fight against the armed forces of Ukraine in
the Donetsk and Luhansk regions have been established in Crimea.
Crimea has become a basic center of support of the Russian military
grouping in Syria as well.
Forming a powerful military base in Crimea, Russia threatens both the
southern regions of Ukraine and the existing Black Sea naval communications
as well as the European countries--NATO member states, Bulgaria, Romania
and Turkey.
The road infrastructure in the occupied territories has been fully and
largely destroyed because of the massive movement of a large number of
heavy military vehicles, armored vehicles, battle tanks, so on.
Intensive military building in Crimea led to accelerated destruction of
roads. All programs of road construction of Russia in Crimea turned to be a
usual patching work of a very poor quality.
The Crimean economic assets are being stolen or lose their capacity.
Railways, ports are not actually used. Without proper irrigation, the
agricultural soils lose their fertility, while their salinity is
increasing.
Natural resources of Crimea are being destroyed. The unscrupulous
extraction of the fresh underground water has led to the rise of the saline
groundwater level in some areas, like Kerch Peninsula, leading to increase
of the soil salinity. Furthermore, it complicates the water supply to the
population.
Given the intense military building, the occupants increase the volume of
the quarry mines development and open up the new quarries for gravel
extraction, which can result in destruction of the microclimate in the
valleys of the Bakchisarai area.
The situation with the quality of life in Crimea has developed in such a
way that under systematic reduction of employment, according to our
calculations, since the annexation, about 200,000 jobs, primarily in
tourism, restaurant and hotel business services, small business and
transport, have been lost. The available vacancies are not filled.
Today there are 2,000 vacancies of municipal officials in Crimea, as well
as a large number of jobs in health care. Generally, it is difficult to
fill the vacancies of ordinary employers in the business structures.
What will happen next? Developments in eastern Ukraine are hard to predict
because the ``hot face'' of the conflict is still ongoing. Russia as the
state aggressor has sufficient resources to continue military actions. Its
probable political purposes in Ukraine and in Europe have not been
achieved.
The means of influence on Russia, such as international sanctions, are just
beginning to influence the Russian economy. And the political will of the
leadership of the Russian Federation to continue their aggression, but
their duration in time is uncertain.
In Crimea, the main trends affecting the current developments are as
follows. First, the main priority is to develop the territory as the
military base.
Consequences: Posing threat to security of the Black Sea region, the EU
member states and NATO, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. Change of the
military balance namely within the framework of the agreement on
conventional armed forces in Europe, although Russia is not following for
some time this international agreement.
The possibility within the framework or the arrangements or the agreements
in the field of the strategic nuclear weapons control. A persistent
military threat to the entire southern coast of Ukraine with a purpose to
implement the plan of setting up the land corridor between the Russian
Federation, Crimea and Transnistria. Militarization of the region.
Expansion of the Russian military presence in Syria and the consequent
armed confrontation and civil war in that country.
Further enforcement of the policy of forced loyalty towards the inhabitants
of Crimea, which will lead to further violation of human rights, the
pressure on the dissidents or disloyal groups or population. Andriy
Klymenko will cover this issue later on.
Strengthening control over the media. Implementation of strategic
infrastructure building projects, like the bridge across the Kerch Strait.
The need to increase supply of building materials and equipment primarily
of metal, timber, construction mixes, so on, which will lead to increased
pressure on the road infrastructure and increased use of local natural
resources, which in turn results in poor climatic balance in the number of
sub-regions of Crimea.
Second, lack of economic development strategy, lack of the managerial human
resources.
Consequences: A trend towards reducing the number of small and medium
enterprises. The set priority is to develop and support the larger
companies mainly in the defense sector. Unemployment growth. Reduction of
the tax capacity in the region. Increase of the dependence on direct
funding from the federal budget of Russia.
Redirection of the budget financial flows in Russia, financing deficits in
other regions of the Russian Federation. Concealed contradictions and
competition for obtaining funding between different regions of the Russian
Federation.
Decrease of the standard of living. Decrease of the consumer purchasing
power of the population. Increase on prices, fewer choices for consumers, a
lowering of the quality of food, increase of the social certification and
increasing differences in living standards among the citizens funded by the
state, federal, regional budgets and self-employed people and the employers
of the commercial structures. Continuation of policy of excessive use of
infrastructure and natural resources.
Three, continuation of the trends toward resettlements of the citizens with
simultaneous degradation of democratic institutions, human rights and
freedoms, increase of corruption criminalization of a daily life.
At the same time, Ukraine is going to greatly expand the policy of
peninsula blockades trying to create enforcement mechanisms to engage
Russia in dialogue on the annexation.
Furthermore, Ukraine will be working on the creation of mechanisms for
establishing the communication with the population of Crimea, information-
disseminating channels, definition of the legal status. Creation of the
opportunities to exercise the rights and protect the interests of the
citizens in the territory of Ukraine.
Definition of the status of the self-government bodies of the Crimean Tatar
people. And Crimeans on the whole support all the activities.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. Thank you very much, Mr. Yaremenko. That also was a very
comprehensive report. You've put the human rights situation in a broader
context and discussed many of the consequences of Russia's illegal
occupation.
And with that, we'll turn to Andriy Klymenko. His statement will be read by
Svitlana Krasynska.
Please.
Ms. Krasynska. Ladies and gentlemen, statement by Mr. Andriy Klymenko,
editor in chief, The Black Sea News.
Dear ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to start with a statement of the
absence of any significant human rights violations in Crimea prior to the
annexation noted by the specialized international bodies like Council of
Europe or U.S. State Department.
As well, there were no reports or any statements on the issue done by the
Russian Federation.
The existing problems in the field of the human rights were merely related
to the underdeveloped, transitional, democratic or law enforcement system
in Ukraine.
Some noted occasional situations of the conflicts on the grounds of
political affiliation, ethnic or religious routes ironically were always
created by the pro-Russian activists, Russian neo-Nazis, et cetera.
Today, the citizens of Ukraine residing in the temporarily occupied
territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are actually deprived of a
number of fundamental rights and technology possibility of their
protection, particularly by drawing attention of international human rights
organizations to their problems.
Forcing citizens of Ukraine to join Russian citizenship is one of the tools
for invasion of the occupied territory by Russia. The owners of the
Ukrainian passports are deprived of the opportunity of education, medical
services, immovable property registration, obtaining utilities, employment,
et cetera.
For some categories of the citizens of Ukraine, the renunciation of
Ukrainian citizenship was delivered as an ultimatum--employees and
personnel of certain commercial structures, such as Ukrtelecom, et cetera.
The aggressor is implementing a large-scale program of forcing the
residents of Crimea to loyalty. Potentially disloyal persons are considered
to be, first, journalists, civil activists, members of NCA, national
competent authority, whose organizations and the media were created prior
to the occupation.
Second, Crimean Tatar people, in general, members of the autonomous bodies
of the Crimean Tatar people, Kurultai, Medzhlis, 230 regional Medzhlis
offices, clerical leaders of the Muslims, mainly of Crimean Tatars.
And third, ethnic Ukrainians, or persons of different ethnic origin with
Ukrainian political identity, including religious leaders and members of
religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox church of Kyiv
Patriarchate, Catholics, Greek Catholics, both Ukrainians and immigrants
from Poland, Belarus and the Baltic states.
The Crimean Tatars are put to systematic pressures as the most cohesive
community that openly expressed its opposition to the occupation of Crimea
by the Russian Federation. The number of secret service employees per
capita in Crimea is three times higher than the similar rate for the rest
of Russia.
Methods of their work are intimidation, total control of telephone calls,
Internet communication and brainwashing through the media, accusations,
separation of certain groups of citizens on ethnic or religious grounds.
Activists or citizens disloyal to Russia are called in for many-hours-long
interrogations, ``preventative interrogations,'' searches are carried out
in their homes, raids are carried out in the areas of compact settlement of
the Crimean Tatars.
The troops block certain localities or settlements, the authorities
organize deportation from Crimea, exclusions, criminal prosecution based on
fabricated evidence and false accusations, kidnapping, murders.
The state authorities of Russia have developed a whole arsenal of
intimidation methods in the republic of Ichkeria and other regions of the
North Caucasus.
Despite the declared trilingualism in Crimea--Russia, Ukrainian, Crimean
Tatar--invaders not only eradicate the Ukrainian language, but in general
any mention of Ukraine. There are reported cases of public burning of
books, schoolbooks, plates and inscriptions in the Ukrainian language in
front of students. The Ukrainian schools and classes are being closed down.
Russia makes efforts to establish information ghettos on the Crimean
Peninsula in which citizens of Ukraine will be deprived of the opportunity
to receive information from Ukraine. These efforts include a complete
cessation of Ukrainian TV and radio channel broadcasting, disconnection of
the Ukrainian mobile operators and Internet service providers.
Today, all independent media maintaining pro-Ukrainian position ceased
their existence and work in Crimea. They either disbanded or moved from
Crimea to other regions of Ukraine.
This particularly has the impact on the online media since the Ukrainian
legislation did not require their registration, although they are
equivalent to the print media under the laws of the Russian Federation.
As of today, the only propaganda media spread in Crimea has an openly pro-
Russian orientation.
