Ukraine government repressing opposition despite amnesty law

Ukrainian police investigators have been pressuring and intimidating victims of the Nov.30-Dec. 1 incidents of police brutality against protesters, reported on Dec. 23 Yulia Horbunova, an investigator of Human Rights Watch in Ukraine. “The government is pressing those people whose trust is necessary to conduct a serious investigation,” she reported. “The Prosecutor General is supposed to ensure a quick and unbiased investigation of testimonies of police abuse and immediately halt the illegal pressures on people who submitted complaints.”

A victim of the Nov. 30 police assault on peaceful protesters reported a four-hour long interrogation, during which questions were posed such as, “Why do you participate in mass disturbances and who organized them? Why did you resist the police? How much were you paid to be there?” The investigator only posed one question about the police beatings. Some of those submitting complaints said investigators declined to answer requests for victim status and denied it altogether, without offering reasons. Two victims testified that they were denied a medical exam that would have documented their injuries.

Ukrainian police have violated the rights of citizens to peaceful assembly with the use of excessive force, intimidation and pressure against protesters, unfair judicial rulings and restricting the rights of journalists, said on Dec. 23 Tetiana Mazur, the director of Amnesty International in Ukraine. “The recent events became the litmus test for Ukraine’s law enforcement systems,” she said. “We witnessed shocking disrespect by law enforcement organs against human rights and a culture of brutality among police that participated in the mass dispersals of peaceful protesters.”

Their deeds led to hundreds of victims and the criminal persecution of peaceful demonstrators. “At a time when innocent people are likely faced with the risk of imprisonment and large fines, guilty police officers remain unpunished,” Mazur said. “It’s those police officers who will be activated in similar operations in the future.”

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed on Dec. 23 a law that will provide amnesty to all participants of the EuroMaidan protests. The law applies to protesters, not law enforcement authorities who employed excessive force. Opposition leaders at the EuroMaidan protests “may be liable ten years” imprisonment for their statements calling for law-breaking, Party of Regions National Deputy Olena Bondarenko told the ICTV television network on Dec. 23. These statements allegedly include calling for the violent overthrow of government, blocking transportation routes, group violations of civic order, mass disturbances, calls to actions that threaten civic order and seizing state buildings. “Don’t confuse peaceful gatherings with peaceful seizures of buildings, peaceful fights, peaceful vandalism,” she said. “All that happened and for each fact law enforcement authorities have opened cases.”

Zenon Zawada: As expected, the government is pursuing repressions against the opposition. It’s a given that this will intensify despite the amnesty legislation signed by Yanukovych, which we view as a gesture meant to appease Western governments and create the appearance of a legitimate attempt at compromise. Instead, a legitimate compromise gesture would involve the dismissal of Internal Affairs Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko at minimum, but preferably the Cabinet of Ministers.

From the viewpoint of retaining power however, the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych is pursing the wrong course. Whereas his predecessor, former President Viktor Yushchenko, sought to work with all political parties and include them in nation’s decision-making processes, the Yanukovych administration has pursued a dangerous policy of “us-against-them,” demonizing the opposition and refusing any compromise, despite its broad popular support. In passing up this opportunity for détente that this latest crisis presented, the Yanukovych administration has cornered itself into a very weak and limited position, with no allies beyond its electorate. Indeed Russia can’t even be considered an ally to the administration.

The Yanukovych administration has failed to understand that while such a policy has proven successful in Belarus and the Russian Federation, it won’t work in Ukraine. The opposition is too large for the Party of Regions to ostracize and marginalize. Indeed, the opposite is true: Ukraine’s pro-EU opposition forces have always enjoyed more electoral support than the Party of Regions. Given the government’s “no compromise” policy, the political crisis will extend through the March 2015 presidential elections, which will be a nasty affair likely to erupt in more social uprisings and possible violence.