MOSCOW: Pro-Ukrainian activists and Tatar ethnic minorities in Crimea have found their lives under increased threat since the Ukrainian territory was annexed by Russia in March, a top European human rights diplomat said on Friday.
Following the first international rights mission to Crimea since the annexation of the Black Sea peninsula, Nils Muiznieks, commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, described an atmosphere of fear for ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, a Muslim ethnic minority.
He said his trip followed up on two killings, three abductions and a number of detentions and raids on private homes and businesses most likely all politically motivated in the aftermath of the Crimean annexation.
"The people who disappeared were pro-Ukrainian activists," said Muiznieks, "There appears to be a strong basis for suspecting they (the disappearances) were politically motivated."
"We heard from both ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars that there is an atmosphere of fear and intimidation towards people who are not accepting the recent turn of events," he said speaking over the telephone from a Moscow airport after his trip to Crimea.
Crimea has faced a number of problems, including water and power outages, since Russia seized the regions in March after Moscow-backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich's ouster in Kiev and his replacement by a pro-European government.
Kiev and the West have refused to recognise Russia's annexation of the territory which has a majority ethnic Russian population. Ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars make up its largest minorities and some of the most vocal opponents to Russia's annexation of the territory.
Muiznieks said he saw reports that residents of Crimea were being urged to report on others who did not support the Russian annexation. He also said that some pro-Ukrainian activists had been detained and released on the Ukrainian side of the border.
Tatars, whose suspicions of Russia run deep following Soviet-era deportations, were in general vocal about their opposition to Russia's annexation of Crimea but are now facing increasingly regular raids on their properties, schools and businesses by law enforcement officials.
"Houses, businesses, mosques (are) searched by masked armed men," he said. He said most raids by law enforcement officials are meant to look for literature that could incriminate them under Russian laws against extremism.
"The definition of what counts as extremist is quite vague and elastic and is used not only to look at jihadist literature, but literature from non-traditional religious groups," he said.
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