On May 9, 2014 the Russian Federation introduced the amendment to the
criminal code which provides for a penalty of imprisonment from three to
five years for journalists and ordinary citizens for disagreeing with the
fact that Crimea belongs to Russia or for calls for its return to Ukraine.
Public calls to commit actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity
of the Russian Federation it's called. Criminal procedures under the
relevant article are initiated both against the citizens of Ukraine and the
Ukrainian media that operates in the mainland Ukraine and are likely to be
used for the persecution at the international level.
The Russian authorities have eliminated the possibility of monitoring the
compliance with human rights. Independent international human rights
organizations in the occupied territories are not allowed to implement such
monitoring. Instead, the Russian authorities are actively working to
organize visits of international delegations and media to Crimea for
propaganda purposes.
Actions of the occupying power related to implementation of property rights
are marred by massive violations of rules and practices accepted in the
civilized world. There is a massive expropriation of all the state property
of Ukraine in the territory of Crimea, which is called the
``nationalization'' by the Russian propaganda.
More than 400 companies have been expropriated and the list is constantly
growing. This list includes over 200 resorts, all the ports, including the
airport, water and energy supply facilities, railways, wineries, grain
elevators and agricultural enterprises. The objects that belong to Ukraine
or to the trade unions and other public organizations as well as to the
higher education institutions and the academy of science, et cetera, have
also been expropriated.
As for the private enterprises, their formal expropriation was not carried
out. However, there are schemes of raider takeovers and changes in the
company management board that have been implemented. The ``Crimean self-
defense'' units are used as a component of the forcible takeover in the
course of such actions. An information component includes distribution of
false information through the media on the bankruptcy or financial problems
of such companies, on the large debts that they have, and such
justifications call for their ``nationalization.'' Such schemes are
currently applied selectively to those owners who support the idea of
territorial integrity of Ukraine and oppose the occupation.
Because of the time limits, I will gladly provide more comments or examples
during our Q&A session.
Thank you.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. Thank you, very much, Mr. Klymenko, for your description
of the truly deplorable human rights situation in Crimea.
And now we'll turn to our last speaker, Yuriy Yatsenko, who has a very
compelling personal story, having been a prisoner of the FSB for a year.
Go ahead.
Mr. Yatsenko. Hello. My name is Yuriy Yatsenko. I am Ukrainian citizen who
was illegally arrested and detained by the Russian Federation for over a
year for political reasons. Others who have suffered and continue to suffer
the same fate are Nadia Savchenko, Oleh Sentsov and others of whom you
probably have never heard.
I was arrested in May 2014 in Kursk region of the Russian Federation, to
where I traveled together with my friend on a business trip. I was detained
by the police during a routine document check that the Russian police often
practice.
At the police department, an agent of FSB, Russian Federal Security
Service, showed to me a photograph of myself taken during Euromaidan
protests, which, as I suspect, he had found on social media. The agent
demanded that me and my friend provide false testimony about being
recruited by the head of the SBU security service of Ukraine to commit acts
of terrorism in Russia. At the time, I was just an ordinary student from
western Ukraine and I simply couldn't believe that such absurd accusations
were being made against me.
After we both refused to incriminate ourselves, they began beating us at
regular intervals. We were also offered an option of going on Russian TV
channels and giving a predetermined speech about being sent to Russia from
Ukraine to commit subversive acts, but instead turning to the FSB for
protection to save us from the Ukrainian authorities and their prosecution.
Once again, we refused to give false testimony, so the harassment
continued, turning into both physical and psychological violence. At first,
the abuse and the beatings were constant. I remember one particularly
brutal instance. Some special forces soldiers wearing masks put a bag over
my head, took me into the woods and tortured me. They hanged me by
handcuffs for hours, beat me in the head, groin and other parts of the
body, as well as strangled me. They also simulated an execution, firing a
gun next to my head.
The next morning, which was two weeks since my arrest, I used a shaving
blade to cut my abdomen and the veins on my arms to stop this abuse. Only
then I was taken to the hospital from where I finally managed to inform my
family about my whereabouts.
In the hospital, as a way of further punishing me for the protest, my
wounds were sewn up without anesthesia. They didn't repair my veins, but
only the skin on my arms, so there was swelling and pain, so I couldn't use
my left arm for three months.
Despite the court decision about our deportation, both my friend and I were
illegally kept at a special detention center for illegal immigrants, for
three months. During this period, the beatings and the torture was
constant. Only three months later my friend was released and taken to the
Ukrainian border, while I was suddenly charged with the crime of possessing
explosives.
Despite the absurdity of these accusations and absence of any evidence, the
court found me guilty. At first, I was sentenced to two years of
imprisonment, but shortly afterwards an appeal court reduced the sentence
to nine months. Since by that time I had already spent a year in detention,
I was released.
Through this year, in addition to all other abuse I have mentioned, I had
been regularly placed into the punishment cells and solitary confinement. I
spent three months with a mentally ill person in one cell. I was told I had
AIDS to scare me.
The fact I am free now is a testament to the efforts of the publicity
campaigns, international pressure and coordinated work of human rights
advocates and lawyers.
As of today, at least 13 Ukrainians are detained illegally somewhere in the
Russian Federation, and at least eight such prisoners are being held in
occupied Crimea, both Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars. The criminal cases
against them are fabricated.
Most of them have been brutally tortured. Some of them have been deprived
for over a year of their right to meet with an attorney or Ukrainian
consul. These are people of various ages, professional backgrounds and
political views, but they share one thing: Their lives have become an
instrument of the Russian state-sponsored propaganda that has created the
image of Ukraine as a mortal enemy of Russia.
The Kremlin officials constantly look for the means and the reasons to
justify their hybrid war against Ukraine. That is why innocent Ukrainian
citizens are proclaimed to be terrorists, spies and fascists.
It is a miracle that I managed to escape imprisonment and can tell you my
story personally. I prayed for this all the time in prison.
Mr. Pechenyak. OK. And he will say a few more words and I will translate
for him, interpret.
Mr. Yatsenko. [Through interpreter.] So I just want to impress upon you
that while we're sitting here talking about all of this, there's 13 people,
which I've mentioned, sitting in some decrepit Russian cell, waiting for
their continuing punishment and not able to see anybody.
Ukraine, just to be part of the democratic freedom-cratic world, has paid
the price of thousands of lives and continues to pay that price. I think we
deserve, that Ukraine deserves the democratic world extends the hand of
help.
Our campaign, that has been in the Euromaidan SOS and Let My People Go
campaign, which he has became an advocate for this campaign, they developed
a set of principles or the most effective things that could be done to
address and to help these people that are still imprisoned. This includes
organizing open hearings in the European Parliament and other parliaments
of the free and Western democracies. It also includes providing information
to the media and publicizing these cases of the people and their plight and
to inform the world about sufferings.
And also, it includes identifying and including sanctions that include the
people who participated in the torture and the prosecution into the
sanctions, meaning adding, for example, adding these people, their names,
specific names of the people who were complicit in these acts to the, for
example, the Magnitsky list and other lists that may exist.
Now, from my experience, I think it's extremely important because if you
don't punish these evil acts they will spread, they will continue to spread
and there will be more of them.
Thank you for your attention. [Applause.]
Mr. Deychakiwsky. Thank you very much, Yuriy. We're glad you survived your
horrible ordeal and that you're here to bear witness and to also speak out
on behalf of others who have been unjustly imprisoned and suffering human
rights abuses.
I do want to mention that both in the Senate and the House--actually these
were led by our commissioners, Senator Ben Cardin and Senator Roger Wicker
in the Senate--resolutions did pass earlier this year calling for the
release of Nadia Savchenko and others. And also, a House resolution passed
several months ago that included language along the lines of what you
spoke.
That's a first step. It's not calling for the addition of names to the
Magnitsky list, but it's a step. And actually this amendment was included
by our Chairman, Chris Smith, and I have a copy of the resolution here. The
amendment ``calls upon the United States to impose targeted sanctions
against persons responsible for the kidnapping, arrest and imprisonment of
Nadia Savchenko and other illegally detained persons.''
So at least there's something on the record in the U.S. Congress on that.
But it is a process.
What I'm going to do before opening the floor to questions and answers is
ask Yaroslav Brisiuck, who's the what we call DCM, Deputy Chief of Mission,
of Ukraine's embassy to the U.S. and, I believe for the next few minutes at
least, the Charge d'Affaires because Ambassador Chaly is still on his way
back from Kyiv where he had gone to accompany Vice President Biden.
So Yaroslav, if you want to come up to the podium and make a few comments,
please?
Mr. Brisiuck. I would like to thank the Helsinki Commission for holding
today's briefing, and the panelists for once again bringing the important
message of Crimea and the ongoing Russia aggression, to Washington.
There's nothing more important to Ukraine, to the government, to civil
society, the NGOs, to all citizens of Ukraine than stopping Russian
aggression, the continued occupation of Crimea and egregious human rights
abuses.
We must not allow this topic to fall off the radar and be out-shadowed by
other crises of today, such as Iran, Syria or Ebola or anything else,
because the gravity of what's happening in Ukraine has really global
magnitude.
As Mr. Yaremenko mentioned, this is the first time since World War II when
an aggressor tries to redraw Europe's borders by force. So things like that
must not be happening today. And things like what happened to Mr. Yatsenko
and are happening to others must not be happening in today's world.
