Russia has been waging an aggressive colonial war against Ukraine with elements of genocide which it cynically declares to be a fight against Nazism. That is a claim by Iryna SIEDOVA, the analyst of the Crimean Human Rights Group, at the public hearings of the testimonies of the victims of the russian occupation of Crimea in the Saeima of Latvia. The event gave the opportunity to find out about the fallouts of the unlawful occupation of Crimea by russia and the repressions applied by the aggressor against the people of Crimea, in particular, the community of the Crimean Tatars.
“In fact the russians have been suppressing any resistance, especially on the occupied territories. They have been trying to erase the national identity of the people, to eliminate the freedom of conscience and religion, to deprive us of the freedom of speech. They strive for silencing people in Crimea so that even at their kitchens they fear of expressing their thoughts, strive for making people attend the [mandated] churches approved by russia and being vocal only to the extent as allowed by the occupiers, strive for making people speak russian only and remain the humble slaves of empire”, – Iryna SIEDOVA emphasizes.
Iryna SIEDOVA reminds that russia has been flouting the international humanitarian law, trumping up the criminal cases and passing the illegal verdicts to those dissenting with the policy of the RF. To date the Crimean Human Rights Group has recorded at least 264 cases of the civilians deprived of freedom and charged on the political grounds. Besides above 100 persons have been abducted and incarcerated in the Crimean SIZOs with no charges whatsoever.
“[The civilians concerned] are being tortured so that they plead themselves guilty of the crimes they have never committed. Then, in front of the cameras, the persons concerned are made to declare themselves to be terrorists or saboteurs. They are tortured with electric shocks, they are detained in degrading conditions, once sentenced the persons concerned are forcibly deported to the russian colonies. The prisoners are transported to the most remote spots in russia. In the russian colonies the persons concerned are placed for lengthy periods into punitive and disciplinary wards under the spurious reasons. Yet another kind of torture is the deliberate failure to provide medical aid to those who suffer”, – Iryna SIEDOVA urges.
Besides, Iryna SIEDOVA reiterates the elimination of the national identity on the territories occupied by russia, constraints to freedom of speech, persecution of the journalists, militarizing of children’s minds and other crimes.
“All those guilty of the crimes mentioned shall be inevitably punished. That is why we have been recording all these facts and address the governments of the countries worldwide seeking to substantiate the necessity to have the sanctions bolstered and to have all the crimes committed by russian occupiers considered by the special tribunals, including the Special tribunal as to the crime of aggression against Ukraine. The Soviet authority has never been punished for the genocide of the Crimean Tatars. What is even worse is that now on the occupied territories the russians have been opening the monuments to Stalin who ruled to deport the Crimean Tatars. Should the criminals remain unpunished, the crime shall be committed anew. And at this time the crime will be committed either to the Crimean Tatars or any other nations which russia has been trying to eliminate. We shall stop the russians so that the genocide shall never happen”,- Iryna SIEDOVA maintains.
The public hearings of the victims of the occupation of Crimea have been organized by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Saeima in cooperation with the Parliamentary group on cooperation with the Parliament of Ukraine, the Parliament Group to support the International Crimean Platform and the Embassy of Ukraine in Latvia.
In 2019 the Saeima was the first foreign Parliament to have officially declared the deportation and the repressions against the Crimean Tatars to be genocide committed by the Soviet regime. Every year on 18 May it is the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People to commemorate the victims of mass deportations which started on 18 May 1944, i.e. the thousands of the Crimean Tatars deported from their homes to the remote regions of the USSR.
