By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KYIV, Ukraine – A historic chain of events found Ukrainian protesters in control of the capital Kyiv, opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko free from prison, and President Viktor Yanukovych defiantly claim to still wield power after Parliament voted to dismiss him.

Since November 2013, Ukrainian protests escalated into a Cold War-style confrontation, as Russia attempted prevent EU and US efforts to strengthen relations with Ukraine.

On 22 February 2014, security forces abandoned President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled Kyiv. Tens of thousands of protestors who occupied Independence Square discovered nearly-abandoned government and presidential buildings.

Inside Yanukovych’s private estate, Ukrainians found luxuries ranging from a private zoo to a replica galleon floating on an artificial waterway.

“I am in shock,” a retired military servicewoman named Natalia Rudenko said as she inspected the president’s rare pheasant collection and a banquet hall built inside the galleon replica. “In a country with so much poverty, how can one person have so much?”

As Yanukovych gave a television interview from the pro-Russian eastern bastion city of Kharkiv, he denounced the “coup” against him and branded his political foes “bandits.”

In Yanukovych’s absence, Parliament stepped into the power vacuum , voted to oust President Yanukovych, and set new elections for 25 May 2014. Next, Parliament ordered Yanukovych’s pro-EU rival, Tymoshenko free from prison. United States officials applauded Tymoshenko’s release, and wished her “a speedy recovery as she seeks the appropriate medical treatment that she has long needed and sought.”

Tymoshenko appeared in a wheelchair to 50,000 protestors, saying, “You are heroes, you are the best of Ukraine.”

Later, deputies named Tymoshenko ally Arsen Avakov as interior minister in place of Vitaliy Zakharchenko, who is blamed for ordering the police to open fire on unarmed protesters.

The army issued a statement that it “will in no way become involved in the political conflict.” Additionally, the police force declared itself in support of “the people” and “rapid change”.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said, “Events in the last 24 hours show the will of Ukrainians to move towards a different future, and ensure that the voices of those who have protested courageously over several months are heard.”

“This is a political knockout for Yanukovych,” charismatic opposition leader Vitali Klitschko said in a statement. “Yanukovych is no longer president.”

In a firm voice, Yanukovych vowed to fight any attempt to oust him: “I am not leaving the country for anywhere. I do not intend to resign. I am the legitimately elected president.

However, government buildings stood without police protection as baton-armed protesters dressed in military fatigues wandered freely across his once-fortified compound.

Russia’s foreign ministry accused the opposition of “submitting itself to armed extremists and looters whose actions pose a direct threat to the sovereignty and constitutional order of Ukraine.”

Only time will tell how well the waters of this Ukrainian spring have cleansed a country following months of turmoil.

For further information, please see:

AFP – Protesters Hail Freed Tymoshenko But Ukraine Leader Defiant – February 22, 2014

Aljazeera – Freed Tymoshenko Addresses Ukraine Protesters – February 22, 2014

Euronews – Ukraine: New Parliamentary Speaker Elected – February 22, 2014

New York Times – Ukraine’s Leader Flees the Capital; Elections Are Called – February 22, 2014

TIME World – Freed Ukrainian Opposition Leader Yulia Tymoshenko Addresses Protestors – February 22, 2014

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Demonstrators disrupted Russian punk band Pussy Riot as the former political prisoners attempted to hold a press conference.

In 2012, Russian dissident musicians Pussy Riot rose to international fame by storming a Moscow cathedral, where they performed a provocative song that denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin. Band members Maria Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina imprisoned for hooliganism and inciting religious hatred. Authorities released them, alongside other political prisoners, shortly before the Olympics began in Sochi.

However, Pussy Riot immediately returned to denouncing the Kremlin, as well as conditions inmates endure in Russian prisons.

On 18 February 2014, police in Sochi detained members of Pussy Riot, human rights activists, and journalists in connection with an alleged theft at the band’s hotel. All charges were dropped and the detainees released within hours.

On 20 February 2014, Pussy Riot released an angry music video—“Putin Will Teach You to Love Your Country”—against Putin’s crackdown on free expression, as well as the Sochi Olympics’ price of $50 billion. In the song, Pussy Riot sings about the “constitution being lynched,” government pressure against Russia’s independent television station, and last week’s sentencing of environmentalist Evgeny Vitishko to a penal colony for three years.

“The goal is to show what it’s like to be a political activist in Olympic Sochi,” said Pussy Riot member Tolokonnikova.

The video included the previous day’s footage of Cossacks—descendants of the former patrolmen of Russian borderlands—whipping the band members shortly after their song began near a “Sochi 2014” sign.

While foreign media prepared for a news conference with the band at a Sochi hotel, a hotel employee informed journalists that the conference room was unavailable. Several dozen journalists went outside, where uniformed police and undercover security officers waited for band members to arrive.

