Crimean news 52.

 

 

  (Mass Media survey from 3-8 April 2000).

 

 

  (All the material is given in abridged form.)     

 

            Politics.

     

 

                        Crimean Tatars picketed the Autonomy Government.

 

               On the 3rd April about  80 Crimean Tatars picketed the Ministry Council of the Crimea. They were  defending the rights of the Crimean Tatar nation. The action was organized by Simferopol regional Mejlis. Picket participants had the following slogans: "Ukraine, where is the law of native nations?", "Return the robbed property of the Crimean Tatar nation!", and "We demand equal land plots for the deported!"

 

     According to the words of Simferopol Mejlis leader, Crimean Tatars' action was devoted to the planned parliamentary hearings in the Supreme Court of Ukraine. This hearing will be  dealing with  the problems of the deported. The other reason for gathering was sitting of the Commission at the Parliamentary Assembly of European Council in Strasbourg. This Commision is dealing with the problems of refugees' migration and demography. It was going to  consider the situation of repatriation of Crimean Tatars  and restoring their rights.

 

     He also believes that adopting the law of native nations by the Supreme Court of Ukraine "would initiate integration of  Crimean Tatars into the Ukrainian society." In his opinion, if Ukrainian and Crimean authorities do not take any steps  in order to solve the Crimean Tatars' problem the actions will have a further development. He also did not exclude the possibility that the Crimean Tatars may hold actions of civilian insubordination.

 

Interfax-Ukraine, "Krymskiye Izvestiya", #63(2067), 5 April 2000, p.2.

 

     

 

           The problem of land re-division can be solved only in the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

 

                     Ministry Council intends to act strictly according to the letter of the law.

 

     Crimean Tatars' actions on April 3 did not consist only of a single picket. Picket participants met the Vice Prime Minister of the Crimea, S.Velijanskiy and representatives of Republic Committee of land reserves (Repcomland).

 

     S.Velijanskiy stated that the Ministry council would act in strict accordance with the law. The Vice Prime Minister demanded only one thing: recorded  information that would prove sabotaging of President's decrees, specific facts of violations and abusing so that the guilty would be punished.

 

     Repcomland representatives as well as  members of commissions are expected to arrive to Village Council* and look for the best solutions of dividing the land.

 

Kira Ivanova, "Krymskoye Vremya", #62(929), 5 April 2000, p.3.

 

Our information: *Village Council - local organ of executive power.

 

     

 

  Leonid Grach, the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Crimea*:

"Socio-economic accommodation of the  Crimean Tatars must be carried out

with participating of financial structures of European Council".

 

The chairman of Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council (PAEC),

Lord Russel-Johnston, welcomed the  Chairman of Supreme Court of the Crimea,

Leonid Grach, in Strasbourg on 5 April 2000.

 

               The conversation between Lord Russel-Johnston and Leonid Grach was about the possible solutions of  repatriation problems. Leonid Grach expressed confidence  that " solving the problems of socio-economic accommodation of the Crimean Tatars should be within the potentials of PAEC and involvement of its financial structures".

 

     The same day Leonid Grach was speaking at the sitting of PAEC Commission dealing with the problems of migration, refugees and demography. He stated the following: "The way of quotas is not our way. The way of giving Mejlis the rights of representative organ is not our way".

 

     In the second half of the day, Lord Ponsonby, the representative of Commission dealing with migration, refugees and demography, came out speaking of the same problem. Lord Ponsonby visited Crimea last fall in order to study this problem**. Anatoliy Rakhovskiy, PAEC member, national deputy of Ukraine and leader of Verkhovnaya Rada delegation, came out debating the previous speakers.

 

Galina Mamiko, "Krymskiye Izvestiya", #64(2068), 6 April 2000, p.1.

 

Our information: *Supreme Court of the Crimea - Crimean Parliament, Leonid Grach is also the leader of the Crimean communists.

 

**See "Crimean news 23".

 

***Verkhovnaya Rada (VR) - Ukrainian Parliament.

 

 

 

                L.Grach: "None of the nations should have "special rights" in the Crimea."

 

     Crimean peninsula, where the Autonomous Republic Crimea of Ukraine is located, is one of those few regions in the World where geopolitical, geo-strategic, economical and confessional interests of different states converged.

