Maxim Tucker, Kiev, 10 December 2013
Ukraine woke up to International Human Rights day Tuesday
on the brink of a precipice.
Determined not to be ousted from office, President
Yanukovych and his government appear to be making their second dramatic U-turn
of the month. Turning their back first on the prospect of European integration,
they now look set to reverse democratic progress made in Ukraine over the last
decade.
Not content with buying up
independent media outlets in the country and limiting opportunities for free
assembly, they have committed to ending a three-week long ‘revolution’
in Ukraine with harder, less subtle methods.
On Monday President Yanukovych said he wanted to
defuse tensions, agreeing to separate talks with EU High Representative for
Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton and three former Ukrainian Presidents on Tuesday.
The ex-Presidents talked vaguely about reaching a compromise with the country’s
opposition, who have led hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets every
week.
But overnight, peaceful protest camps in the capital
have been cleared from the government quarter, an
opposition headquarters stormed by armed police on the
flimsiest of pretexts, and at least three
independent or opposition news outlets raided. All the organisations
have had their electronic equipment confiscated.
Protesters originally turned out against a government
decision to refuse a historic free trade and political cooperation agreement
with the EU, but their ranks grew exponentially when riot police savagely
dispersed a student protest in the early hours of November 30th. Images of
bruised and bloodied students galvanised a nation that had become increasingly
apathetic after the 2004 Orange Revolution led to greater freedom of
expression, but failed to end widespread corruption and abuse of power. Over 350,000
people turned out on December 1st to condemn the police action.
Demonstrators said they were concerned Ukraine could
become like neighbouring Belarus, where any protest is quickly and often
brutally repressed.
With emotions running high, December 1st ended in the
occupation of Kiev City Hall, and violent clashes between police and far-right
groups. Riot police retaliated by beating
provocateurs, peaceful demonstrators and journalists indiscriminately.
Those actions prompted a vote of no-confidence in parliament. The
government survived the vote, and the following weekend well over 500,000 took
to the streets. The opposition began a blockade of government buildings, and
called for snap elections. Some protesters even destroyed a
statue of Lenin, smashing it with a sledgehammer after toppling it.
While undoubtedly true that a number of protesters
have broken the law and hold extremist right-wing views, they do not represent
the vast majority. International leaders should give short thrift to the
government’s attempt to demonise the entire opposition as extremists bent on a
violent coup.
Both US and EU diplomats have already made a number of
statements condemning the violent dispersal of protesters and warning against
further such actions. But after Monday night’s clampdown, they should be
ratcheting up the rhetoric. Yanukovych and his allies don’t understand hints
and diplomatic subtlety, they need consequences spelled out to them.
Ukraine's international partners must be clear that the crackdown on
peaceful protesters, opposition groups and journalists ends now, before it
becomes routine. And if it does not end, the considerable assets the President
and Cabinet have invested in abroad will be frozen. Travel bans introduced.
The international life of luxury they are so desperate to cling onto will come
to an abrupt end.
