The Crimean Supreme Council presidium has backed the initiative for the Crimean referendum on the subject of enhancing the status and powers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to be rescheduled for Mar. 30, 2014, according to a resolution passed at its Monday session.
The Crimean Supreme Council’s permanent commission for legislation,
organization and public relations has been instructed to draft a Council
resolution changing its earlier resolution, of Feb. 27, 2014,
N1630-6/14b “On the organization and conduct of the republican (local)
referendum on the questions of improving the status and powers of the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea,” to bring the referendum date forward
from May 25 to Mar. 30.
Furthermore, the Crimean Council presidium has asked Ukraine’s
Verkhovna Rada not to create reasons for removing Crimean power and to
refrain from steps which might escalate the current conflict.
“We are calling on Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which has assumed
political responsibility for the situation in the country, to refrain
from ill-considered actions which could lead to an escalation of the
conflict. The war against its own people is the gravest of the crimes
for which there can be no justification,” said the statement passed
during the presidium’s Monday session, according to the Crimean Supreme
Council spokesperson.
“We are extremely bewildered by the statements being heard from Kyiv
that the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has
overstepped the limits of the Ukrainian legal field, in particular, when
making the decisions to hold a republican (local) referendum on the
subject of enhancing the autonomous status and powers, and regarding
changes in the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of
Crimea,” the document said.
“We consider these statements to be part of a well-planned campaign
to discredit the autonomous republic and its leaders. The aim of this
campaign is to prepare the ground for the implementation of a forceful
scenario in the Crimea and removing the Crimean authorities, whose
legitimacy, unlike that of Ukraine, cannot be doubted,” the statement
said.
The Supreme Council of the Crimea insists that it has acted “strictly within the legal field.”
In representing the interests of all the Crimeans, the Crimean
parliament is responsible for ensuring the rights and freedoms of its
people and therefore cannot remain an outside observer of the
destructive processes occurring in the country, the presidium also said.
“It is these circumstances that prompted members of the Supreme Council
of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to pass a resolution on holding
the republican (local) referendum as a form of direct people’s rule on
the subject of enhancing the autonomous status and powers. The question
put to the referendum does not contain any provisions on the
independence of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, its secession from
Ukraine or its annexation to another state,” the statement said.
“In doing so, we have called for the Crimean autonomous republic to
be vested with broad powers which must be guaranteed under any changes
in the central power and Ukrainian Constitution,” the presidium said.