As the four Pussy Riot members approached with arms locked, five male university students, accompanied by a man dressed in a giant chicken suit, pulled out raw chickens and chanted, “We like sex with chicken” in mangled English. Then the students and costumed chicken attempted to disrupt the news conference.

The man in the chicken costume said, “We don’t like people who have sex with food. We don’t want them here.”

“We don’t understand their behavior and that’s why we’re protesting,” said 23-year old Sergei Barashov, one of the anti-Pussy Riot demonstrators. Barashov expressed concern that the punk band would desecrate a recently-built Russian Orthodox cathedral on the outskirts of Sochi’s Olympic Park.

For further information, please see:

CNN International – Beaten But Hardly Tamed, Pussy Riot Strikes Back in Sochi – February 20, 2014

Guardian – Pussy Riot’s Tour of Sochi: Arrests, Protests – and Whipping by Cossacks – February 20, 2014

New York Daily News – Bondy: Pussy Riot Slams ‘Total Police and Security Control’ of Winter Olympics at ‘Secret’ Press Conference – February 20, 2014

Reuters – Pussy Riot Mocks Russia’s Olympics in Music Video – February 20, 2014

New York Times – Members of Russian Protest Group Attacked by Cossacks in Sochi – February 19, 2014

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

KIEV, Ukraine – Gunfire erupted between government security forces and opposition protesters at Independence Square in Kiev on Thursday.

The latest violent scuffle occurred just two days after a breakout of violence that left 28 people dead, and mere hours after President Viktor Yanukovych announced a truce between government security forces and opposition leaders on late Wednesday evening.

As a result of the latest violence, approximately 100 people were killed and 500 were injured in the clashes, according to the opposition forces’ medical team. The Ukrainian government has not released its own casualty numbers, but Interior Minister Vitali Zakharchenko stated that 25 police officers were injured and an unknown amount were killed. There were also allegedly hostages taken during the violence.

The Ukraine’s hostile situation began in November, when President Yanukovych nixed a trade deal with the European Union, and decided to deal with Russia. A conflict between an alliance with Russia and cooperation with the European Union has permeated the Ukrainian government for years.

It is not specifically known exactly what sparked Thursday’s violence, as conflicting reports indicate protestors throwing Molotov cocktails, and security forces pursuing opposition forces. Interior Minister Zakharchenko stated the violence was “provoked exclusively by the opposition leaders.” President Yanukovych’s office also indicated that the protesters of broke the truce. “The opposition used the negotiation period to buy time, to mobilize and get weapons to protesters,” a statement from the President’s office said.

An individual working for the opposition as a medical respondent accused government forces of shooting to kill, saying she had treated 13 people she believed had been targeted by “professional snipers.” “They were shot directly to their hearts, their brain and to their neck. They didn’t give any chance to doctors, for us, to save lives,” she stated.

European Union officials were scheduled to meet to discuss possible sanctions against the Ukrainian government on Thursday, which could include freezing assets and restricting the visas of officials deemed responsible for violence in that country, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius stated.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged President Yanukovych to accept EU aid in negotiations with the opposition. Russia’s foreign ministry, however, appeared to criticize Western diplomatic efforts. “The ongoing attempts to obtrusively intervene from outside, threat with sanctions or trying to influence the situation in any other ways are inappropriate and can’t lead to anything good but can only aggravate the confrontation,” Russian spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich stated.

Ukrainian athletes dawned black mourning bands and held a moment of silence Thursday at the Sochi Olympics.

For more information, please see: 

CNN – Truce Crumbles Amid Gunfire in Ukraine, Protesters Claim 100 Dead – 20 February 2014

Reuters – Ukraine Truce Shattered, Death Toll Tops 50 – 20 February 2014

The Telegraph – Ukraine Protests Live: Death Toll Mounts Amid “Sniper Attacks” As Fresh Fighting Breaks Truce – 20 February 2014

New York Times – Ukraine Leader Strains For Grip As Chaos Spreads – 19 February 2014

 

*For live video coverage of the Events in Kiev, click here.

 

 

 

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

SOCHI, Russia – A leader of Russia’s Circassian ethnic minority was arrested by authorities on Friday in the latest instance of Russia’s crackdown on protestors near the Sochi Games.

Asker Sokht, a moderate Circassian activist who has been considered an ally to the Kremlin, was arrested after dozens of Circassian activists were arrested on February 7^th while attempting to protest at the Sochi Olympics. On Friday, Sokht was detained and sentenced to eight days in custody for “hooliganism and disobeying police.”

Last week, Sokht was quoted criticizing the Sochi Olympics for its opening ceremony. The February 7^th opening ceremony traced the cultural history of Russia, but did not acknowledge the Circassian ethnic minority group.

“It is clear that behind the alleged hooliganism or disobeying charge against him are his critical statements about the Olympics in Sochi,” a Circassian activist group stated in a letter addressed to the regional governor demanding Sokht’s release.

