Legislating murder, abduction and land-grabs in the Crimea Halya Coynash Russia may soon adopt a law which would waive any liability by the armed paramilitaries in the Crimea who have murdered, abducted and beaten up opponents of Russian occupation, as well as seizing land and assets. Or who will do the same, since the impunity would be till Jan 2015 On Oct 14 Russia’s President Vladimir Putin claimed to be hearing about disappearances in the Crimea for the first time, saying that he didn’t understand who was responsible and why. Two days later, Sergei Aksyonov, the Crimean ‘prime minister’ installed at gunpoint after Russian soldiers seized government buildings in Simferopol, spoke at a press conference in Moscow. He warned that 100 thousand members of what he calls Crimea’s ‘self-defence’ could end up in prison, and lobbied for the draft bill his ‘government’ has drawn up. This would totally absolve all ‘self-defence’ paramilitaries and officials from any liability for actions since Russian troops first seized control in the Crimea. If that were not enough, the bill also waves liability for these same paramilitaries’ actions in the future. Aksyonov’s only stipulation for this legislative carte blanche is that the paramilitaries and officials “were not seeking personal gain in taking decisions”. This means, presumably, that, failing evidence of some ‘personal gain’, there will be total impunity for the paramilitaries seen on video abducting lone Crimean Tatar protester Reshat Ametov from outside parliament in Simferopol. Ametov’s body, showing clear signs of torture, was found on March 16. We are talking about legislated impunity, it should be stressed. There is no evidence at all that the authorities in occupied Crimea are investigating Ametov’s abduction and murder. There is little or no sign of them investigating the disappearances of other civic activists and young Crimean Tatar men. Two young men were positively abducted in the early evening and despite all details being available, including a description of the van and its number plate, they have not been found. According to Roman Nikolaev, Crimean rights activists fear that the proposed past and future ‘amnesty’ will mean further forced seizures of property in the Crimea. He points out that this has been one of the main areas of ‘activity’ of these paramilitary units. khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1413728080
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 09:10:07 +0000