Some 45 people have been missing in Crimea for six years of the Russian occupation, the fate of 15 of them is still unknown, the representative office of the president of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea said, with reference to data of the social organization CrimeaSOS.
“Enforced disappearances are one of the painful crimes committed by the occupier, creating an atmosphere of fear, intimidating relatives and friends of the missing person. Russia commits such crimes both in its territories when thousands of people in Chechnya became victims of enforced disappearances, and in the occupied ones,” Deputy Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Tamila Tasheva said.
She said that the government’s task is to document cases of enforced disappearances, make an investigation within the powers and bring international organizations to the search, as well as support relatives of missing people, which may include not only material aid but also psychological support and constant access to information about the state of the investigation.
“We must remember the names of all victims of enforced disappearances in our territories because real people are behind numbers 45 and 15, the tears and hopes of tens and thousands of people,” Tasheva said.
The representative office said that now the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is forming the Commission on the Issues of Persons Gone Missing under Special Circumstances, with the launch of which the representative office plans to raise the issue of enforced disappearances in the territory of Crimea during the occupation, and is in contact with the prosecutor’s office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea for each case of disappearance.