 

     It is inadmissible and objectively  impossible to solve  national problems in the Crimea by singling out one or several  nations with "special rights" for Crimea. There are also a  problem of native nations, national-and-territorial autonomy, electoral quotas, status of Mejlis as a representative organ of the Crimean Tatar nation …

 

"Krymskaya Pravda", #62(22475), 5 April 2000, p.1-3.

 

     

 

               News Brief

 

     Strasbourg. PAEC recommended the Committee of Ministers of European Council to improve relationships with European Union, , UNHCR and OSCE in order to draw attention of  European Council to their project of Crimean Tatars' accommodation and restoring of rights. Ukraine is offered to join the Bank of European Council . The Bank is proposed to determine the  amount of support for the Crimean Tatars.

 

"Krymskoe Vremya", #64(931), 7April 2000, p.2.

 

     

 

                    Parliamentary hearings - just  a search for possible ways out.

 

     The project "The Crimean Tatars national status" foresees recognition of Mejlis and Kurultay as

"national authorities", which will allow them to influence decisions of all authority organs. Isn't it a privilege according to a nationality and doesn't it break the whole system, foreseen by the Constitution of

Ukraine?

 

     Roman Bessmertniy, a  representative of the President of Ukraine in Verkhovnaya Rada,

comments: "Parliamentary hearings have been appointed for April 5. Different issues will be discussed there, including the draft law "The Crimean Tatar national status" and resolutions of Cabinet of Ministry and VR. Within such a form of parliamentary work as hearings,  we want to discuss the possibility of adopting such a law.

 

     I myself prepared the material for  hearings, the law draft, analytical information, resolution project and other documents. That is why I am quite familiar with the situation. You may say: "The World has no idea about such documents. None of the countries has faced analogous problem." The problem is atypical. That is why we have to find our own solutions. It becomes more urgent with the approaching sorrowful date **  in spring.

 

     We have not found a way to solve the problem such as citizenship, land division, exercising of civil rights by the Crimean Tatars. Documents adopted under CIS* project and international community does not help us in this regard.

 

     What should we do: accept international documents about native nations or adopt our own ones? I hope it will be clear at the hearings.

 

Natalya Gavrileva, "Krymskoye Vremya", #61(928), 4 April 2000, p.3.

 

Our information: *The Mourning Day on May 18, when Crimean Tatars were deported from the Crimea. A lot of people perished as a  result.

 

**CIS - Commonwealth of Independent States. It was formed after the USSR collapse. It includes almost all republics of the former USSR.

 

     

 

                Hearings on  the Crimean Tatars' problems were held in Rada*.

 

     In a week's time Rada must consider the resolution project, which will begin a legislative process. Nikolay Julinskiy was the main reporter. According to Refat Chubarov's forecast, the law draft prepared by their committee may be offered to the Verhovna Rada  in June session.

 

     It deals with two laws: "The rehabilitation of deportation victims" and "The Crimean Tatar national  status". The latter raised  some hot debates in Rada. The powers of political left insisted on the fact that there had never been such a concept  as "a native nation" in the international practice.

 

     Both communists and the powers of right (fraction "Reforms and Congress") proposed not to include the Crimean Tatars' quotation into the Supreme Court of the Crimea but to change the electoral system in the Crimea with a  mixed or proportional basis.

 

     We should remind that 48 million grivnas** have been allocated for the deported accommodation from the state budget of Ukraine in 2000. However, no one can give a clear answer whether all the money will be received. They  already started sequestrating some budget articles. 6 million out of 20 million were not received in 1999.

 

Osman Pashayev, "Krymskoye Vremya", #64(931), 7april 2000, p.3.

 

Our information: *The Parliament of Ukraine is meant here.

 

**The current rate of $1 USA is 5,4 grivnas.

 

     

 

                       Sergey Kunitsyn: "The authorities should figure out  what to do".

 

     The Head of Crimean Government, Sergey Kunitsyn, pointed  out , -  The most important fact is that the problem has been identified  and the deputies have realized how serious it was.

 

     The main theme of debates was about the politico-legal regulation of repatriates' problems and efficiency

 of working on the project of native nations. Sergey Kunitsyn expressed his opinion as follows: "Speaking about such normative and legal documents it is  necessary to take into consideration interests of all deported. That is why it is necessary to find such a variant, which would not disregard interests of any other  nation group.

