Ukrainian Opposition Leaders Denounce Amnesty Law

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

January 30, 2014
KYIV -- Ukraine's opposition leaders have denounced a law that offers an amnesty to detained antigovernment protesters -- but only if they vacate government buildings they now occupy.

Vitali Klitschko said that "instead of lowering the temperature in society, this is going to raise it." He said the law would allow the authorities to hold the detainees as "hostages" until buildings are freed.

The amnesty law "first needs to come into force and only after that can it be implemented. However, we are certain that this law -- as well as many other laws -- does not correspond to the interests of the people," Klitschko said.

"The law that has been adopted is very much like a Somalia pirates' law, where people are being taken hostage and then released only in exchange for something."

Meanwhile, President Viktor Yanukovych's office said on January 30 that the president had contracted a severe form of flu and had taken sick leave.

Parliament passed the amnesty bill on January 29 with backing from Yanukovych's Party of Regions, but the opposition refused to vote.

Antigovernment protesters are occupying several key buildings in Kyiv, including the city hall. They also have erected barricades in the center of the Ukrainian capital where they have camped out for two months.

Kyiv Protesters Defiant

Demonstrators on the streets Kyiv in the early morning hours of January 30 denounced the move by parliament as inadequate and continued their calls for Yanukovych's resignation and the scheduling of national elections.

Opposition leader Yuriy Lutsenko said the Ukrainian authorities had wrongly restricted negotiations to the issue of a possible amnesty in exchange for the departure of protesters from government administrative buildings.

Lutsenko said protesters would only leave Kyiv city administration buildings and the barricades on Hrushevskyy Street after three conditions were met -- passage by parliament of an amnesty bill, votes in favor of a return to Ukraine’s 2004 constitution, and the formation of a caretaker government or the formation of a cabinet by the opposition.

He also said protesters would continue to occupy Ukraine’s Trade Unions House and Khreshchatyk  Street in central Kyiv until the date for an early presidential election was scheduled.

Protesters occupy at least three buildings in Kyiv, using them as dormitories and operation centers. The buildings have become key support facilities for an extensive protest tent camp in central Kyiv.

A Need For 'Real Dialogue'

Demonstrators have been gathered there since November, when President Yanukovych announced he was rejecting a deal for closer ties with the European Union in order to maintain better relations with Russia.

Parliament's amnesty offer comes after lawmakers on January 28 overturned antiprotest laws it had approved earlier in January -- the laws under which many of Kyiv's jailed protesters have been detained.

The amnesty offer also follows the resignation of the Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his entire cabinet on January 28 in the midst of the country's increasingly violent crisis.

Whether the next cabinet will include members of Ukraine's pro-EU opposition remains unclear.

EU foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton said after talks in Kyiv with Yanukovych on January 29 that the dialogue between the Ukrainian president and opposition leaders "needs to become a real dialogue" in order to "address the concerns that people genuinely have about the future" of Ukraine.

"Constitution and constitutional reform -- we've heard a great deal about that. Today as well. I think that is important," Ashton said.

"Then, moving further forward, [it is important] to think about those coming elections -- free and fair elections -- that will take place in the future and the importance of engaging with those who can help support that process."

But Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced visits to Kyiv by EU officials, describing them as interference in Ukraine’s domestic affairs.

Putin also said on January 29 that Russia would wait until a new Ukrainian government is formed before it fully provides a $15 billion bailout that Moscow offered to Yanukovych after the Ukrainian president in November announced his rejection of closer trade and political ties with the EU.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter that there are "signs that the Kremlin is once again stepping up economic measures against Ukraine."

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa, and Interfax