Crimean Tatars to block export of Ukrainian goods to Crimea

The representatives of the Crimean Tatars are going to launch the action “Civil blockade of Crimea.”

As the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent reports, the action’s participants are going to block the checkpoints to Crimea from the mainland Ukraine to prevent Ukrainian goods from entering the occupied territory.

“Every day we record the facts of pressure, discrimination, arrests, searches, bashing directed against the Crimean Tatars and people of other nationalities. We have such political prisoners as Akhtem Chiygoz, Ali Asanov, Mustafa Degermendzhy, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Oleg Sentsov. They have experienced psychological pressure and have been tortured. People continue to go missing. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian business is trading on the blood. This is acceptable neither for public morality, nor for Ukraine, which declares its commitment to protection of rights of Ukrainian citizens … but strengthens the occupation thereby,” Head of the Mejlis and the President of the Crimean Tatar World Congress Refat Chubarov said.

The Head of the Mejlis cited data of the Center for Investigative Journalism, revealing that 5,777 tons of food commodities were delivered from the mainland Ukraine to Crimea over the past week.

According to leader of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev, about 80% of food products, 85% of electricity, and 80% of water are supplied to the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. Under the Ukrainian government, the costs were paid back due to the development of tourism and business activity, but now it does not work so. Everything is paid for by the budget of the Russian Federation, which wants to establish the system of colonial rule.

“Why on earth should the mainland Ukraine ensure the life activity of the occupation regime?” former head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Dzhemilev, wonders.

The action’s organizers suggest that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine should create large hubs, the sales outlets, where the Ukrainian citizens from the occupied territory will be able to come to buy goods.

In addition, Mustafa Dzhemilev states that majority of the food products from Ukraine is used by the occupying forces, who grossly violate the rights and freedoms of the Crimean people.

The action will be launched in late September.

“The action aims to draw public attention to the mess happening on the administrative border and to settle relations with the occupation regime. We can’t feed the thugs, who victimize the people in the occupied territory,” Mustafa Dzhemilev highlighted.

The organizers put forward the preliminary demands on the Russian Federation:

– The release of Ukrainian political prisoners – Nadiya Savchenko, Oleg Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Oleksandr Kostenko, Akhtem Chiygoz, Mustafa Degermendzhy, Ali Asanov and Tahir Smedlyaev;

– Elimination of illegal obstacles for Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar mass media in Crimea;

– Unhindered access to Crimea for foreign journalists and international observers of human rights;

– Termination of criminal and administrative prosecution of Crimean Tatars and other citizens of Ukraine in Crimea;

– Lifting of the ban on entry to Crimea leaders Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov, as well as activists of the national movement of the Crimean Tatars and Ismet Yuksel and Sinaver Kadyrov.