Minister threatens state of emergency in Ukraine
Print Edition
Ukraine’s justice minister threatened yesterday to press for a state of emergency if protesters did not vacate a ministry building they occupied overnight in the third such action in street protests against President Viktor Yanukovich’s rule.
A state of emergency would limit movements of people and vehicles, ban rallies, marches and strikes, suspend the activity of political parties and introduce a curfew.
The main “frontline,” where radical activists face police lines in front of Dynamo football stadium, remained calm. But about 50 masked men stormed into the justice ministry building in downtown Kiev and refused police orders to leave.
Raising tension ahead of an emergency session of parliament today called to defuse the crisis in which six people have been killed, Justice Minister Olena Lukash said:
“If the justice ministry building is not vacated immediately, I will be forced to appeal ... to the Council for National Security and Defence with a demand that introduction of a state of emergency in the country be discussed.”
The occupation of the ministry building was the third such action in four days.
Protesters occupied the agricultural ministry on Friday and only agreed to leave the energy ministry which they entered on Saturday after the minister warned their action could disrupt energy supplies in the country.
Yanukovich triggered the unrest in November when he abruptly abandoned plans to sign association and free trade deals with the European Union, opting instead to tighten economic ties with former Soviet master Russia, angering millions who dream of a European future.
Apart from clashes between radicals and police, several hundred people are camped on Kiev’s Independence Square and along an adjoining thoroughfare,
The unrest has spilled over into other regions of the country of 46 million people, including areas of eastern Ukraine and the south which are traditionally pro-Yanukovich.
Ukraine yesterday announced it would draw on another US$2 billion of credit — adding to US$3 billion already received for the purchase of a bond — from a US$15 billion bailout package offered by Moscow after the former Soviet republic walked away from the deal with the EU.
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