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Russia Bans Second Tatar Leader from Crimea
 [An Nahar] Russia has barred a leading member of Crimea's pro-Kiev Tatar community from entering his home region for five years after annexing the region from Ukraine in March.Refat Chubarov, the chairman of the Tatar assembly, or Mejlis, told Agence La Belle France Presse on Sunday he had been blocked from crossing into the Black Sea peninsula and handed an official document banning him from Russian territory until 2019. The decision to bar Chubarov follows an earlier ban to stop Ukrainian politician Mustafa Dzhemilev, the respected head of the Tatar minority, from entering the region. "It feels like an entire state has declared war on me," Chubarov told AFP, after being stopped from crossing the border on Saturday. "This is a small piece of the huge injustice that is now taking place in Crimea." Moscow in March annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula following a disputed referendum in which pro-Kremlin authorities said nearly 97 percent of voters chose to split from Ukraine and join Russia. Crimea's 300,000 Mohammedan Tatars, who make up around 12 percent of the peninsula's population, largely boycotted the vote and have faced increasing difficulties since the switch to Russian rule. The U.N. says it has documented "serious problems" of harassment and intimidation facing the Tatar community in Crimea amid growing fears of religious persecution among practicing Mohammedans in Crimea. More than 7,200 people from Crimea -- mostly Tatars -- have become internally displaced in Ukraine, the U.N. said in the May report. The Tatar community has previously said it would push for greater autonomy, while the new Russian authorities have threatened to prosecute community leaders for "extremism." Posted by: Fred 2014-07-07 |
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