And we're grateful for the tremendous support and bipartisan support here
in Washington, in Congress, that the Ukrainian Freedom Support Act passed
last year, the Crimea-specific resolutions both in the Senate and in the
House. There's executive orders imposing sanctions, Crimea-related
sanctions, as well as numerous statements, including by Vice President
Biden at the Rada just a couple of days ago.
Unfortunately, the problem is that these sanctions have not been strong
enough to make Russia, make Putin change his course. And as the war in
Ukraine and Crimea is less, appears less on the front pages of newspapers,
there's danger that those sanctions might be rolled back.
And our strong position is that these sanctions must remain in force, they
must be ratcheted up to actually force the Kremlin to end its aggression
and illegal occupation of Crimea.
And what Congress could do in sending yet another powerful signal is to
pass a law which would establish by law that it is the policy of the United
States that it will never recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea.
And I would like to ask the panelists to elaborate what Mr. Yatsenko
mentioned when he talked about what the West should do to help end the
occupation of Crimea, if you could please share your thoughts on this.
And thank you very much again.
Ms. Bilych. I think I can answer. Well, again, we have 61 recommendations.
Some of us were born and raised in Ukraine and were fortunate enough to get
an excellent education in the West in the best educational institutions in
the United States. We do understand how Ukraine works and operates and
maybe there is a reason why we live here and work on those issues.
Those recommendations are very practical and we believe they are aimed at
building a truly stable Ukraine, democratic and prosperous Ukraine.
For example, Ukrainian judicial system is young and often inefficient.
Ukraine is a young democracy. It's not able to handle all those human
rights violations. So there is a huge need in establishing an independent
international tribunal in adjudicating the abuses, human rights abuses that
are happening in Crimea and that led to what had happened in Crimea.
The next step probably would be to adjudicate those human rights violations
that happened at Maidan and those that are happening in the eastern part of
Ukraine due to Russian occupation.
That is why we advocate for Ukrainian laws being used in that tribunal and
international judges and experts being the judges. We informally talked
with different judges and they don't feel comfortable with adjudicating
their peers, with people they went to school or their kids going to school.
It's a young democracy, it works, and they would like to learn. And I
think, and we think it would be an appropriate solution.
And also, that could tap into other issues and have them to deal with other
concerns such as corruption and other things that they are dealing with.
To build a database, to start a database, for example, it would send a very
strong message. It may seem like it's nothing, but it is something for a
Ukrainian citizen who lives in Crimea, if she can send a copy of my deed to
the property virtually to the database and use the Internet and store it
and know that when everything is sorted out she can still use and exercise
her right--it is a powerful message.
And we are watching. We are watching what you are doing. Maybe we're not
ready to deal with everything and we're trying to develop the methods. But
we are watching and we are collecting the data. We are protecting our
citizens.
And that's where the other states, as the United States come in, they can
provide their expertise. They have to, of course, work and be wholly
engaged, but the expertise should be there.
And of course, to restore the communication. I mean, it's incomprehensible
that Ukrainian citizens cannot communicate, they have to use super-
expensive means to communicate with their family in the mainland, that they
cannot exercise their right to true information.
There was an experiment held on them by a foreign country. They're being
brainwashed by the Russian Federation's propaganda. This is just
incomprehensible. And that's why there will be consequences when it
continues. And it's going to cost us more and more in the future to deal
with those issues.
And other things that can be done are, for example, Ukraine is a signatory
to all World Health Organization treaties. The people who are drug addicts,
they could gracefully release their dependency on drugs by using methadone
and other means. Unfortunately, after Russian occupation happened, some of
them committed suicide, so many of them died, we do not know what happened
to all 806 individuals. Those are so underprivileged and under-served
people, they just disappeared, vanished. Some of them left for Russian
Federation where they have to go cold turkey, and some of them ran to
Ukraine, where they can get support.
Russia has to, as occupying power, has to renew those, has to implement
Ukrainian laws and has to restore those programs. Little things like that,
they seem little, but they are very important and they influence each and
every individual.
And just we have to remember, returning Ukrainian sovereignty, we have to
return Ukrainian citizens back. So it has to come in totality of how--we
have to look in totality of those factors.
Thank you.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. OK, thanks.
Mr. Klymenko. [Through interpreter.] We have to come from the fact that
none of the words, none of the monetary, none of the appealing to the
Russian--from the international community are really working in the Russian
Federation.
Secondly, no independent monitoring of human rights abuses on the territory
of Crimea exists or can exist under today's circumstances. That's why we
only have one recourse, which is third, is the increase of the sanctions in
order to create, in order to impose as big a price as possible for these
actions.
So at the same time, these sanctions also can work as an ultimatum for the
release of political prisoners and for desisting the persecution of other
citizens.
I would like to give an example, that the energy blockade that was
instituted by the civil society in Ukraine in 20 days alone brought damage
to the Russian economy consisting of 10 billion rubles, which roughly is
one-seventh of a billion dollars.
And last, in general, during the time of the occupation, the money that
went into the budget of Crimea from the Russian Federation increased
between 70 to 80 percent. In other words, sanctions work.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. Anybody else?
Mr. Yatsenko. So our chairman today mentioned about the possibility that
the law may be adopted with regard to sanctioning people who are involved
in these acts of torture. I would like to request that the people who were
involved in my case and other cases of other people that are still
imprisoned be added to the list, that sanctions apply to the Magnitsky list
or other lists. So that's my appeal to be included in that law.
And I request, I appeal that that law is adopted.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. OK, thanks. We'll do our best.
Bohdan Yaremenko wanted to add something very quickly before we move on.
Mr. Yaremenko. I'll try to be as brief as possible. I just would like to
remind what I just said in my presentation. The Crimean Peninsula,
occupation of Crimea is not the primary issue when we're talking about the
ways of resolving the situation. We must remember that there are other
cases in the region, Donbas, Transnistria, Abkhazia, Ossetia. And Russia is
standing behind all of them.
So it is not the case of Crimea alone. It is the case of the international
community finding the way to address the country, the U.N. members, the
U.N. security members, the countries which own the nuclear arsenals and to
make it cooperating with the rest of the world and to make it to respect
international law, to respect the international order.
On the level of practical diplomacy, besides the things mentioned by
Andriy, I would like to add there are existing sanctions. You know that
right now we have two packages of sanctions against Russian Federation. One
package was introduced after the annexation of occupation of Crimea,
another because of the war in the eastern Ukraine.
So I have no doubts that they should be combined and united within one
package. Otherwise, the Russian Federation will continue to think that as
long as they would create some ceasefire situation in eastern Ukraine, it
would mean that most of the sanctions would be lifted.
And the package of the sanctions that was introduced because of the
Ukrainian occupation is nothing else but symbolic. So it's the prohibition
for entry to European Union and United States for like 300 Crimeans, Putin
can live with this. And the restrictions on the operation in the Western
markets for 20, 30 Crimean-based companies, so it's nothing to stop Russia.
So those two packages should be united.
Because the most important part of the sanctions are those that are
directed on the sectoral, on the different sectors of Russian economy, so
the rest of the world should send.
Again, I would like to clarify that, of course, the regaining of Crimea is
the competence and responsibility and duty of Ukrainian nation. But to
assist us, the rest of the world could send the message to the Russian
Federation that the sanctions will stay in place as long as you are keeping
your troops in eastern Ukraine and in Crimea and quite possibly in
Transnistria, in Ossetia and in Abkhazia.
There is no way to resolve this situation or those situations one by one.
We should find the common approach to all of them. Thank you.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. OK, thank you.
We're going to open up the floor to questions. And what I'd ask you to do,
you may want to line up, speak at the podium, and please use the mic there
because this is being transcribed. And also, keep in mind, please, if you
could identify yourself.
And while you're lining up, I'm going to give the opportunity to my
colleague Jonas Wechsler to ask the first question--or the second question,
I should say.
Mr. Wechsler. Thank you, Orest.
My question relates to the issue of forced citizenship upon the Crimea
residents. It's broad-based and I'm sure that a number of you could speak
to it, including DCM Brisiuck.
But to get to it, I'd like to know, Crimean residents who've been refused
citizenship, how are they currently being treated? I know you spoke to some
of the property issues, but in terms of their freedom to come and go and
otherwise conduct economic and social activities.
And then furthermore, it has been noted that a number of Crimean residents
at the time were at least initially supportive of the Russian activities
with thoughts that they'd see some economic and other improvement.
As we've heard up here, the situation has only deteriorated all around in
Crimea. And I'm sure now a number of these folks are experiencing buyer's
regret. And I'm interested to know, in terms of Ukraine's own ability to
reach out to these residents, does Ukraine allow these Crimeans to reclaim
their citizenship whether or not they voluntarily accepted Russian
passports, or accept them should they later choose to move to the Crimean
mainland?
Mr. Klymenko. [Through interpreter.] About citizenship, on March 18, 2014
Putin declared us all citizens of Russia. We didn't ask him for it.
Ukraine's minister of justice, declared that it does not fit any legal
frameworks. Ukraine told its citizens in Crimea that it considers them
citizens of Ukraine.
Along with that, living in Crimea without Russian passport is impossible.
You will not be given a job, you will not be admitted to a hospital, your
children will not be able to go to school and you will not be able to have
your car registered or get any kinds of documents.
