With investigations stalled into a raft of crimes committed during the EuroMaidan Revolution, tensions are running high.
Those tensions erupted into a violent encounter at a parliamentary hearing
when Volodymyr Parasyuk, considered a EuroMaidan hero by some activists, kicked
Vasyl Pisny, an officer of the Security Service of Ukraine in the head.
Parasyuk, now a member of parliament, faces charges for assaulting the
official.
His foot to the head, however, is representative of society’s frustrations
as a whole with the lack of progress in bringing criminal prosecutions for
crimes ranging from murder to assaulting demonstrators who helped drive
President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014.
On the eve of the two-year anniversary of the Nov. 21 start of the EuroMaidan
Revolution, lawyers representing the families of dozens of protesters killed
asked why those responsible still haven’t been brought to justice.
The Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry ignored the
meeting, where they were called to give a progress report on the
investigations.
Yegor Sobolev, the head of the Anti-Corruption Committee, threatened that
“the public would take action” in light of such disrespect by the authorities.
Briefing the committee on obstructions in the EuroMaidan investigation,
Vitaliy Tytych, head of the law firm Tytych & Partners, said that
investigators looking into the killings during the protests were being
pressured from the old guard in the Prosecutor General’s Office. “The
investigators feel threatened, as if they are under suspicion,” he said.
A special EuroMaidan investigative branch was set up, although Tytych said
it lacked computers and was understaffed. Tytych represents two of the victims
who were shot dead during the protests.
Preliminary findings released by the prosecution’s investigators showed
that at least 77 protesters were killed during the 95-day winter uprising, while
185 were wounded by gunfire and more than 1,000 others suffered wounds.
Some activists expressed doubt about these figures, however, insisting that
hundreds had been killed. Representing that view was protester-turned-lawmaker
Yuriy Tymoshenko.
“I saw tens of people being shot and beaten to death on Feb. 18 (2014) in
the Kriposnyi Lane alone,” he said. Tymoshenko also reiterated earlier claims
that crematories had been burning corpses on a massive scale to cover up the
killings.
Tymoshenko’s claim of a higher number of deaths than reported couldn’t be
confirmed. But prosecutors provided proof that the authorities had the means
for such a crackdown. Security forces were provided with live ammunition for
their Kalashnikov assault rifles as early as February 10, 2014, head of the
prosecution service’s investigative unit Serhiy Horbatyuk said at a separate
briefing.
The authorities had planned a violent crackdown on the Feb. 18
demonstration, including with the use of live ammunition, according to the
prosecution. Ten were confirmed killed that day alone Horbatyuk said.
It was also confirmed that government agencies had hired thugs and petty
criminals to battle the protestors. These so-called titushki were provided with
more than 408 Kalashnikovs and no less than 90,000 rounds of live ammunition.
Although a number of individuals are under investigation, Tytych lamented
the fact that the cases hadn’t been solved yet.
Tytych claimed that the groups of security forces responsible for the bulk
of the killings weren’t taking orders from their usual commanders. He explained
that members of the special police team Alfa seemed surprised when they
discovered that other units were killing protesters on Feb. 20.
“They are taking people down!” the Alfa officers said in a video recording
of the events.
According to Tytych, the killing squads were operating independently as
terrorist groups.
Moreover, he said, the persistent escalations on the side of the
authorities throughout the protest period were aimed at radicalizing the
uprising, which the then authorities thought would turn Ukraine’s east and
Crimea against EuroMaidan, justify an armed intervention by Russia, and fit
with Russian propaganda picturing the leaders of the uprising as a violent “junta.”
Tytych’s interpretation was partly collaborated by the lead investigator Horbatyuk,
who said that the mass killings were a last resort for the authorities, as
other forms of intimidation hadn’t brought about the desired effect. A total of
274 officials were under investigations for their role in the violence.
Tytych criticized the fact that a number of officials were only to be
indicted for abusing their authority, when in fact they should be wanted for
murder. Tytych also said it was wrong that several Interior Ministry officials
accused of wrongdoing during EuroMaidan hadn’t been suspended but had kept on
working in high positions – allowing them to obscure evidence.
“Imagine if the French authorities said that they would come up with
something on the Paris terrorist attack in a couple of years?” Tytych asked
rhetorically, talking to the Kyiv Post. “In a more normal country, these cases
would have been solved by now.”
The angry reaction came quickly as Parasyuk jumped up from his seat and
assaulted a security service official by kicking him in the head. The outburst came in response
to a remark by the security service official, Vasyl Pisny, who said he had done
more for EuroMaidan than Parasyuk had.
Pisny is a deputy head of the State Security
Service’s central anti-corruption and organized crime department, representing
the only government body to appear before the committee that day.
Parasyuk accused Pisny of corruption in Lviv, saying “Everybody in
Lviv know who that man is.”
Volomydyr Parasyuk kicks Vasyl Pisny, a State Security Service official, in the head. Courtesy Radio Free Europe.
The Kyiv Post witnessed how Parasyuk, a 28-year-old non-party affiliated member
of parliament, made several attempts to resume the scuffle. A close political
ally of Parasyuk, member of parliament Boryslav Bereza, held him back.
Parasyuk later apologized for his violent outburst, but many saw a wider
issue that highlighted the public anger over the continued impunity among
officials despite the EuroMaidan’s demands for rule of law in the nation.
Echoing comments from a number of leading lawmakers, Volodymyr Viatrovych,
the director of the Institute for National Remembrance, wrote on his Facebook
page that the authorities would keep losing its monopoly on violence if it
didn’t actually use that right in the pursuit of justice.
Staff writer
Johannes Wamberg Andersen can be reached at [email protected]
