Ukraine to enforce equal rights for Tatars

By Helen Fawkes
BBC correspondent in Kiev

Ukraine is to introduce a law to restore full rights to Crimean Tatars and other groups exiled by the former Soviet Union because of their ethnic origins.

The new law aims to redress years of discrimination

More than 200,000 Tatars were deported in 1944 to Uzbekistan, falsely accused of collaborating with Nazi troops.

On returning to the Crimea, many Tatars have found it hard to find jobs and homes.

The new legislation will give deportees and their families the same rights as Ukrainian citizens.

Homeward bound

Almost the entire population of Crimean Tatars was exiled to central Asia by the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin 60 years ago.

The Tatars have been fighting for equal rights ever since.

They were allowed to return home during the last years of communism and now more than 250,000 Tatars live in the Crimea again.

The mass deportation was one of the crimes of World War II which has largely been forgotten, but the repercussions are still felt today.

Tatars - who make up about 12% of the population of the Black Sea peninsula - suffer high unemployment and poor housing.

Ukrainian MPs overwhelmingly supported the bill, which will come into effect after it has been signed by President Leonid Kuchma.

The new law will also apply to other groups of people, including Greeks and Germans, who were exiled by the Soviet authorities at the same time as the Tatars.

This legislation will mean that deportees and their children will now have identical rights to other Ukrainian citizens over the provision of land, housing and work.

And it will also ban discrimination in education, religion and culture.