 

     After the Parliamentary hearings Sergey Kunitsyn met some Crimean Tatar leaders. Their reaction to the hearings was rather good. Despite the fact that the discussion was hot, the conversations were sharp and the opinions of the deputies were rather polar, the main goal has been achieved. People realized that it was not a local Crimean problem but a serious and deep problem of the whole country.

 

     Administration and Cabinet of Ministry were delegated to find optimal solution for the problem of land division. Normative and legal basis should be taken into account.

 

Yelena Gornaya, "Krymskaya Gazeta", #64(15920), 7 April 2000, p.1.

 

 

News Brief.

Kiev. Ukraine condemns criminal actions against nations and national minorities, who were forcefully deported. It  supports their striving for voluntary returning to the places of their historical dwelling. All this  was said at the parliamentary hearings dealing with  the problems of Crimean Tatars on April 5.

"Krymskoye Vremya", #64(931), 7 April 2000, p.2.

 

 

No one needs the "Land confrontation".

 

Is it true that the President's decree will allow re-division of  the land in the Crimean Collective Agriculture Enterprises (CAE)?  And this land will be given to  some of  the Crimean Tatars who are not CAE members? Doesn't it violate the rights of kolkhoz members who have received land certificates?

The Head of President's administration, Vladimir Litvin responds: "Crimean problem is the problem of the whole Ukraine. Coordinator Council (CC) of the Crimean Tatar nation under  the President* was created a year ago in accordance with President's Decree. But we have had no possibility to conclude and sign President's Decree about this Council. The Crimean Tatar nation's representatives propose us to introduce two more things into this document. The first one deals with the rehabilitation and restoring all the nation's rights and the second one deals with CC. And then  CC will have an equal power with the state authority. No one can do so. If we deal with rehabilitation than it means that Ukraine takes over  the responsibility for the past sins of the USSR. If we do so, we have to atone for them. Consequently, the next step is the re-division of land. That is why the president made the Declaration of moral-and-political rehabilitation.

 

The next issue is land. This is the most difficult problem. There is a special group of specialists working on the problem of land now. Its aim is to study all the land reserves, who needs it and to whom it belongs, and the ways out of this problem. There is not much land in the Crimean reserves. And it belongs to military officers. We will not let anyone take land from one group of people and give it to another one.

Natalya Gavrileva, "Krymskoye Vremya", #61(328), 4 April 2000, p.3.

Our information:* see "Crimean news 6".

 

 

Security Service officers assure that there will be no dramatic events on the May 18.

 

May 18 is coming up. How strong is the guarantee of security service organs that the past* will not repeat this year? Djemilev has promised that the actions would be much more  impressive…

The first deputy of Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Leonid Borodich responds: Nowadays Militia is able to control the situation in the country. And that is what we are doing.

Leonid Derkach, the Head of Security service of Ukraine: I would not present the last year's events in a negative light. We have to understand the real situation in the Crimea. If there is more work and more accommodation than many of the demands will just disappear. I think there will be no dramatic events  on May 18 this year.

Natalya Gavrileva, "Krymskoye Vremya", #61(928), 4 April 2000, p.3.

Our information: * See "Crimean news 5-7".

 

Economics and Social Sphere.

 

$1,5 billion for the development of health resort.

During the next 5-7 years the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is planning to attract about  $1,5 billion for the development of health resort infrastructure.

 

The minimum need of the Crimean health resort complex is evaluated as $2 billion. Apart from that, today there is a boom-investing regime in 9 territorial zones of the Crimea. That is why there are 80 business projects that cost $1,5 billion.

 

4 million people are expected to visit Crimea in 2000. Today, there are 724 sanatoriums in the Autonomy.

Interfax-Ukraine, "Krymskiye Izvestiya",#65(2069), 7 April 2000, p.3.

 

Chechen children will rest in the Crimea.

More than 200 Chechen children living in refugees camps are leaving for the Crimea. The President of the Fund of repressed citizens and nations, Alihan Ahilgov, reported about it. According to his words, children aged 8-13 will spend a month in one of the Yevpatoriya's sanatoriums.

 

As A.Ahilgov emphasized, 200 other children from the refugees camps will spend the whole summer in the Crimea, in the families of local Crimean Tatars.

Interfax, "Krymskiye Izvestiya", #63(2067), 5 April 2000, p.2.

 

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