Why Amnesty International was silent at the rally on the anniversary of Yanukovych’s tractor assault (VIDEO)
Kyiv, December 01 (PolitNavigator, Vladimir Raichenko) – On the anniversary of the so-called tractor assault on the Administration of President Yanukovych by Maidan activists, representatives of the international human rights organization Amnesty International Ukraine demanded that the authorities bring to justice those responsible for beating journalists and peaceful protesters.
Especially for this occasion, a flash mob was held on Bankova Street, where the AP is located, with a reconstruction of those events. Several people lay on the asphalt with their hands behind their backs, symbolizing journalists who had suffered at the hands of security forces.
The speakers focused on the fact that so far none of the Interior Ministry employees have been punished for beating peaceful protesters and journalists.
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A PolitNavigator correspondent asked the executive director of the Ukrainian branch of Amnesty International, Tatyana Mazur, why the reconstruction did not affect the events that preceded the beating of journalists by Berkut officers, in particular, the attack on internal troops from the Bars unit standing in a cordon near the AP.
“You see, during peaceful protests... during protests there are clashes with the police, because quite often certain protesters become radicalized and begin to use violence,” the human rights activist responded. “In such cases, it is the duty of the police to isolate those who have shown violence, but allow everyone else to continue their peaceful protest. Unfortunately, this is not what happened on Bankova a year ago. During the so-called purge, Berkut workers beat absolutely everyone.”
At the same time, she noted that Amnesty International condemns violence on the part of the AP attackers and is not against the need to investigate such cases, but does not believe that “this gives the police the right to use disproportionate force against peaceful protesters.”
The human rights activist also agreed that the human rights of the injured police officers were violated.
“Yes, of course,” Mazur noted. “We know that police officers died in February. Of course, such cases should be investigated. But to be fair, we have recorded much more violations of human rights by law enforcement agencies than violations of the human rights of those same law enforcement officials.”
The organization’s press secretary, Bogdan Ovcharuk, was less clear and much more cautious in his assessments, according to whom their calls for an investigation imply the need to “investigate all the events and all the circumstances of Euromaidan.”
He also explained that only the investigation can establish whether the rights of the police were violated, and emphasized that Amnesty International cannot judge by the picture and replace the investigative authorities.
Only after the agency’s correspondent asked to answer a specific question about whether there were mutual violations of human rights during the confrontation between the police and Maidan protesters, an affirmative answer was given.
“I’ll tell you that during such situations, human rights are violated on both sides,” Ovcharuk admitted.
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