State Service for Crimea Begins Operations

The State Service of Ukraine on the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Sevastopol, and Displaced Persons will deal with the return of the peninsula and the protection of the rights of the Crimean people.

A correspondent from the Human Rights Information Center reports today that a State Service on the Crimea has been registered.

“The task of the service will be to develop reintegration programs for Crimea and protect the rights of the Crimean people who remained in the occupied territory, along with displaced people,” said the head of the State Service on Crimea Aslan Omer Kyrymly.

A Resolution on the establishment of the authority was adopted on 17 July 2014, but a head for the organization could not be appointed. Aslan Omer Kyrymly was appointed to this post only on May 15, 2015. Today, the registration documents were finally completely processed, and the service is now able to work effectively, said the head.

The newly formed office is a strategic agency which IDPs from Crimea have a lot of hope for, said Sergiy Kovalski, co-coordinator of the Public Union “The Coordinating Council of Organizations of Internally Displaced Persons from Crimea.”

Meanwhile, the second All-Ukrainian Congress of Internally Displaced Persons from Crimea in being held in Kyiv today. At the Congress, there are 74 delegates (out of 84) representing Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Volyn, and other regions. 

Community activist Andriy Schekun, in an interview with “Radio Liberty,” noted that, “In any case, these congresses, conferences, and round tables are designed to generate a field of information on Crimea and Crimeans. We must always be in this field and influencing public authorities who often forget about the problems of the peninsula.”