The body of a Crimean Tatar man, found on Sunday with signs of a violent death in Crimea's Zemlyanyche village, has been buried.
The discovery of the man's body came nearly two weeks after he had disappeared. He was last seen on his way to visit a military registration and enlistment office on March 4, a State Department spokesperson tells Mashable, and it is unknown who was responsible for his death.
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He is identified as Reshat Ametov, a 39-year-old construction worker and father of three young children, and his family tells Human Rights Watch that he was taken by "unidentified men in military-style jackets" from Simferopol's Lenin Square.
Local witnesses tell The Interpreter that the victim's body was "found naked, his face wrapped with duct tape, and his hands bound by handcuffs not manufactured in Ukraine," raising ominous signs that the man was tortured before suffering a violent death at the hands of his unknown captors.
The man's death has raised fears among the minority ethnic population in Crimea of a rising tide of harassment, violence, and oppression. Crimean Tatars have worried about their future in a Russian-backed Crimean state, and remain painfully reminiscent of Josef Stalin's ethnic cleansing of the population in the years after World War II.
"We have always enjoyed freedom of expression ... and I think that if they oppress us, we will resist," one man, a Tatar, told Reuters in a town east of Simferopol. "There will be trials and prisons. Nothing good will come of it." Of the mid-20th century purge, Celal Icten, head of the Crimean Tatar Association of Istanbul explained to USA Today, "They came in the night to houses, people were put on train cars and forced to leave. Our population has known assimilation, genocide, famine. Through these different ways we know the Russians."
Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, has called for an investigation into the killing. “The disappearance and murder of Reshat Ametov illustrates the climate of lawlessness that has been pervasive in Crimea over the last week," she says on the group's website. "Crimean authorities have a duty to thoroughly investigate this case and punish those responsible, whoever they are.”
Ametov's funeral, which attracted hundreds of Crimean Tatars to mourn his passing, came as the Russian and Crimean parliaments signed a treaty of accession. Photojournalist Evgeny Feldman attended the funeral, and captured these photographs for Mashable.
Crimean Tatars pray during the funeral of Rishat Ametov, who had been missing since March 3rd. He was found on the day Crimea voted to leave Ukrain and join Russia, with signs of torture.
Crimean Tatars bow their heads, praying over the body of Rishat Ametov, in the city of Simferopol, Crimea.
As they carry the body towards the burial site, the mourners pass the "tobut" to one another along the way.
A large crowd of Crimean Tatars carry the 'tobut' containing Ametov's body to his grave.
Crimean Tatars dig Rishat Ametov's grave.
A team of Crimean Tatars grab shovels and bury the man's body in the dirt.
The Tatars bury the man, his body wrapped in a shroud, as is custom with a Muslim burial.
Crimean Tatars mourn the man's death. He went missing nearly two weeks before the region voted to join Russia -- bringing fears to the minority population of a Stalinesque crackdown on their freedoms.