The Lugansk oblast before the protest campaign
13.12.2002
The Lugansk oblast authorities do all they can to prevent or diminish the opposition mass protest actions planned on 14-16 September.
The record step in opposing the protest action one may consider the actions of the Severodonetsk militia, which proposed to the leader of the local socialists to hand the obligation in writing not to participate in the non-sanctioned meetings.
He wrote the obligation, since, by his words, he did not intend to abuse the law. This proposition makes one to believe that the any meeting in Severodonetsk will be not sanctioned. The local authorities have the great experience to ban such meetings by using the obedient town court. There have been already three such prohibitions, the last being based on the pretext that „the organizers did not conclude the agreement with militia about protecting the public order during the meeting“. One can easily predict that something similar will be done again, in spite the application about holding the meeting on 16 September on the town central square has been already handed to the executive committee.
For about a month all the local newspapers almost every issue have published the „revelatory“ information about the planned action of public protest. The sense of all such materials, even the materials printed by the most critical newspapers, is the same: beware of the „bad“ opposition wants to grab the President’s position not in the Constitutional way.
The next stage of the „counter-preparation“ has happened today. The address of the deputies of the Lugansk oblast council has been published with the appeal „not to permit the opposition to drag the country into the abyss of chaos and violence“. The address reads: „The mentioned forces, using the natural hardships of building the new state of the European type, initiate the action of public protest“. Further it says that the goal of the organizers of the protest action of 16 September „is not to improve the living standard of the people, but to remove the legally elected President of Ukraine“.
According to the objective situation in the Lugansk oblast, one may expect that next week similar appeals will be approved by the deputies of district and town councils. Although, even without such appeals, the population, it seems, does not demonstrate the great desire to participate in the events of 14-16 September.
Our informant
He wrote the obligation, since, by his words, he did not intend to abuse the law. This proposition makes one to believe that the any meeting in Severodonetsk will be not sanctioned. The local authorities have the great experience to ban such meetings by using the obedient town court. There have been already three such prohibitions, the last being based on the pretext that „the organizers did not conclude the agreement with militia about protecting the public order during the meeting“. One can easily predict that something similar will be done again, in spite the application about holding the meeting on 16 September on the town central square has been already handed to the executive committee.
For about a month all the local newspapers almost every issue have published the „revelatory“ information about the planned action of public protest. The sense of all such materials, even the materials printed by the most critical newspapers, is the same: beware of the „bad“ opposition wants to grab the President’s position not in the Constitutional way.
The next stage of the „counter-preparation“ has happened today. The address of the deputies of the Lugansk oblast council has been published with the appeal „not to permit the opposition to drag the country into the abyss of chaos and violence“. The address reads: „The mentioned forces, using the natural hardships of building the new state of the European type, initiate the action of public protest“. Further it says that the goal of the organizers of the protest action of 16 September „is not to improve the living standard of the people, but to remove the legally elected President of Ukraine“.
According to the objective situation in the Lugansk oblast, one may expect that next week similar appeals will be approved by the deputies of district and town councils. Although, even without such appeals, the population, it seems, does not demonstrate the great desire to participate in the events of 14-16 September.
Our informant