Youths who seized Communist Party HQ surrender after 13-hour stand-off with militia (03/19/00)

Youths who seized Communist Party HQ surrender after 13-hour stand-off with militia

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Eleven young nationalists who forcibly occupied the Communist Party headquarters in Kyiv on March 9 quietly surrendered after a 13-hour stand-off with Internal Affairs Ministry militia, during which they set out a series of demands, including a ban on the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Although none of the demands were met, as the protesters were escorted to militia vehicles after voluntarily leaving the building, a member of the group said the occupation had succeeded in its aim because it had brought attention to group's cause.

"The Ukrainian nation has demonstrated that it can protect itself," said one of the group members, who did not identify himself.

The protesters have been charged with forcible occupation of a building and assault with inflictment of bodily injury, charges that carry a combined maximum of eight years' imprisonment.

One of the arrested, identified as Natalia Nemchynova, the only female in the group, announced a hunger strike the next day to protest the conditions of her detention.

The 11, which include six students of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Kyiv State University, as well as a young high school teacher, are members of the previously unknown political organization called Independent Ukraine. Four of those arrested also are members of the National Rukh of Ukraine Party.

Upon seizing the building the protesters had announced that unless their demands were met - most of which related to purging the government and the state of vestiges of its Soviet past - they would immolate themselves and the building.

In a five-page communiqué Independent Ukraine set out eight points for the "de-colonization of Ukraine" and specifically stipulated a ban on the Communist Party and other parties that support a similar ideology. It also demanded the withdrawal of Ukraine from the Commonwealth of Independent States and the removal of Russia's Black Sea Fleet from Ukrainian territory.

In other demands the political organization called for the lustration of government bodies of former and current Communist Party members; the complete reorganization of state law enforcement bodies; official recognition for veterans of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists as World War II veterans with the right to all benefits associated with such status; and the immediate payment of wage and pension arrears.

The communiqué acknowledged the influence of early 20th century militant nationalist Mykola Mikhnovsky, who outlined plans for an independent Ukrainian state and its militarization prior to the Bolshevik Revolution. It stated that Independent Ukraine's name came directly from the title of a program for Ukrainian statehood announced in 1900 by the Ukrainian political activist.

The illegal occupation of the building began when the 11 young people, age 19 to 24, entered the Communist Party headquarters a few minutes after noon on March 9, and subdued a guard in the entryway. They quickly rounded up the various clerks, administrators and officials in the building and forced them to leave the building. Assistant First Secretary Adam Martyniuk, the highest ranking Communist Party official in the facility, was sprayed with tear gas, while elderly women were pushed around and manhandled, said those who were present.

Some news media reported that the group members wore ski masks, were armed with pistols and fired shots. Others said that the security officer on duty did the shooting. State militia officials as well as representatives of the Communist Party have refused to comment on most aspects of the case while the investigation is ongoing.

The interlopers carried what militia officials estimated to be 120 liters of gas into the building from a vehicle on the street and poured it over the floors. After barricading doors and street-level windows with office furniture, they hung a 20-meter banner from the second floor windows that read: "A single, united, free and independent Ukraine from the Carpathian Mountains to the Caucasus." The slogan was the motto used by Mikhnovsky and his followers in the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party that he headed.

With the building secured, the group proceeded to wreak havoc on the place, destroying party documents and memorabilia, and spray painting walls with nationalist slogans.

Militia vehicles and firefighting equipment arrived within minutes, but no effort was made to enter the building. First Vice Minister of Internal Affairs Oleksander Kornienko said at the time that the militia would use no force until all other means of removing the intruders had been exhausted.

The group immediately asked to speak with National Deputy Hennadii Udovenko, the leader of the National Rukh of Ukraine Party, and called for a meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko.