Thousands of Circassians were displaced out of the Sochi Region by the Tsarist army when it invaded the Persian-controlled North Caucasus region. This event led to a fifty year war which killed thousands more Circassians.

Circassian activists have expressly opposed the Winter Olympics being held in Russia, as the Circassians claim that Sochi is the site their people’s expulsion from Russia. In 2007, an anti-Olympics campaign called No Sochi 2014 was created with the aim to “strip Russia of the Sochi Olympics based on it being the location of the Circassian Genocide.”  Circassians view the Sochi Games as particularly offensive because they fall on the 150^th anniversary of the alleged genocide.

Circassian activists have attempted to convince the Kremlin to acknowledge the Circassian persecution. “This is deeply sad for Circassians. Even those who weren’t strongly associated with the nationalist movement and were fairly assimilated in Russia interpret this as an insult to the Circassian people,” stated Adam Bogus, the leader of a Circassian council in the town of Maykop, which is roughly 150 miles from Sochi.

Russia has enforced a large-scale ethnic crackdown in the North Caucasus region, where Islamic insurgency has caused conflicts for years. Citizens in this region allege invasive security measures and racial profiling both ahead of, and during the Sochi games.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Russia Detains Circassian Leader Protesting Sochi Olympics – 17 February 2014

CNN – Russia Arrests Leader of Circassian Ethnic Minority – 17 February 2014

International Business Times – Circassians Protest Winter Olympics Being Held at Sochi Genocide Site – 17 February 2014

Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty – Circassian Leader Reportedly Detained Near Sochi – 17 February 2014

 

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MADRID, Spain – The European Union wants answers regarding at least fourteen migrants who drowned after Spanish border authorities fired rubber bullets at them. This comes amidst a possibility that Spain will offer nationality to any of the world’s nearly five million Sephardic Jews, as amends for their ancestors’ exile.

Each year, thousands of immigrants attempt to reach Europe near Melilla and Ceuta, both Spanish territories along Morocco’s Mediterranean coastline. Many migrants are sub-Saharan African and, currently, Syrian refugees.

On 6 February 2014, a few people attempting to cross the border drowned. They belonged to a group of nearly 200, some of whom tried to climb the razor-wire-lined frontier fence. Those who jumped into the sea hoped to swim around a man-made breakwater separating Moroccan and Spanish waters.

On 13 February 2014, Spain admitted that its border police fired rubber bullets at fourteen persons in attempt to push them back. While all fourteen drowned, only nine bodies were recovered.

“The Ceuta Civil Guard have found at 12:30 this morning on the beach of Almadraba, five meters (16 feet) from the shore, the dead body of a sub-Saharan immigrant. It is the second body found today,” Spanish officials said in a statement.

The European Commission promised to ask Spain to explain why police fired rubber bullets. The Spanish opposition has call for National Police director Arsenio Fernandez de Mesa to step down over the incident.

EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom said she was “very concerned about Spanish police using rubber bullets to deter migrants.”

“I expect clarifications from the authorities,” Malmstrom tweeted.

“This loss of life is appalling,” said Jezerca Tigani, Deputy Europe and Central Asia Programme Director at Amnesty International, “and the Spanish authorities must come clean on what happened – particularly as the Minister’s version of events contradicts earlier official statements. They must determine what went wrong and bring those responsible to account as a matter of urgency.”

“Regardless of whether any of the migrants were hit,” Tigani said, “it will be up to an independent investigation to determine whether the Civil Guard and border authorities acted appropriately. The results of any such investigation must be made public, and anyone responsible for human rights violations brought to justice.”

The news of migrants kept out of Spain comes amidst the Spanish government’s plans to make historic amends for Sephardic Jews who were exiled five centuries ago. In coming weeks or months, a new law would require a grant of Spanish nationality to those who can prove they are descendants of that exile’s victims.

While nearly three million Sephardic Jews can already travel to the EU from Israel with ease, the possibility of an EU passport provides access to residence, employment, and subsidized education throughout the entire 28-country bloc.

Before Spain makes amends for past atrocities, the EU Member State needs to answer for what appears to be a current anti-immigration atrocity.
For further information, please see:

Reuters – Bodies Found in Spain’s North Africa Waters Likely Brings Migrant Drownings to 14 – February 15, 2014

RT – EU ‘Very Concerned’ by Spanish Police Use of Rubber Bullets to Deter Migrants – February 15, 2014

Amnesty International – Spain: Accountability Urged for ‘Appalling’ Migrant Deaths in Ceuta – February 14, 2014

BBC News – EU to Probe Spain over Rubber Bullets Fired at Migrants – February 14, 2014

Seattle Times – Spain Opens Door to Sephardic Jews after Historic Expulsion – February 14, 2014