Crimean Tatar leader Dzhemilev released in USSR (12/28/86)

Crimean Tatar leader Dzhemilev released in USSR

by Bohdan Faryma

NEW YORK - Mustafa Dzhemilev, a prominent Soviet dissident and leader of the Crimean Tatars, a persecuted Muslim minority, has been freed from a Siberian labor camp.

Lev Kopelev, an exiled Soviet author who lives in Cologne, West Germany, told The Ukrainian Weekly today that Mr. Dzhemilev had been freed after the court found him guilty of "slandering the Soviet system," but then gave him a conditional suspended sentence of three years.

Mr. Kopelev learned about Mr. Dzhemilev's release when he called Dr. Andrei Sakharov on December 19, after the Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientist's internal exile was rescinded.

The Reuters news service reported on December 20 that friends of Mr. Dzhemilev in Moscow were told in a phone call earlier this week by Mr. Dzhemilev and his wife, Safinar, that he had been released from detention. Officials had indicated he could return to his home in the city of Tashkent, capital of the Soviet Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan.

Mr. Dzhemilev was serving the last of six sentences for his peaceful advocacy of the rights of Crimean Tatars. He was in a Soviet labor camp near Magadan, a city in northeast Siberia. He was scheduled to be released November 30, but was tried instead for "slandering the Soviet system" while serving his sentence. The same day Mr. Dzhemilev reportedly began a hunger strike for his release, determined to continue until he was freed.

Soviet dissident Yuri Orlov, released recently by the Soviets, demonstrated for the release of Mr. Dzhemilev on December 18 in front of the United Nations.

"Mustafa Dzhemilev began a hunger strike, determined to continue until he was dead or released," Mr. Orlov told The Ukrainian Weekly. "If we don't succeed in achieving his release from the Soviet authorities in time, he will die like (Anatoly) Marchenko," said Mr. Orlov.

Mr. Dzhemilev spent half his life in Soviet prisons and labor camps for his activities on behalf of the Crimean Tatars, who in 1944 were deported by Joseph Stalin from their homeland on the Crimean peninsula and have never been allowed to return.

Since then the Soviet government has attempted to deprive them of their right to preserve their culture, teach their children their own language and practice their religion.

"[People in the West] did not manage to get Mr. Marchenko released in time. As far as I know, Mr. Gorbachev had already authorized Marchenko's release, but it was too late," said Mr. Orlov, who was participating in a public demonstration for the first time since his arrival in October in the United States.

Family members of Mr. Dzhemilev - including his 70-year-old mother - and prominent Soviet dissidents at home and human-rights activists in the United States reportedly joined the Tatar leader in his fast.

Although Mr. Dzhemilev received a suspended sentence of three years, "he will automatically serve this three-year sentence, without a trial, if he is found to have committed a crime or offense, like the violation of Soviet passport regulations," said Victor Davidov, a Soviet dissident and former political prisoner.

"If he is found to have 'slandered the Soviet system,' he will have to stand trial again and can receive another three-year sentence, in addition to the three years that were suspended," Mr. Davidov told The Ukrainian Weekly.

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