The quantity of people who could register as residents, but not citizens,
who did not want to take Russian passports were limited to 5,000 people
from the beginning.
When you go to the government, when you get a government job, which is
police and prosecutors office and other government institutions, it is
required to give up your Ukrainian citizenship and take the Russian
passport.
Unofficially, but yet rather assertively, the workers of the ministry of
education are also requested to do the same.
Majority of the residents of Crimea retained their Ukrainian passports. The
decision of the civilized world to not give visas to those Crimean
residents with Russian passports had a very strong impact. In Crimea, a
very widespread expression for those who hold Russian passports, to call it
Auschwitz which was the term in Nazi Germany, used in Nazi Germany.
As to what to do to help, according to international law and the Ukrainian
law on occupied territories, all responsibility for all spheres of life of
citizens who reside in Crimea reside with the country occupant.
Ukraine can help its citizens only on the mainland Ukraine, not on the
occupied territory. This help consists of the following, although it also
has its own problem. First of all, the high school graduates can be
accepted in universities in Ukraine. And also, citizens who want to receive
birth certificates for their newly born children can also do that on the
mainland Ukraine.
Those who left Crimea for the mainland Ukraine and those who cannot find a
job, they, for a short period of six months, can receive unemployment
benefits.
We cannot talk about any kind of help out of Ukraine on the territory of
the occupied Crimea, it's just completely impossible. Even for possessing a
little Ukrainian flag, you can be detained by the police.
And lastly, we, all the declared, new citizens of Russia now are prone to
having criminal charges against us on the territory of Crimea.
On March 6th of this year, I presented a report, together with the Atlantic
Council, on the situation on human rights in Crimea. On March 10, FSB
opened a criminal case against me for an attempt to disturb the territorial
integrity of Russia. They opened the case precisely for the reason that
they consider me a citizen of Russia.
Related to this case, about 10 people were questioned. There were multiple
searches in their homes and offices. And this case is still open and
continues.
In other words, the problem of citizenship is very wide and very complex
and it calls for professionals, the legal professionals to take charge of
addressing it.
So the main help that we can provide to the Crimeans, except the Crimean
Tatars, is for those who want and can move to the mainland Ukraine, so we
provide everything they need for that to happen in place.
The children who were educated in Ukraine will now be serving in the
Russian military, and so on.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. All right, thank you.
Now we'll take questions from the floor. If you could please come up to the
podium on your right, my left. And yes, identify yourself.
Questioner. I'm Adrian Karmazyn with the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation. And I was
wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the life of refugees
from Crimea, various communities of Crimeans throughout Ukraine. There's
the Crimean Tatar community, there are other communities. Where do they
live? Where do they work? How do they participate in Ukrainian life?
Ms. Bilych. Actually, I would like to address this. I know we have better-
equipped people from Ukraine to do this. But this year I went to Ukraine
twice and I've met many Crimeans and I've made friends with many Crimeans.
And one of those Crimeans, many of them, they live a very fulfilling
political life and civil society life. And some of them they're just
inspiring. For example, I met this young lady. She continues her studies.
She had to escape the persecution. And she's been very instrumental in even
providing us with some materials. And she's just amazing and she's an
inspiration. She was a quiet spirit and that's what I saw in many other
Crimeans, amazing, inspiring people and true heroes.
And when we went to Ukraine, we had this amazing opportunity to meet more
Crimeans at the Maidan of Foreign Affairs, and it was just an amazing
meeting. They were so inspiring and so giving us more strength and
inspiration to go and help to explain what's going on there and to provide
them the forum to do that.
And for many of them, of course, it's very hard. But those people who I in
particular met, they just--they were a true inspiration.
And that's how we met Mr. Klymenko and that's how we developed a friendship
and a true working experience. Thank you.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. Anyone else? OK.
Mr. Klymenko. [Through interpreter.] First of all, I want to emphasize that
we do not call ourselves refugees. The law calls us temporarily displaced
persons. And although this may be incorrect, but we call ourselves
political immigrants, Crimean political immigrants. And this is exactly so.
Those people who left Crimea were those who understood that they could not
continue their either professional or civic activities or simply those
people, Ukrainian patriots, who simply could not pretend, you know, hold
themselves back and pretend like nothing is going on.
I will give you an example of one of our colleagues and a person from Yalta
where I'm from and who is now our colleague at the Maidan of Foreign
Affairs.
So imagine a dean of law schools comes from a brief vacation and comes back
to the building, seeing portraits of Putin everywhere. He was an Afghan
veteran, he's 50 years old. He's a very strong character.
Without hesitation, he gives an order, in 10 minutes I don't want to see
this, I want to see pictures of flowers from the botanical garden.
As soon as I found out about that, I called him immediately and told him
you have to leave Crimea now because very shortly you will be found in the
basement of FSB. There are about 40,000 to 50,000 such individuals in
different parts of Ukraine.
And perhaps you know that we also have about a million refugees from the
Donbas. Among them, there are also Ukrainian patriots. But the majority of
people were simply leaving to avoid the bombing. And those people line up
at the government agency offices to receive benefits and wait and demand
help.
Those Ukrainian patriots from Crimea and Donbas, as a rule, understand that
Ukraine is undergoing very hard times right now. And they are trying not to
only help themselves, but also to do something to improve the situation in
Ukraine.
And at the same time, and this is my concluding thought, that we all of a
sudden just have become poor. I've lost my home and I've lost all my
property in Crimea. And at my age I am now a homeless person. And you know,
the only way for me to deal with this is just to try to forget it.
There is an organization that's been recently created of civic
organizations supporting Crimea and resettled. There have been two
conferences and it unites over 2,500 organizations from different parts of
Ukraine.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. Thank you, and for also describing yet another example of
the human impact of Russia's aggression.
I think we have time for one or two more questions if anybody wants to
please come up to the podium again and identify yourself.
Questioner. Alex Yanevskyy, Voice of America, Ukrainian Service. I'd like
to go back to violation of the human rights in occupied Crimea.
You've been saying that Russia does not comply with international law, and
you said, all of you, pretty much said that Russian Federation has to do
so. But recently, Russia's Duma adopted to law where it says that the
domestic law overrules an international law. What are you going to do about
that? Thank you.
Mr. Yaremenko. Well, basically, I already answered this question. So it's
not about the Crimean law and it's not about Donbas law and it's not about
Transnistria law. It's about the country which is purposely violating
international law and our ability as an international community to find an
answer on this dilemma.
There is no answer so far. So it looks like that for the Russian Federation
the fact that it is in possession of nuclear weapons has a good excuse to
do whatever it wants. That's it.
And so far, all of us--and of course, the countries like Ukraine, like
Moldova, like Georgia, they're looking upon the United States as the leader
of the democratic world to assist us to find the answers on those
questions.
They are very tough and the harsh reality is that we don't know how to
address this issue.
Ms. Bilych. I mean, obviously, the question is also for political experts.
And it's very complex. But I think at home here we have to ask ourselves
and look very deep into all those issues and think, of course we have to
talk to Russian Federation. But we have to ask ourselves, can you partner
with Russia on other tasks? Is this the partner who can just go and
dismantle the international law and order in one day, just by someone's
desire and ambition?
We have to be very careful and not to--and with our terminology, with our
definitions, and to think. Because what's happening in eastern Ukraine,
obviously we're talking about Crimea today, but I think our colleagues are
very correct about the complexity of the issues.
On Wednesday at the U.N., we heard Georgia testifying with Lithuania and
other countries that they witnessed firsthand what's going on in Ukraine.
They can testify that it's pretty much the same what they went through,
about Moldova's similar experience we heard a year ago during our first
report presentation.
So it's very complex. Now, as we look for other solutions in the Middle
East, can you really partner with a country that exports terrorism and
doesn't believe in human rights, on other tasks?
I was raised in Ukraine, and Ukrainian author Ivan Franko wrote a very
famous fairy tale about the sneaky fox who stole a chicken. And then
manipulated other animals to a point--that he appointed himself a presiding
judge over his own case.
So I think there is so much irony in all of this. And we have to ask, we
have to look into ourselves and look into our values.
That's why I specifically brought those quotes and looked into those quotes
and thought that's what I believe. That's why I do believe that Ukrainians
at Maidan stood for something very similar to what we believe here in the
United States and in other developed countries. They may still have to
figure it out, have to deal with all this that they have on their plate,
but values-wise, I do believe, and human rights-wise, they stand for the
same rights we stand for here in the US.
And it's usually the people of the Russian Federation have to figure out
what their value system is. And it might be a much longer process. I mean,
we have to also work with them, but we cannot just be very arrogant and
ignorant of those questions and then just to try, get over and wake up and
not to deal with those questions. Thank you.
Mr. Klymenko. [Through interpreter.] [Off mic]----please say a few words,
too.
So we need to change a lot of different formats. We need to change the
format of the U.N. We need to change the format of NATO, the Articles 5 and
6 of the Atlantic agreement.
And since Ivanna commented that the legal system has practically been
destroyed with these actions by the Russian Federation, we need to change
now and create new system. And the sooner the civilized world understands
that that's what needs to happen and starts acting upon it, the sooner
there will be real changes.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. Thank you.
Oh, OK, one more question, and that's it. We need to wrap it up,
unfortunately.
Questioner. I just have a very quick question. I first of all want to thank
Mr. Yatsenko for talking about his case in public today. I know it must
have been a difficult conversation, difficult thing to talk about.
