08.12 Opposition Ukraine Rally Draws Massive Numbers

KIEV, December 8 (RIA Novosti) – Hundreds of thousands of people assembled in the Ukrainian capital Sunday in another mass show of anti-government discontent that could intensify the political crisis gripping the economically struggling former Soviet nation.

Authorities have displayed limited desire to compromise with the unfolding opposition movement, however, and have instead issued ominous warnings that demonstrations could tip over into unrest.

As preparations were made for the gathering, opposition politicians and the authorities traded ominous accusations of plans to use violence as way of upping the stakes in what has for the large part been a peaceful stand-off.

Rallies in Kiev and in other cities across Ukraine erupted late last month following the government’s decision to back away from a deal to sign association agreement and free trade deals with the EU. The government said closer economic relations would be sought with Russia instead.

While discontent was initially focused on that reversal of course, it has with time taken on a more general anti-government quality and focused on calls for deep institutional reforms.

Ukraine’s weak economy, much of which is reliant on outdated heavy industry, has struggled to recover from the devastating impact of the recent global financial crisis. Rampant unemployment has driven large numbers of Ukrainians abroad for work and many bristle at perceived high-level corruption.

Sunday’s rally, which drew large numbers, but appeared to have drawn well short of the million people that its organizers had hoped for, has been billed a popular assembly and opened with prayers by representatives of several churches.

Describing the rally on Kiev’s Independence Square as an assembly is in part an attempt by the opposition to lend legitimacy to their cause by instituting grassroots representative bodies they say will genuinely reflect public opinion.

Shortly after light broke Sunday, Ukrainian Orthodox Church priests led open-air prayers from the stage as hundreds of those camped in overnight began awaking and collecting rations of tea and breakfast.

Toward mid-morning, the crowd on the square had already swelled to a few thousand people, many of them waving a varied array of flags, from those of Ukraine to the standards of leading opposition parties and the European Union.

As the assigned time for the midday start to the assembly approached, a crowd of all ages grew fast and filled the square and streets leading off it. Groups of people affiliated with political parties marched in file to and from Independent Square, reciting political chants and singing patriotic songs on the way.

One of the first to talk from the stage, which bore the slogan “For a European Ukraine” behind it, was Yevgeniya Tymoshenko, reading out a defiant and bellicose speech from her mother, jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

“Do not give up, don’t take one step back. Do not sit at the negotiating table with the authorities,” the younger Tymoshenko said, reading out her mother’s message. “Our aim is for the early, quick removal of (Viktor Yanukovych) as president of Ukraine.”

In what has become a verbal leitmotif of opposition meetings, speeches opened or closed with the slogan “Glory to Ukraine,” to which the crowd replied: “Glory to the heroes.”

On the eve of the mass meeting, Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko issued a warning over what he said could be attempts to provoke violence.

“As previous events have shown, such people are appropriately prepared for such a contingency, they are counting on drawing a large a number of people toward their illegal actions,” he said in a statement late Saturday.

The Interior Ministry on Sunday afternoon reported a group that a group of 200 masked young people was planning to head toward the presidential administration and Cabinet office with sticks and bottles containing flammable liquids.

The opposition, meanwhile, said it feared that provocateurs enlisted by the authorities could set the stage for clashes that would justify a hardline crackdown.

Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party said late Saturday it had information that around 1,000 people would foment clashes on Kiev’s Independence Square, which is currently cordoned off and occupied by pro-EU demonstrators.

“We warn the government that we know about these plans. We appeal to people on Independence Square to be vigilant,” the party said in a statement. “We urge law enforcement officers to prevent clashes and not be complicit in acts of provocation."

It is unclear to what extent the opposition parties most actively engaged in the protest – Batkivshchyna, the Udar (Punch) party of heavyweight boxer Vitaly Klitschko, and Svoboda (Freedom) – have control over the wave of discontent and have often acted uncertainly in conveying their political demands.

The protest movement appeared to be losing momentum until November 30, when police aggressively cleared Independence Square, sparking outrage and prompting hundreds of thousands to rally on the spot the following day. The square, which served as the focal point of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution of 2004-2005, has been occupied and closed off to authorities ever since.

Thousands are occupying the square on a round-the-clock basis, huddling around wood-fueled fires in steel barrels to keep warm as temperatures hover around freezing point. Speeches to the assembled have alternated with musical acts, creating a festive mood among the determinedly peaceful crowd.

Police presence has been virtually negligible around the square, but security is tight at the nearby presidential administration and parliament buildings, which have both been targeted by rallies.

On Sunday, crowds of opposition activists continued their blockade of the street leading to the presidential administration in what they said was a tactic to avoid potential clashes between troublemakers and police.

On Independence Square, volunteers clad in protective gear stood sentry at gaps in the barricades to check for suspicious elements among the many thousands constantly pouring in and out of the area. Dozens of tents, many of them equipped with heating stoves, have been installed as sleeping quarters and feeding points.

Graffiti, banners, fliers and stickers dotted around the square decry, in frequently bawdy language, leading figures in the ruling elite.

Those that have turned out in the square have rallied around numerous, often apparently disparate, causes. These have ranged from calls for profound governmental reform – typically expressed as an aspiration to emulate Western European standards – to a demand that conditions be improved for small and medium business.

Outside parliament, sited a little more than a kilometer away, several thousand government supporters held their own meeting Sunday, as they have done in recent days. The number of attendees of that meeting was vastly inferior to that organized by the opposition. Organizers claimed around 15,000 people had turned out.

Pro-government gatherings have typically been more subdued. On Saturday evening, young men guarding entry points were turning people away, just as a raucous musical act was getting into its stride at Independence Square.

On Sunday, speakers called on the pro-government crowd to give their backing to President Yanukovych, who has been target of much vitriolic rhetoric on Independence Square.

In a telling detail, one speech after another was in Russian, in contrast with the Ukrainian favored at the opposition rally – a fact that underlines the regional aspect of the political divide. While Yanukovych enjoys the bulk of his support in the largely ethnic Russian east, the more European-inclined, Ukrainian-speaking population prevalently hails from the west.

Addressing the crowd in Russian and a smattering of Ukrainian, ruling Party of Regions deputy Nestor Shufrych urged supporter to give their backing to Yanukovych and condemned government opponents as a divisive force in the country.

“Don’t let them tell you that half the people of this country should not be allowed to think in Russian, the language of Pushkin, the language of Lermontov,” he said, in a reference to two classic 19th century Russian poets.