Maidan Nezalezhnosti: ‘A disgrace for Ukrainian authorities’

04 Dec 13 | European Union, News and features, Ukraine

Protesters gather in Maidan to register their disapproval of the government's refusal to sign an association agreement with the European Union. (Photo: Andrei Alaiksandrau / Index on Censorship)

Protesters gather in Maidan Nezalezhnosti to register their disapproval of the government’s refusal to sign an association agreement with the European Union and its violent crackdown on peaceful demostrators. (Photo: Andrei Alaiksandrau / Index on Censorship)

Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the Independence Square in the centre of Kiev, leaves mixed impressions of courage and uncertainty. It has become a symbol of determination among ordinary Ukrainians to push for their rights and freedoms – but after the events of the last weekend it has also turned into a powerful reminder of how difficult and even bloody the fight can be.

Mass actions in Ukraine started on 21 November after it became clear that the country’s leaders were not going to sign a much anticipated association agreement with the European Union. The situation escalated after 29 November, when it was confirmed the agreement was not signed during the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius. Around 4 a.m. on 30 November riot police violently dispersed protesters from the Independence Square. Dozens of peaceful protesters and journalists were injured. The next day saw one of the largest mass street rallies in Ukrainian history, at least 200,000 people protested against the violent actions of the police. New clashes occurred; protesters and opposition parties called for the government to resign, but the vote of no confidence in the parliament failed. At the moment nobody has a clear answer what comes next.

There are a lot of young people among the protesters. Yuliya, a student of one of Kiev universities, says they are there to “defend their future.” “We want to live in a European country, and feel we are citizens that enjoy rights and freedoms,” she says. Several students said officials at their universities “promised troubles” to those who joined the protests. Some of the student demonstrators told Index that they were threatened with expulsion – but came out into the streets anyway.

Andrii is an employee of an IT firm from Lviv, a regional centres in western Ukraine. He and his friends traveled to Kiev to join the protest for several days during the last two weeks, despite the fact it is more than 500 km drive each way. “It is a crucial time for my country; I cannot just stay home when the fate of my nation is decided. The association agreement with the EU is a historical chance for Ukraine, the chance not to be missed,” he says.

“I went to Maidan, because I want to live in a European country; I want to walk even pavements, drive quality roads, enjoy quality public services for the high taxes I pay – and I don’t want to see my taxes go to pockets of president Yanukovich and his family. Directives of the EU establish quite high requirements for fighting corruption, this is why I support association with the European Union,” says Khrystyna, a lawyer from Kiev.

Roman Romanov, an expert on freedom of assembly with the International Renaissance Foundation, says he has never seen so many people in the streets of Ukraine.

“Now it is not only people who want the association agreement with the EU to be signed. People raise their voice against the police state and brutality against peaceful protesters; they understand that without them speaking out the rule of law will not be restored and justice will not be done,” Roman Romanov says.

Oksana Romaniuk, an executive director of the Institute of Mass Information, a Kiev-based freedom of expression organisation, also sees the difference in how society treats journalists.

“Fifty-one journalists were beaten by riot police in Ukraine between 29 November and 2 December. On the night of 30 November officers of Berkut, a riot police special force, specifically targeted journalists when they were dispersing the protest from the Independence Square. Now local businessmen offer their help to us – they buy first aid kits for journalists and offer money to cover medical treatment for injured reporters. And ordinary people suggest their help, too. I was really moved when a woman came up to me in a bus, as she heard I was ordering protecting helmets and vets for journalists. The lady gave me 200 hryvnias (around £15) and said ‘I have heard how journalists were beaten – please, take this money to help them’. I hope these are the signs that show society understands the importance of journalists’ work to inform people,” Oksana Romaniuk says.

“I did not know I live in a country where a bloody dispersal of a peaceful meeting can happen, where such inhuman brutality against unarmed people and journalists is possible. It is a disgrace for Ukrainian authorities,” she adds.

State officials of Ukraine promise they will make up for this “disgrace” and investigate the violent actions of the police. At the same time, president Yanukovich left for an official visit to China, despite the serious political crisis his country is in. The OSCE Parallel Civil Society conference called the situation in Ukraine “a human dimension crisis.”

“It looks like the authorities want to show they do not care about people that stay at Maidan. It is difficult to say what is going to happen next. I could not believe that happened in my country. Now I don’t see how this crisis is going to be resolved,” says an employee of a Kiev-based human rights organisation.

Last night it was peaceful at Maidan Nezalezhnosti. There was a concert with Ukrainian patriotic songs. People were sitting around fires in barrels; a dozen youngsters decided to warm themselves by playing football just beside a barricade. No police were seen anywhere.

“Would you like a cup of tea?” asked a young Ukrainian girl with a warm smile – she is just walking around Maidan with her boyfriend and a big thermos and offers a free hot drink she made at home to people who came out in a cold night to tell their government they choose a European future for their country. Will they be heard, remains a question.