Since we know that the situation in Crimea right now has deteriorated since
the blockade and the blackout, I was just curious, since we don't have good
sources of information about what's really happening on the ground in
Crimea, if some of you could just briefly comment. I'm sure you have
professional, personal and other friendship networks in Crimea. What is the
public sentiment there? Because I don't think we can rely on any sort of
polling that's coming out of Crimea these days.
What is the perception of people now towards their Russian occupiers, the
Russian authorities? Has it changed as a result of recent events
specifically? Thank you.
Mr. Yaremenko. [Through interpreter.] Thank you. So in Crimea, the
population could be divided into three equal factions. So one-third are
those who wanted Putin and who wanted to die in Russia.
And another third of the population are just what I would call regular
consumers. They just don't really care who's in charge, Germans,
communists, fascists, so long as I have food on the table I'm OK.
And finally, another third of the population are the conscious, so to
speak, citizens of Ukraine. And so half of them, the 300,000, consists of
Crimean Tatars and the other 300,000 consists of many different
ethnicities, Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks and others.
We call all of them political Ukrainians.
And this one-third of the population now, for longer than a year, have been
asking for this blockade.
And I personally received thousands of letters appealing, do something,
stop feeding the occupant. So in other words, the political Ukrainians in
Crimea perceived this blockade as something that Ukraine is beginning to do
for the de-occupation of Crimea.
The mood of the first one-third of the population, the Putin supporters,
we're not interested in their mood.
And with regard to the second one-third, the consumer population, their
view of the situation is shaped exclusively by Russian TV, the ``Russia
Today'' channel, which is a propaganda channel.
So in this way, the political Ukrainian population says we will take this
kind of pain in order to, you know, cooperate in the return of Crimea. But
of course, the rest of the population are lamenting in various ways and
praying for Putin.
Thank you.
Mr. Deychakiwsky. OK, thank you very much.
I think with that I want to thank the panelists for their very interesting,
informative, insightful presentations and responses to questions. You
provide a lot of food for thought and concrete suggestions. So thank you
very much.
And I want to thank the audience for your interest and wish everybody a
happy weekend, enjoy your weekend.
Oh, I see Stacy here, our communications director--one more thing to add,
the transcript will be up on our website probably by Tuesday, because it's
usually 48 hours, 2 business days, on our website. And our website is
www.csce.gov.
OK. And with that, the briefing's adjourned. Thank you. [Applause.]
[Whereupon, at 3:50 p.m., the briefing ended.]
A P P E N D I X
Prepared Statement of Ivanna Bilych
It is a great privilege and honor to speak at this venue today.
I am deeply grateful to Helsinki Commission, its leadership and our
moderator Orest Deychakiwsky for hosting this very important round table.
Even as a ten-year-old child growing up in Soviet Ukraine, I always knew of
the Helsinki Commission. Back then I could not possibly know what exactly
it did, but I knew it stood for something bigger that I could comprehend
and imagine. I was right!--it stands for democracy, human rights, rule of
law and simply morally the right thing.
Most of you know the great importance of the topic I am going to speak with
you about, but for those for whom it may seem a bit remote let me remind
you the words of one of the greatest men, William Allen White, who said
that ``Wherever a free man is in chains we are threatened also, whoever is
fighting for liberty is defending America.''
Another great man and our great President Franklin Roosevelt once said that
``Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes
to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is
our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save
victory.''
Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to thank you all for coming today to
discuss our latest report, ``The Human Rights on Occupied Territory: Case
of Crimea.''
Thank you to the esteemed coauthors for their outstanding work and
dedication to human rights, international law and order, global peace and
security. I would like to extend my sincere and deepest gratitude to a very
special woman, professor Mary Holland, who supervised the project. Thank
you to David Glasgow, Assistant Director of the Public Interest Law Center
for his guidance and support of this pro bono project. I would like to
thank Matthew Mosner and Ethan Burger for their time and valuable comments
to the early drafts.
Special thank you to all the editors designers, volunteers, experts who
gave us their feedback on the second edition.
And thank you to a wonderful team from VOLYA Institute for their superb
work and dedication to the second edition of this report and making it a
reality!
Thank you to our Razom Partners for their support and understanding of the
importance of the issues presented today.
A year ago at a different venue, in the United Nations, we gathered to
discuss the legal dimensions of Russian actions in Ukraine, the occupation
of Crimea and its illegal attempts to annex Ukrainian territory. To this
day, the Russian Federation continues to occupy sovereign Ukrainian
territory in Crimea and has violated international law by illegally seizing
the Ukrainian peninsula. We still have to sort out all the implications and
grave consequences of the illegal actions of the Russian Federation in
Ukraine and find a solution to restore Ukrainian sovereign territory for
people of Ukraine and for us as the international community individually
and together.
What is very clear, however, is that practice of human rights in occupied
Crimea is dire and continues to deteriorate. Every day Ukrainian citizens
in occupied Crimea face unprecedented oppression and limitations of their
rights. Serious and consistent violations of the civil, political, social,
economic and cultural rights of Crimeans have been well-
documented by a variety of organizations including the United Nations,
Human Rights Watch, international media outlets, reports from the
undercover journalists within Crimea and various local organizations over
the previous year. The illegitimate self-proclaimed Crimean and Russian
authorities target those ethnic, religious, and national groups that oppose
the occupation. Indigenous Crimean Tatars are frequently suspected of this
sort of broadly defined ``anti-Russian activity.''
To help address this situation, to build on those findings and create a
pragmatic guide for people both within Crimea and outside of the peninsula
to understand the legal framework of the situation and in attempt to sort
out the legal chaos that has been created by the illegal actions of the
Russian Federation in Ukraine, an international team of lawyers based at
New York University School of Law prepared this report as a pro bono
service.
The purpose of the report is to assist individuals in Crimea, Ukraine, as
well as around the world, working in academia, governments, international
organizations, non-governmental organizations, businesses, and media to
understand the nature of the human rights violations in the occupied
territory, so that they are better equipped to defend and protect the
internationally recognized expression of human rights.
The report or WHITE PAPER includes four parts and the Manual.
We analyzed the human rights situation in occupied Crimea, placing it
within the context of:
applicable international standards, conventions and treaties;
authorities and entities responsible for protecting and providing
human rights;
specific abuses of human rights by the self-proclaimed Crimean
and Russian authorities;
legal precedents that apply to the occupied territory, and its
legal regime.
The authors examined the historical and legal context, defined the primary
rights that are being violated, give recommendations on what steps people
in Crimea can take and outline actions for organizations.
In Part I we brought together several related threads to create the context
for the current situation, covering:
recent history, from Crimea's transfer in 1954 to the so-called
March 16, 2014 referendum to unify with the Russian Federation;
the Russian Federation's use of force to occupy Crimea in 2014;
post-World War II international agreements and treaties on
states' sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In Part II we outlined and examined 21 distinct human rights that are
provided for by international and domestic laws. We analyze each right
individually with respect to international, Ukrainian and Russian law. The
report focuses on:
civil and political rights: right to life, freedom from torture
or any other inhuman treatment, access to justice, right to nationality,
right to privacy and family rights, liberty and security of a person,
freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, right to truth,
right to participate in state governance, right to equality before the law
and freedom from discrimination; limitations of these human rights and
freedoms are prohibited unless prescribed by law;
social, economic and cultural rights: right to own property,
right to social security, right to an adequate standard of living, right to
speak one's own language and maintain one's own cultural tradition, right
to education, and right to health care.
In Part III we discussed and suggested remedies for individuals whose human
rights have been violated, suppressed, encroached or otherwise denied. The
general and specific remedies include the use of international, Ukrainian
and Russian Federation legal instruments.
We concluded that Russian Federation's illegal occupation and attempted
annexation of Crimea has created a continuous stream of human rights
violations encroaching on or even prohibiting basic individual human rights
and freedoms. The Russian Federation fails to comply with its obligations
as an occupying power, and the Ukrainian government is not paying enough
attention to the human rights issues in Crimea.
Remedies applying international law are not always available to victims
with limited resources due to complex procedures, limited jurisdiction, and
resulting lengthy proceedings. Our findings demonstrate the insufficiency
of existing remedies for human rights violations and mechanisms of the
entire international system of human rights protection with respect to
Crimeans. The following recommendations are for those entities that can
help ensure human rights enforcement and protection in Crimea:
1. The Ukrainian Government
2. The self-proclaimed Crimean and Russian Federation's authorities
3. The international community
4. NGOs, civil society and advocates on the ground
Existing national and international remedies are ineffective against such
massive human rights violations as are occurring in Crimea. Self-proclaimed
Russian Federation's authorities deny responsibility, and the Ukrainian
government claims the lack of ability and resources to respond properly.
For this reason, the concerted efforts of governments and institutions
worldwide are critical. Human rights organizations have reported
extensively on human rights violations in Crimea and recommended ways to
address issues affecting human rights in occupied Crimea. We concur with
their recommendations, and provide additional recommendations.
In addition to the recommendations cited in the report published April 15,
2014 ``Ukrainian Crisis: Its Legal Dimensions,'' further findings have led
us to call on the Ukrainian, self-proclaimed Crimean and Russian
authorities, civil society and the international community, to implement
the following recommendations.
