20,000 demonstrate in Kyiv against Kuchma administration (03/16/03)

20,000 demonstrate in Kyiv against Kuchma administration

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The four long columns of marchers came from different directions - a strong symbolic gesture of disparate political ideologies uniting behind a common cause - before merging on the Khreschatyk and proceeding down Kyiv's broad, main thoroughfare, past Independence Square, past the Lenin Memorial and on to Shevchenko Park.

And it was unity that organizers' stressed on March 9 as they held the latest in a series of demonstrations across Ukraine in protest against what they describe as the authoritarian rule of the administration of President Leonid Kuchma and alleged criminal acts they associate with his heavy hand. The action came on the 189th anniversary of the birth of Ukraine's national bard, Taras Shevchenko, and was part of similar protests in Lviv, Kharkiv and Symferopol, all associated with the "Arise, Ukraine" movement.

At Shevchenko Park in Kyiv the 20,000 or so demonstrators who had spilled onto the Khreschatyk minutes earlier rallied. They watched the four leading opposition figures - Our Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko, Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz, Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko and Yulia Tymoshenko of the eponymous political bloc - lay flowers before the huge monument to the Ukrainian bard and heard them exhort Ukrainians to heed Shevchenko's words and unite against corrupt authoritarian rule.

"We want the ruling authority to understand that nothing has been forgotten, not Heorhii Gongadze, not Ihor Aleksandrov, not the corruption or the crimes," said Mr. Moroz. "We must remember Shevchenko's great words: 'Fight and you shall overcome.'"

Although the leaders spoke of corruption, crimes and poverty, the central theme of the day was unity - an idea that Mr. Yushchenko accented in his remarks. He suggested that had the opposition shown unity in previous national elections, there might not have been a need for the demonstrations that have regularly occurred in Kyiv for more than two years.

"We came to this monument today united in a special way, as never before, which is evidenced by the various colors of the flags that wave here," noted Mr. Yushchenko.

The former prime minister of Ukraine was quick to stress that the protests had to have a higher goal than simply removing the sitting Ukrainian president.

"Ukraine needs [true] democracy and not a game of democracy. We need political truth and wisdom," said Mr. Yushchenko.

The rally commemorated the second anniversary of a previous anti-Kuchma demonstration held on the same date, which ended in a bloody confrontation just outside the Presidential Administration Building after protesters attacked state militia, who responded aggressively. After that confrontation, scores of young adults were arrested in a mass sweep by law enforcement agencies. Eventually, 16 were detained for more than a year and a half on charges of hooliganism and inciting to riot. Four of them were recently given two- to six-year terms, while the others were set free.

This time the demonstrations remained peaceful and orderly. The only thing remotely resembling the color of blood was the sea of Communist banners waved by the party's 4,000 supporters as they came down Hrushevsky Street from the Verkhovna Rada building to European Square.

There they merged with an only slightly lesser number of Our Ukraine marchers approaching from the direction of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Sobor and waving a variety of colorful flags of the national democratic forces they represented.

The confluence moved down the Khreschatyk to Independence Square, where the Socialists waited and where a column of the Tymoshenko Bloc coming from St. Sophia Square joined the growing mass of humanity, carrying placards and chanting the now familiar refrain, "Kuchma out!"

The protesters called for justice in the murder of Heorhii Gongadze, who disappeared two and a half years ago. It was the discovery of his beheaded body in a shallow grave outside Kyiv followed by revelations of digital recordings in which the Ukrainian president was alleged to have discussed doing away with the young opposition-minded journalist with other Ukrainian leaders that led to the development of the anti-Kuchma movement.

About a year later that protest movement took on new energy following the death of Mr. Aleksandrov, a Ukrainian journalist living in Donetsk, and the bumbling that occurred as local law enforcement officials tried to pin the blame for the murder on a local squatter. After petering out for a time, the anti-Kuchma movement regained strength following parliamentary elections in March 2002, which many international and domestic observers said were falsified, and after pro-presidential forces took the reigns of power in the Verkhovna Rada even though the Our Ukraine bloc had won a clear electoral victory.

This year the four leaders, standing before at the Shevchenko Monument, issued a statement in which they called for the resignation of President Kuchma and early elections; sweeping administrative reform; the introduction of an exclusively proportional electoral system; the release of all political prisoners; the elimination of censorship and unrestrained access to the major television channels for the four opposition leaders; increased wages and pensions; and no increases in communal services rates.

Ms. Tymoshenko announced that the next action in the "Arise, Ukraine" movement would occur on May 22, which is commemorated as the day Shevchenko's remains were moved to their final resting place in Kaniv. Organizers stated on March 12 that they are planning to re-enact the "human chain" on that date - a public action that occurred in 1991, when hundreds of thousands of people joined hands on the road between Lviv and Kyiv. It was a time when excitement over the prospect of independence and the ongoing deterioration of the Soviet Union was beginning to peak. Ms. Tymoshenko suggested that the date could be the culmination in the current fight with state authorities.

"Today we have taken the first step, and next time - it may be May 22 - we will gather to finally run those people out of power," said Ms. Tymoshenko.

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