Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The 27 Other Savchenkos Must Not be Forgotten

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 22 – The gross miscarriage of justice in the case of Nadiya Savchenko has sparked outrage among people of good will around the world, but it would be a tragedy if this welcome focus on her case failed to generate international support for the 27 other Ukrainians Russian officials have taken hostage and against whom they have fabricated cases.

            As Crimea’s QHA news agency notes today, Russian officials in occupied Crimea and elsewhere have used fabricated cases as a way of intimidating the population. And it says that at present there are 28 others who have been subject to such repression for their political convictions (qha.com.ua/ru/politika/28-zalojnikov-kremlya-otchet-dokument/157033/).

            Savchenko is one of them, but thankfully her case is well known. The other 27 are much less so, and QHA points to the 74-page report about them prepared earlier this year by the joint efforts of Euromaidan SOS, the Center for Civic Freedoms, and the Open Dialogue Foundation about 27 Ukrainians and one Estonian who have been subjected to such actions.

            Their report is available at ccl.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/28Hostages_CCL_MF_Web-Map.pdf.

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