We expect our recommendations to Ukraine, Self Proclaimed Crimean and
Russian authorities, international community and civil society and
activists will prompt a solution, which will honor the Ukrainian people
human rights desire and support for unitary, sovereign country, Ukraine's
territorial integrity and democracy.
Among the key recommendations: we recommend that Ukraine continue to work
closely with the UN and the international community to ensure Russia's
troop withdrawal from Crimea and from the Eastern Ukrainian border.
We ``invented'' and proposed trifold logic to our recommendations. We ask
the addressees of our recommendations to work on these tasks according to
their respective roles, responsibilities, goals, and objectives. The
Ukrainian government is advised to implement the recommended measures; the
international community is encouraged to assist and monitor; and civil
society--to demand implementation of the measures, and subsequently monitor
their implementation. The Self-proclaimed Crimean and Russian authorities
should comply with international law.
Creation of Special International Tribunal
Creation of special database
Creation of ad hoc markets
Securement of free communication and access to true information
Securement of ongoing monitoring of human rights situation
A crucial part of this report is a Human Rights Protection Guide [``the
Manual'']. The Manual is designed to help residents of Crimea take steps to
improve their current situation directly. We concluded that people in
Crimea are economically deprived and legally underserved, often knowing
little about their rights and being unable to demand their application.
Therefore, the aim of the Manual is to provide Crimeans of all ethnic and
religious backgrounds with access to justice by explaining their
fundamental rights. The Manual lists a number of fundamental rights that
apply to Crimea, according to international human rights treaties, as well
as pursuant to the articles of the Constitutions of Ukraine and the Russian
Federation. Finally, the Manual includes a directory of Ukrainian and
international human rights protection organizations and advocacy groups, so
that Crimeans know where to report violations and seek advice or
explanation.
To conclude I would like to remind a quote from John Prendergast, a great
human rights activist, who said that ``The biggest road block to action on
genocide and other human rights crimes is ignorance. Most people just don't
know that such things are happening, and often, if they have a vague idea
they are happening, there is a feeling that there is nothing that can be
done to stop these crimes.''
Franklin Roosevelt also said that ``We must remember that any oppression,
any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our
civilization.''
Russia's actions are striking at the heart of international law and order
that has helped to prevent war since the World War II, and if we allow
ourselves to let it be, we run into much bigger risks.
I encourage you today, to utilize your great expertise, this venue, power
any and all means to find a meaningful solution to stop the wedge of
oppression, injustice, hatred towards the people of Ukraine in occupied
Crimea.
Prepared Statement of Bohdan Yaremenko
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Our NGO Maidan of Foreign Affairs together with our partner web-portal The
Black Sea News represented here by its Editor-in-Chief Mr. Andrii Klymenko
are not only covering the Russian military aggression in Ukraine since mid-
February 2014 but is the only Ukrainian institution that summarized the
picture and published the Strategy of Returning the Crimea last year.
We are convinced that the situation in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine is
directly connected and should be kept in the same frame for political
analysis. Honestly speaking the picture will still be incomplete without
analyzing the Russian intervention into Ukraine aside of what is happening
in Transdniestria in Moldova, Abkhazia and Ossetia in Georgia.
The time limits will not allow me to do it in a proper way.
Nevertheless, the issue of human rights in the conflict areas in Ukraine
and in particular in the annexed Crimea should not and cannot be properly
addressed without broader overview of the political, military, security,
economic and social situation.
So, we decided to share the responsibilities. With your permission I will
cover the general issues in order to allow my dear friend and colleague Mr.
Andrii Klymenko to concentrate fully on the issues of human rights.
Political preferences were not the main reason for the annexation of the
Crimea (the local parliament, elected in 2012, included only 3 deputies out
of 100 who represented the pro-Russian movements and organizations).
A fear of ethnic and interreligious conflicts has been artificially
enforced by the Russian propaganda within a short period of time as the
active phase of the annexation plan was being implemented (in winter 2014);
this fear was an additional factor that reinforced the overall concerns of
the citizens.
The main propaganda messages directed towards the citizens of Ukraine from
the Russian side covered the issues of the ``quality of life'' and
``quality of government'' (the media has created an illusion of greater
efficiency of the Russian authorities compared to the Ukrainian ones, and
of the readiness of the Russian state to ensure the better socio-economic
life conditions without any efforts made by the citizens of Ukraine).
Invasion Scenario:
1. Presence of the Russian citizens, including the military personnel from
the intelligence agencies, primarily from the Main Intelligence Directorate
of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
Together with the pro-Russian activists among the local residents and
citizens of Ukraine, they organized rallies, fights, mass disturbances, and
violent confrontations with patriotic citizens.
2. A premeditated escalation used as an excuse for creating the self-
defense units that include both local residents and the Russian citizens
infiltrated specifically for such purposes.
3. In the Eastern Ukraine, these units seized administrative buildings and
paralyzed the activity of the state bodies, which in turn stepped away from
solving problems, and in some cases supported anti-state actions. In
Crimea, the self-defense units were a cover-up that was covering the covert
actions of special units of the army of the Russian Federation. They were
the ones who seized the government agencies and blocked military units of
the Ukrainian army.
4. Establishment of the pseudo governments that took over the
responsibility over the management of the occupied territories. The
mentioned pseudo governments imitated a freedom of expression which was
used as justification or explanation of the aggression.
The inability or unwillingness of the legitimate authorities to take
measures for a quick and decisive suppression of these trends, an attempt
to calm down the protesters or aggressors was regarded as weakness,
encouraged the aggressor, demoralized the supporters.
Corruption, common business interests of the local and central authorities
with the relevant public and private bodies of the aggressor state were
actively used as mechanisms for influencing and compromising the political
will for resistance.
The annexation of Crimea has become the first case of invasion of the
territory in Europe since the Second World War. The mentioned situation
calls into question the existence or the effectiveness of international law
and the international security guarantees, thus threatening the existing
world order.
The Current State of Affairs
A ``hot phase'' of the armed conflict in the Eastern Ukraine is still
ongoing. However, the so-called Minsk agreements do not function as a
ceasefire mechanism, do not lead to the establishment of sustainable peace
and do not provide a solution to the problem of the territorial integrity
restoration of Ukraine.
The escalation phases coincide with the international negotiations on
peace-settlement (they are effectively used by Russia as a tool of pressure
on negotiating parties).
The occupied areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions suffered from a
large-scale destruction of the infrastructure and residential buildings
resulting from the combat operations.
An industrial infrastructure was partially destroyed, plundered and
transported to Russia (in particular, defense enterprises were completely
dismantled and transported to Russia). The current condition of the
industrial infrastructure does not allow to predict a possibility of the
restoration of the pre-war regional economy structure and, consequently, of
the social structure of the population. About 2.5 million people (about a
third of the overall number of inhabitants), mainly the most educated and
active part of the society, became forced migrants and refugees.
Prospects for resolving the situation in the East of Ukraine (the problem
of ``specific areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions'') are uncertain.
Forced migrants and political fugitives from Crimea (about 40 thousand
people) represented the most active and loyal citizens of Ukraine.
In general, the public mood in Crimea can be described as follows:
At the beginning of the Crimean occupation the residents were
fully satisfied with the Ukrainian legal liberalism,
not satisfied with quality of life,
not satisfied with the quality of government.
As a result of occupation, as for now the residents of Crimea
have not received the improvement of the quality of government, it actually
deteriorated,
have not got better quality of life, it actually deteriorated,
have lost Ukrainian legal liberalism.
A phase of adaptation to the law of the occupying country in Crimea is
over, and a process of reclamation of the assets of the annexed territory
is ongoing--this process can be described as colonization.
Replacement or ``dilution'' of the Crimean population is taking place--
``the import of the Russians'', including the military personnel and their
families, officers of the intelligence agencies and their families,
officials and their family members, members of the Russian organized crime
groups from the North Caucasian regions of Russia, is still ongoing. Thus,
according to the official Russian statistics, the increase of number of the
Russian immigrants in Sevastopol during the occupation was about 25,000
people, or about 7% of the population. In the rest of Crimea, this rate is
somewhat lower--10 thousand people, or 0.5% of the population.
The occupying authorities are developing Crimea mainly as a military base.
The number of troops is about 50 thousand people, not including the members
of the security agencies. The development process and increase of the
military grouping has not yet been completed; however, according to the
objectives defined by the Minister of Defense of Russia, the number of
Russian troops in Crimea can be increased to 100-120 thousand people.
The invaders turned the Crimea to a rehabilitation center for the militants
fighting in the east of Ukraine. Training camps for training of the
mercenaries later directed to fight against the Armed Forces of Ukraine in
the Donetsk and Lugansk regions have been established in Crimea.
Crimea has become a basic center of support of the Russian military
grouping in Syria.
Forming a powerful military base in Crimea, Russia threatens both the
southern regions of Ukraine and the existing Black Sea naval
communications, as well as the European countries--NATO member-states
(Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey).
The road infrastructure in the occupied territories has been fully or
largely destroyed. During the period of the Crimean occupation, the loading
of the roadbed had been increased in tens of times, primarily owing to the
movement of large numbers of heavy military vehicles (armored vehicles,
tanks and other heavy equipment). Intensive military building in Crimea led
to accelerated destruction of roads. All programs of the road construction
of Russia in Crimea turned to be a usual ``patching work'' of a very poor
quality.
