The participants of the Popular Assembly on Maidan passed a new program manifesto by the Maidan Pan-Ukrainian Association. Oleksandr Turchynov, an MP from the Batkivschyna party, read out the text from the stage.
The document proclaims short-, medium- and long-term goals. In the near future, Euromaidan activists intend to secure the release and vindication of all those arrested for participating in the protests and the release of all political prisoners as well as to cease the terror, threats, physical and moral pressure on those participating in peaceful resistance.
In addition, activists want the resignation and prosecution of high-ranking officials, including Minister of Interior Zaharchenko, who are responsible for organizing the break up of Maidan on the night of November 30, 2013, and for beating activists near the Presidential Administration on December 1, 2013. They also demand the elimination of a Special Forces unit known as Berkut and a ban on the use of servicemen in the interior troops to forcefully counter peaceful mass protests.
Yet another short-term goal is the resignation of Mykola Azarov’s government and the formation of a new majority in the Parliament and “the beginning of real and not simulated negotiations between the government and Maidan.”
“To take care of this the Maidan Pan-Ukrainian Association’ Council will authorize a plenipotentiary delegation that will have Maidan’s mandate to conduct negotiations with the government,” Turchynov said.
Also, the plans include the establishment of a representative body of constituent power to prepare a new constitution. This will require a constitutional roll-back as well.
“Before it is ratified we need to temporarily return to the Constitution of 2004. This is a legitimate way of solving the deep political and economic crisis, which includes a preterm parliamentary election on a pro rata basis with open candidate lists,” the manifesto says.
In the medium-term perspective, the plan includes the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union, introduction of visa-free entrance to the EU and the prevention of Ukraine being involved in the Customs Union or the Eurasian Union.
Also, activists urge the West to introduce personal sanctions against those involved in the use of force against peaceful protesters including a ban on entry as well as the freezing of assets and examination of financial sources and property abroad.
“In the long-term perspective, we have to build in Ukraine a democratic, law-governed state with a socially oriented economy, adopt a new constitution, decentralize power, fundamentally change the Cabinet, resume justice, fundamentally reform law enforcement bodies and the educational system by introducing to the latter compulsory civic education and human rights courses, “the document states.
Original in Ukrainian on the Ukrainska Pravda website:
