Kosachyov proposes UNGA committee discuss anti-Crimea actions of Ukraine, West
MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax) - The UN General Assembly's Third Committee should probably dedicate its next dossier to the anti-Crimea actions of Ukraine and the West, the Chairman of the Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachyov, wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday.
"Isn't it time the anti-Crimea actions of Ukraine and the West became the subject of a separate dossier of the UN General Assembly's Third Committee? A mass of real rather than virtual facts will be guaranteed," Kosachyov wrote
He was commenting on the Third Committee's resolution criticizing Russia over human rights in Crimea.
"We are witnessing another hypocritical attempt to push for the Ukrainian ideas of 'occupation,' 'annexation,' and so on in international documents under the cover of caring for human rights. There was no other way to do so at the Third Committee, which deals with humanitarian affairs, and win the majority, which, as we know, readily votes for human rights dossiers and often disregards the primary objective of those documents," Kosachyov wrote.
This is cynical, considering that the resolution on the rights of Crimean residents was initiated by Ukraine, "which had been discriminating against the Russian-speaking population of Crimea for ethnic reasons before 2014 and after that deprived the population of the peninsula of water and electric power and organized the transport and trade blockade supported by Western nations, which, above all, imposed discriminative visa limits on the people of Crimea," he wrote.
"This same Ukraine adopted a nationalistic law compelling education in the Ukrainian language, which aroused the indignation of its neighbors; in this resolution, however, it demonstrates a touching concern for the Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian population of the peninsula that does not belong to it, while those people have been given the right to use the ethnic language for studying in schools and classes of their choice, and their languages have acquired official status in Crimea," Kosachyov wrote.
It seems Kyiv "is not trying to help the people of Crimea, but to take revenge on them and Russia," he wrote.
It was reported earlier that the UN General Assembly's Third Committee, which oversees social and humanitarian affairs, passed on Tuesday the resolution "Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)," in which Russia is described as "an occupying power."
The resolution passed 71-25 with 77 abstaining.
It was co-authored by Ukraine, the UK, the United States, Germany, France, Georgia, Canada, Poland, Turkey, and another 25 countries.
The document condemned "the temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine - the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol [hereinafter 'Crimea'] - by the Russian Federation, and reaffirmed the non-recognition of its annexation."
The resolution's co-authors supported Ukraine's commitment to international law and efforts to end the "Russian occupation" of Crimea.
The document urged Russia "to take all measures necessary to bring an immediate end to all abuses against residents of Crimea [...] and to revoke all discriminatory legislation."
Russia is also urged "to immediately release Ukrainian citizens who were unlawfully detained and judged without regard for elementary standards of justice," "to create and maintain a safe and enabling environment for journalists and human rights defenders," and to ensure the possibility of education in the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages.
The document urged Russia "to revoke immediately the decision declaring the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People an extremist organization and banning its activities."
The resolution will be presented for consideration at a plenary session of the General Assembly. Generally, draft resolutions passed by main committees are approved at plenary meetings without substantial adjustments, and the voting outcomes are usually the same.