The Crimean economic assets are being stolen or lose their capacity.
Railways, ports are not actually used.
Without proper irrigation, the agricultural soils lose their fertility,
while their salinity is increasing. Natural resources of Crimea are being
destroyed. The unscrupulous extraction of the fresh underground water has
led to the raise of saline groundwater level in some areas (Kerch
Peninsula), leading to increase of the soil salinity; furthermore, it
complicates the water supply to the population.
Given the intense military building, the occupants increase the volume of
the quarry mines development, and open up the new quarries for gravel
extraction, which can result in destruction of the microclimate, e.g. in
the valleys of the Bakhchisarai area (Alma Valley).
The situation with the quality of life in Crimea has developed in such a
way that under systematic reduction of employment (according to our
calculations, since the annexation about 200 thousand jobs, primarily in
tourism, restaurant and hotel business, services, small business and
transport, have been lost), the available vacancies are not filled. Today
there are 2,000 vacancies of municipal officials in Crimea, as well as a
large number of jobs in health care; generally, it is difficult to fill the
vacancies of ordinary employees in the business structures.
What happens next?
Developments in Eastern Ukraine are hard to predict because the hot phase
of the conflict is still ongoing. Russia as a state-aggressor has
sufficient resources to continue military actions, its probable political
purposes in Ukraine and in Europe have not been achieved, the means of
influence on Russia, such as international sanctions, just begin to
influence the Russian economy and the political will of the leadership of
the Russian Federation to continue the aggression, but their duration in
time is uncertain.
In Crimea, the main trends affecting the current developments are as
follows:
1. The main priority is to develop a territory as a military base
Consequences:
Posing threat to security of the Black Sea region, the EU Member
States and NATO [Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey], change of the military
balance, namely within the framework of the Agreement on Conventional Armed
Forces in Europe, and possibly within the framework of the agreements in
the field of strategic nuclear weapons control; persistent military threat
to the entire southern coast of Ukraine with the purpose to implement the
plan of setting up a land ``corridor'' between the Russian Federation,
Crimea and Transnistria, militarization of the region, expansion of the
Russian military presence in Syria and the consequent armed confrontation
and civil war in that country;
Further enforcement of the policy of ``forced loyalty'' towards
the inhabitants of the Crimea, which will lead to further violation of the
human rights (the pressure on dissidents, on disloyal groups of
population), strengthening control over the media;
Implementation of strategic infrastructure building projects--a
bridge across the Kerch Strait, the energy bridge;
The need to increase supply of building materials and equipment
(primarily the metal, timber, construction mixes, crushed stone), which
will lead to increased pressure on the road infrastructure and increased
use of local natural resources, which, in turn, results in poor climatic
balance in the number of sub-regions of Crimea.
2. Lack of economic development strategy, lack of managerial human
resources
Consequences:
A trend towards reducing the number of small and medium-sized
enterprises (the set priority is to develop and support the large
companies, mainly in the defense sector); unemployment growth; reduction of
the tax capacity in the region, increase of dependence on direct funding
from the federal budget of Russia. Redirection of the budget financial
flows in Russia, financing deficit in other regions of the Russian
Federation, concealed contradictions and competition for obtaining a
funding between different regions of the Russian Federation;
Decrease of the standard of living; decrease of the consumer
purchasing power of the population [increase of prices, fewer choice for
consumers, lowering of the quality of food]; increase of the social
stratification and increasing differences in living standards among the
citizens funded by the state/federal/regional budgets, and self-employed
people and employees of commercial structures; gradual growth of social
tension;
Continuation of policy of the excessive use of infrastructure and
natural resources, environmental degradation--changing of the climatic
balance, loss of underground fresh water deposits, lowering of fertility,
of the quality of agricultural lands, the gradual reduction of their area.
As a result, lowering of the ability of Crimea to ensure the self-sustained
food security.
3. Continuation of the trend towards resettlements of the citizens with
simultaneous degradation of democratic institutions, human rights and
freedoms, increase of corruption and criminalization of a daily life.
At the same time, Ukraine is going to gradually expand the policy of
Peninsula blockade, trying to create enforcement mechanisms to engage
Russia in the dialogue on the annexation. Furthermore, Ukraine will be
working on the creation of mechanisms for establishing the communications
with the population of Crimea [information disseminating channels,
definition of the legal status, creation of opportunities to exercise the
rights and protect the interests of the citizens in the territory of
Ukraine, definition of the status of self-government bodies of the Crimean
Tatar people and Crimeans on the whole, support of their activities].
Thank you for your attention.
Prepared Statement of Andriy Klymenko
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Please allow me start with the statement of the absence of any significant
human rights violations in Crimea prior of the annexation noted by the
specialized international bodies like Council of Europe or let say the US
State Department. As well there were no reports or any statements on the
issue done by the Russian Federation.
The existed problems in the field of the human rights were merely related
to the underdeveloped transitional democratic or law-enforcement system in
Ukraine. Some noted occasional situations of the conflicts on the grounds
of political affiliation, ethnic or religious routs ironically were always
created by the pro-Russian activists, Russian neo-Nazis etc.
Today, the citizens of Ukraine residing in the temporarily occupied
territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are actually deprived of a
number of fundamental rights and the possibility of their protection,
particularly by drawing attention of international human rights
organizations to their problems.
Forcing citizens of Ukraine to join Russian citizenship is one of the tools
for invasion of the occupied territory by Russia (the owners of the
Ukrainian passports are deprived of the opportunity of education, medical
services, immovable property registration, obtaining utilities, employment,
etc.).
For some categories of the citizens of Ukraine, the renunciation of
Ukrainian citizenship was delivered as an ultimatum (employees and
personnel of certain commercial structures, such as Ukrtelecom, etc.).
The aggressor is implementing a large-scale program of forcing the
residents of Crimea to loyalty. Potentially disloyal persons are considered
to be:
- journalists, civil activists, members of NCA (national competent
authority), whose organizations and the media were created prior to the
occupation;
- Crimean Tatar people in general, members of the autonomous bodies of the
Crimean Tatar people (Kurultai, Medzhylis, 230 regional Medzhylis offices),
clerical leaders of the Muslims (mainly of Crimean Tatars);
- ethnic Ukrainians or persons of different ethnic origin with Ukrainian
political identity, including religious leaders and members of religious
communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate,
Catholics, Greek Catholics (both Ukrainians and immigrants from Poland,
Belarus, the Baltic States).
The Crimean Tatars are put to systematic pressure as the most cohesive
community that openly expressed its opposition to the occupation of Crimea
by the Russian Federation.
The number of secret services employees per capita in Crimea is 3 times
higher than the similar rate for the rest of Russia. Methods of their work
are intimidation, total control of telephone calls, Internet communication,
and ``brainwashing'' through the media, accusations, separation of certain
groups of citizens on ethnic or religious grounds. Activists or citizens
disloyal to Russia are called in for many-hours-long interrogations,
``preventive interrogations'', searches are carried out in their homes,
raids are carried out in the areas of compact settlement of the Crimean
Tatars, the troops block the certain localities or settlements, the
authorities organize deportation from Crimea, exclusions, criminal
prosecution based on fabricated evidence and false accusations, kidnapping,
murders.
The State authorities of Russia have developed the whole arsenal of
intimidation methods in the Republic of Ichkeria and other regions of the
North Caucasus.
Despite the declared trilingualism in Crimea (Russian, Ukrainian, Crimean
Tatar) invaders not only eradicate the Ukrainian language, but in general
any mention of Ukraine. There are reported cases of public burning of
books, schoolbooks, plates and inscriptions in the Ukrainian language in
front of the students, the Ukrainian schools and classes are being closed
down.
Russia makes active efforts to establish ``information ghettos'' on the
Crimean peninsula, in which citizens of Ukraine will be deprived of the
opportunity to receive information from Ukraine. These efforts include a
complete cessation of Ukrainian TV and radio channels broadcasting,
disconnection of the Ukrainian mobile operators and internet service
providers.
Today all independent media maintaining pro-Ukrainian position ceased their
existence and work in the Crimea (either disbanded or moved from the Crimea
to other regions of Ukraine). This particularly has the impact on the
online media, since the Ukrainian legislation did not require their
registration, although they are equivalent to the print media under the
laws of the Russian Federation.
As of today, the only propaganda media spread in Crimea has an openly pro-
Russian orientation.
On 9 May 2014, the Russian Federation has introduced the amendment to the
Criminal Code, which provides for a penalty of imprisonment from 3 to 5
years for journalists and ordinary citizens for disagreeing with the fact
that Crimea belongs to Russia or for calls for its return to Ukraine
(Public calls to commit actions aimed at violating the territorial
integrity of the Russian Federation). Criminal procedures under the
relevant article are initiated both against the citizens of Ukraine and the
Ukrainian media that operate in the mainland Ukraine, and are likely to be
used for the persecution at the international level.
The Russian authorities have eliminated the possibility of monitoring the
compliance with human rights. Independent international human rights
organizations in the occupied territories are not allowed to implement such
monitoring. Instead, the Russian authorities are actively working to
organize visits of international delegations and media to Crimea for
propaganda purposes.