Mr. Udovenko arrived soon afterwards with another Rukh national deputy, Oleksander Chornovolenko, who heads the party's Kyiv organization. The negotiations that followed lasted well into the night and eventually included two other national deputies, Mykhailo Ratushnyi of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists and Oleksander Yemets the Reforms and Order Party. The four also took turns acting as couriers of messages to Prime Minister Yuschenko.

Early in the evening, as the siege entered its sixth hour, Interfax-Ukraine received a telephone call from Oleksander Bashuk, who also was holed up in the building and who identified himself as a "lawyer and the attorney for the group." Mr. Bashuk said the group's motive was to bring attention to the "anti-state activities" of the Communist Party.

"There are no hostages here, no terrorist intentions. This is not terrorism. We need to draw attention to our demands and to hear a true response from the powers that be," said Mr. Bashuk, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

Meanwhile, across the street from the building in a vacant lot, journalists and the curious gathered, and a running debate between those sympathetic to the occupation and those supporting the Communists continued well into the evening. At one point, after words proved insufficient, several students engaged in fisticuffs before militia separated them. Later, Communist sympathizers sang old Communist anthems.

Finally, after hours of negotiations and with no promises secured, the 11 perpetrators left the building just after 1 a.m. and were taken to a Kyiv detention facility.

The Communist Party reacted to the seizure of its building with restraint and remained subdued in its commentary in the immediate days that followed. Mr. Martyniuk, speaking with reporters at the site, uncharacteristically refrained from vitriol and blamed no one for what was occurring. "These are kids, unfortunately," is all he had to say about those who had besieged his party's headquarters.

On March 13, however, Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko laid the blame on President Leonid Kuchma and called the occupation of his party's headquarters "a continuation of the anti-Communist hysteria fomented by pro-presidential forces."

"I believe this was an organized effort by the government," said Mr. Symonenko. At another point in his meeting with journalists, he wondered aloud why none of the leaders of the executive or legislative branches of government had criticized the actions of Independent Ukraine: "Why has the guarantor of the Constitution not said a single word on the event in the days that followed? Why has the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada remained quiet? Why has the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Human Rights voiced support for the actions of the students?"

In fact, the government had little response and attempted to downplay the significance of the forced occupation. While neither the president nor the prime minister issued any statements, Verkhovna Rada Second Vice-Chairman Stepan Havrysh said the actions of those who took over the Communist headquarters can only be judged by a court of law.

"These people were not terrorists. They, according to their own words, only tried to draw attention to the problems linked with the unconstitutional activities of the Communist Party," said Mr. Havrysh on March 10.

The Communists have been especially critical of the role Mr. Udovenko, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada's Human Rights Committee, and his Rukh Party played in the affair. Although the Communists did not identify individuals, they said in a statement that "those who were so prominent before the television cameras" as the occupation of the building continued had much to do with organizing the action.

However, Kyiv Public Prosecutor Serhii Mischenko said on March 13 that he has no information that the action was supported by any organized political parties. "This was done on their own initiative," said Mr. Mischenko.

Mr. Udovenko issued a statement from Odesa the day after the incident and rejected the Communist Party's insinuations.

"The National Rukh of Ukraine is being condemned because it took part in negotiations with [the students]. Meanwhile the Communists in Ukraine are not being held accountable at all for those crimes they perpetrated against the Ukrainian nation," said Mr. Udovenko.

Rukh has publicly called for leniency towards those who took over the Communist headquarters and has repeatedly denounced assertions by the Communist Party that the young people should be tried as terrorists. Rukh National Deputy Chornovolenko, who took part in negotiations with the group, said he was "absolutely sure that it was a political action."

If an informal Internet poll released by UNIAN is to be believed, a good number of Ukrainians would agree with Mr. Chornovolenko. Nearly 45 percent of the respondents said they look at the action against the Communist headquarters as a positive occurrence because "Communism has to be uprooted decisively." However, 27.7 percent said they had a negative opinion of the action because of the methods used, while 22.7 percent said that such actions left them indignant and alarmed that fascism could become a political threat.

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