Lviv students protest repressive actions in Kyiv (03/25/01)

Lviv students protest repressive actions in Kyiv

by Oksana Petrovych

LVIV - Over 3,000 students from various Lviv educational establishments took part in peaceful protests which began in Lviv on March 12. They were protesting mass arrests and other illegal repressions against participants in the demonstration which occurred on March 9 in Kyiv.

On the morning of March 12 students from Lviv National University, the Lviv Theological Academy, the Institute of Physical Education and Lviv Polytechnic University gathered by the statue of Ivan Franko in Lviv to hear the testimony of those students who managed to return successfully from Kyiv. The students were on edge because of the mass arrests and other illegal repressions against participants in the March 9 demonstration in Kyiv.

According to the official numbers, 212 people spent the night in different police stations of the Ukrainian capital - a large portion of these were students. The physical appearance of some of those coming to the meeting in Lviv was so striking that words were not necessary: they had managed to avoid jail, but not the billy clubs of the police.

In Kyiv itself "special attention" had been given to people from Lviv, according to witnesses. Approximately 100 people from Lviv were held at the Kyiv train station on the evening of March 9. Most of them were literally pulled out of train cars and thrown face-first onto the ground of the railroad station.

"They announced that I was guilty, as if I were a dangerous criminal," explained Yurko Fedoryshyn, a student of applied mathematics. "When it turned out that I had done nothing criminal, no one even said 'sorry,' even though they detained me for over a day."

Pavlo Aleksandrov, a student on the faculty of journalism of Lviv National University told the newpaper Postup that he was arrested at the train station and hit by the special security forces on the road before a brief trial. "The trial lasted a few minutes; they didn't tell me what I was charged with. After the trial I met with other friends of mine who were tried, and it was clear that no one had read any charges to any of them, no one had a chance to defend himself. They just read the verdict. The result was either to scare us or to discourage us from traveling to Kyiv again," he related.

Yurii Volkolhon, a philosophy student, was hastily tried by a female judge and two policemen, "It looked like they had grabbed the judge from her home in a hurry, because I think she was in a house coat, covered by her judge's robe," he said.

Already on the second day of the protests, students from all the higher educational establishments in Lviv joined in - regardless of announcements by some administrators that all students who participated in the protests would be expelled. Only the rectors of a few institutions unambiguously announced that no administrative sanctions would be applied to those students who were exercising their civil rights via these political activities.

Though the demonstrations in Kyiv culminated in violence, the Lviv protests were peaceful. On both days the demonstrators were escorted by policemen and generally marched on the sidewalks in long columns. Contrary to various reports, no efforts have been made to deport rectors who are American citizens.

The solidarity of the students produced quick results. On the evening of March 14 all those from Lviv who were being detained in Kyiv were released, even those who previously had been illegally sentenced to 15 days.

On March 15, Mykola Zhulynskyi, vice prime minister of culture, met with all the rectors of higher educational establishments in Lviv at a closed meeting. He warned about the danger of destabilization in Ukraine and the manipulation of student activists, but also stressed that repression against students should be excluded.

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