Actions of the occupying power related to implementation of property rights
are marked by massive violations of rules and practices accepted in the
civilized world. There is a massive expropriation of all the state property
of Ukraine in the territory of Crimea, which is called the
``nationalization'' by the Russian propaganda. More than 400 companies have
been expropriated, and the list is constantly growing. This list includes
over 200 resorts, all the ports, including the airport, water and energy
supply facilities, railways, wineries, grain elevators and agricultural
enterprises.
The objects that belonged to Ukraine or to the trade unions and other
public organizations, as well as to the higher education institutions and
the Academy of Sciences etc., have also been expropriated.
As for the private enterprises, their formal expropriation was not carried
out. However, there are schemes of raider takeovers and changes in a
company management board that have been implemented. The ``Crimean self-
defense'' units are used as a component of the forcible takeover in the
course of such actions. An information component includes distribution of
false information through the media on the bankruptcy or financial problems
of such companies, on the large debts they have, and such justifications
call for their ``nationalization''. Such schemes are currently applied
selectively to those owners who support the idea of territorial integrity
of Ukraine and oppose the occupation.
Because of the time limits I will gladly provide more comments or examples
during the Q&A session.
Prepared Statement of Yuriy Yatsenko
My name is Yuriy Yatsenko. I am a Ukrainian citizen, who was illegally
arrested and detained by the Russian Federation for over a year, for
political reasons. Others who have suffered and continue to suffer the same
fate are Nadia Savchenko, Oleg Sentsov and others, of whom you probably
have never heard.
I was arrested in May 2014 in Kursk region of the Russian Federation, to
where I traveled together with my friend on a business trip. I was detained
by the police during a routine document check that the Russian police often
practice. At the police department, an agent of the FSB (Russian Federal
Security Service) showed to me a photograph of myself taken during the
Euromaidan protests, which, as I suspect, he had found on social media. The
agent demanded that me and my friend provide false testimony about being
recruited either by the Right Sector (Ukrainian right-wing party, heavily
demonized by the Russian propaganda) or personally by the head of the SBU
(Security Service of Ukraine) to commit acts of terrorism in Russia. At the
time, I was just an ordinary student from Western Ukraine and simply could
not believe that such absurd accusations were being made against me. By the
way, my western Ukrainian origin became an additional reason for the
Russian law enforcement personnel to harass me.
After we both refused to incriminate ourselves, they began beating us at
regular intervals. We were also offered an option of going on Russian TV
channels and giving a predetermined speech about being sent to Russia from
Ukraine to commit subversive acts, but instead turning to the FSB for
protection, to save us from the Ukrainian authorities and their
persecution. Once again, we refused to give false testimony, so the
harassment continued, turning into both physical and psychological abuse.
For example, they threatened to hand me over to the head of the Chechen
Republic Ramzan Kadyrov. ``We'll transfer you to Kadyrov, you'll be his
dog,'' as one FSB official threatened me.
At first, the abuse and the beatings were constant. I remember one
particularly brutal instance. Some special forces soldiers, wearing masks
and bearing no insignia on their uniforms other than the colors of the
Russian flag, put a bag over my head, took me into the woods and tortured
me. They hanged me by the handcuffs for hours and beat me in the head,
groin and other parts of the body, as well as strangled me. They also
simulated an execution, firing a gun next to my head.
The next morning, which was two weeks since my arrest, I used a shaving
blade to cut my abdomen and the veins on my arms to stop this abuse. Only
then I was taken to the hospital, from where I finally managed to inform my
family about my whereabouts.
Despite the court decision about our deportation, both my friend and I were
illegally kept at a special detention center for illegal immigrants for
three months. During this period, the beatings and the torture was
constant. Only three months later, my friend was released and taken to the
Ukrainian border, while I was suddenly charged with the crime of possessing
explosives.
Despite the absurdity of these accusations and the absence of any evidence,
the court found me guilty. At first, I was sentenced to two years of
imprisonment, but shortly afterwards, an appeal court reduced the sentence
to 9 months. Since by that time I had already spent a year in detention, I
was released. Throughout this year, in addition to all the other abuse I've
mentioned, I had been regularly placed into the punishment cells and
solitary confinement.
The fact that I'm free now is a testament to the efforts of the publicity
campaigns, international pressure, and coordinated work of human rights
advocates and lawyers. When I was in detention, I was visited by the guards
from time to time, informing me that another article about me appeared in
the press, or that another press-conference dedicated to my case was held.
They seemed to be alarmed by that, and kept saying that this should be
stopped, that everything should be ``done quietly''. That is why all public
events in support of the prisoners are extremely important, because they
give a clear signal to the repressive regime that it is being watched
closely and that none of the prisoners are forgotten.
As of today, at least 13 Ukrainians are detained illegally somewhere in the
Russian Federation, and at least 8 such prisoners are being held in
occupied Crimea, both Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars. The criminal cases
against them are fabricated, most of them have been brutally tortured, some
of them have been deprived for over a year of their right to meet with an
attorney or a Ukrainian consul. These are people of various ages,
professional backgrounds, and political views, but they share one thing--
their lives have become an instrument of the Russian state-sponsored
propaganda that has created the image of Ukraine as a mortal enemy of
Russia. The Kremlin officials constantly look for the means and the reasons
to justify their hybrid war against Ukraine. That is why innocent Ukrainian
citizens are proclaimed to be terrorists, spies, and fascists.
I am appealing to you on behalf of the campaign #LetMyPeopleGo. There are
no independent courts in Russia, that is why politically motivated cases
have no chance of being decided fairly. Only international pressure can
help achieve the release of those detainees. We are waiting for the return
home of Nadia Savchenko, Olexandr Kolchenko, Oleg Sentsov, Gennadiy
Afanasiev, Olexii Chirnii, Sergiy Lytvynov, Mykola Karpiuk, Stanislav Klyh,
Olexandr Kostenko, Haiser Dzhemilev, Yurii Soloshenko, Valentyn Vyhyvskii,
and Viktor Shur. We also demand that Crimea be deoccupied and that everyone
be released from the places of detention: Akhtem Chyihoz, Ali Asanov,
Mustafa Dehermendzhy, Yuriy Ilchenko, Ruslan Zaytullaev, Nuri Primov,
Rustam Vaytov, Ferat Sayfullaev. It is likely that this list is not
complete. We may even be unaware of what other prisoners have been
illegally detained. Nevertheless, we demand that the Russian Federation
release ALL of the prisoners subject to politically motivated persecution.
Prepared Statement of Anna Fotyga
Honorable Members of the U.S. Congress, Excellencies, Dear Ukrainian
Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my honor and privilege to speak to you advocating the cause of
Ukraine and in particular indicating the awful situation, awful violation
of human rights in Crimea after the illegal annexation of this territory by
the Russian Federation. I still remember my observing the Ukrainian
presidential elections in 2004, and how much I counted on changes in this
country, on genuine cooperation within our region and possibility to enjoy
freedom, right to self-determination, and to peacefully design our common
future. All of those dreams were taken from Ukraine, and to some extent
from whole our region. First after the Russian invasion on Georgia, and
after annexation of Crimea and further creeping of Russia inspired so
called ``green people'' towards the eastern parts, east and southern parts
of Ukrainian territory. I still remember this act of annexation signed by
Vladimir Putin in Kremlin on March 18th end enormous audience to this
performance or theatre. It was really a blow to all of us.
Before annexation of Crimea, local community, despite poverty of Ukraine
and necessity to make a real jump in order to get closer to Western
society, enjoyed reasonable freedom. There were schools for minorities,
there were free media, the NGOs used to flourish, there were Crimean Tatars
starting to come back to their homeland, home territory. It was not perfect
arrangement for them after decades and centuries of migration to Russia. It
was perpetrated, forced by Stalin, and earlier the rulers of Russia. But
they started to make their living, they had considerable possibility to
elect their representatives, including to the chamber of Ukrainian
Parliament, Verkhovna Rada. I have contacts with leaders of Tatar
community, Mustafa Cemilev and the deputy to Verkhovna Rada, Refat
Chubarov. They speak about atrocities imposed on Tatar population of Crimea
after annexation. Closing of schools, disappearing of youth, inability to
move freely, inability to join their families living elsewhere, in other
territories. Because of their earlier suffering they decided to stay there.
Actually, I really welcome variety of reports on the situation of human
rights in occupied by Russia territory of Crimea, and all these reports are
of excellent quality. I was fortunate to participate in many debates here
in the European Parliament including the presentation of the report. I
consider it extremely valuable, including parts referring to energy
security, and energy or resources used by Russian Federation as a tool for
oppression of their neighbors. Including and in particular, to oppress
Ukraine.
All our thoughts, all our efforts are with this country and people of
Ukraine fighting for their freedom because we consider it necessary to
prevent freedom, independence of countries of whole region of Central and
Eastern Europe. They simply fight our cause.
This is an official publication of the Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe.
* * *
This publication is intended to document
developments and trends in participating
States of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
* * *
All Commission publications may be freely reproduced,
in any form, with appropriate credit. The Commission
encourages the widest possible dissemination of its
publications.
* * *
http://www.csce.gov @HelsinkiComm
The Commission's Web site provides access
to the latest press releases and reports,
as well as hearings and briefings. Using the
Commission's electronic subscription service, readers are
able to receive press releases, articles, and other
materials by topic or countries of particular interest.
Please subscribe today.