This article was posted on 4 Dec 2013 at indexoncensorship.org

Two people sentenced for online insults in Belarus

14 Aug 13 | Belarus, Digital Freedom

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Andrei Karelin

A theatre playwright and a former worker from the Minsk Automobile Plant were found guilty of using offensive language online in Belarus.

Andrei Karelin, a playwright, was sentenced to an administrative fine of 10 million Belarusian roubles (about £725) for two comments he had made on a forum of a popular Belarusian internet portal TUT.by. The comments reflected his negative attitude toward Belarusian police.

According to Karelin, he had to call the police when he was attacked and beaten in Minsk on 18 May this year, but said he did not receive proper assistance, and was offended by officers instead. Among other words he chose to describe the officers on the forum were “bastards” and “boors”. He also said they were “fat and imposing” and concluded that “all normal citizens hate” the police.

A district court in Minsk had two hearings on the case (on 11 July and 26 July) and sentenced Karelin to fines for “insulting an officer on duty”, despite the fact the allegedly insulted officers admitted at court they had not seen his online comments themselves.

The playwright denies his guilt saying he did not insult anyone, but merely expressed his indignation at lack of professionalism of Belarusian police officers. He started a website to crowd-fund the fines he calls “enormous” as they are equal to 3 months of his  salary.

Another Belarusian, Ruslan Mirzoev, got 7 days of administrative arrest for videos he posted. He became popular last year after he started posting online videos about daily life of workers of Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ), one of the biggest enterprises in Belarus. Mirzoev was finally fired from the plant in July 2013, but he continued production of his videos.

Ruslan started his own video project, Chronicles of a District («Хроники района»), on YouTube, and made two videos about drug addicts, a prostitute and alcoholics, who live in Kurasoushchyna, the district of Minsk where he lives. On 9 August he was detained and sentenced to seven days of administrative arrest for using obscene words in those videos.

This article was originally published on 14 Aug 2013 at indexoncensorship.org. Index on Censorship: The voice of free expression.

In war on free expression, Putin approves restrictive legislation

08 Jul 13 | Comment, Europe and Central Asia, In the News

Russia keeps adopting repressive laws that further restrict freedom of expression and other fundamental rights of its citizens, Andrei Aliaksandrau writes

President Vladimir Putin worked hard last Saturday, sacrificing his week-end to state affairs. He signed two laws, previously passed by the national parliament. The first one bans “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships”; it provides for heavy fines for “promotion of denial of traditional family values among minors.” The second law amends the Russian Criminal Code providing for up to one year in prison for “insult to religious feelings of believers.”

Adoption of both laws marks not only further deterioration of the freedom of expression situation in Russia, but also signals the country’s authorities ignore appeals from international community, human rights standards and their own international commitments.

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Last week Index together with 23 more human rights groups called the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to condemn the “homosexual propaganda” bans. We reminded about the decision of the UN Human Rights Committee that found prohibition of “homosexual propaganda” in Ryazan Region of Russia violating Article 19(2) and Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The principles of that decision were later affirmed in the opinion of the Venice Commission, which considered that bans on “homosexual propaganda” are “incompatible with the ECHR and international human rights standards.”

On 27 June PACE called on Russia to reject the law. But only two days later President Putin inked it to show no one is allowed to interfere with his manner of ruling his “sovereign democracy.”

Another blow against the LGBT-community followed last Wednesday, when Vladimir Putin signed a law that bans adoption of Russian children by same-sex couples or even by citizens of countries where same-sex marriage is allowed.

One more legal act that received Putin’s signature on 3 July is the “anti-pirate” law aimed against web sites that illegally distribute copyrighted video content. It will come into force on 1 August 2013, despite criticism from key industry players. Leading web companies are concerned with provisions of the law that suggest corporate censorship.

“The law provides for a possibility of blocking of internet platforms by ISPs that we have always opposed to as it inevitably threatens resources of legal content distribution,” Svetlana Anurova, a representative of Google in Russia, told Digit.ru.

Russia keeps building repressive legislative network that restricts freedom of expression, as well as other fundamental rights. Previous legal initiatives brought to life included the notorious “foreign agent” law, aimed against NGOs that receive foreign funding, re-criminalisation of defamation, and creation of a blacklist of sites with “harmful” information under a pretext of child protection.

“Law-making the State Duma has been down to over the last year makes me question common sense of Russian MPs. It looks like they do believe they can regulate everything by laws, from street rallies to sexual relationships of citizens. Passing of such laws is an attempt to shift the focus of public attention from internal problems of Russia, people’s disaffection and questionable legitimacy of MPs themselves to search for enemies in ‘foreign agents’, LGBT community or ‘insulters’ of religious feelings,” Dmitry Makarov, a co-chair of the International Youth Human Rights Movement, told Index.

The scale and pace of passing repressive laws won the Russian State Duma a nickname of “a Crazy Printer.” And it does not seem to run out of paper and new ideas about what to restrict.