The official action in Pavlivka was controlled by special militia squads

On 11 July the special squads of militia attacked the youth historical camp “Proshchanitsa-2003” situated near the village of Pereyaslavichi, the Ivanichyvskiy district of the Volun oblast (in five kilometers of the settlement of Pavlivka). About 100 persons stayed in the camp (half of them were young women and children), mainly the members of the Youth Rukh and Youth Nationalistic Congress.

The law-enforcers applied physical force to the young people without any grounds. 30 inhabitants of Rivne were present in the camp, more than ten of them got physical injuries. The General Prosecutor’s office has been already informed about this fact. The militiamen detained the participants of the camp, among them: Igor Guz, a deputy of Lutsk town council, manager of the camp Sergiy Godlevskiy, an assistant of an MP, and several journalists from Rivne and Lutsk.

The camp worked from 8 to 11 July. The goal of the work was the independent study of the events connected with the Polish-Ukrainian conflict during the WW2 and the consolidation of the respectful and tolerant relations between Ukraine and Poland.

The camp was organized on the basis of order No. 1-1 1532 of the President and order No. 4 of the Volyn oblast state administration of 10 January 2003 “On the measures for the preparation to the commemoration of the victims of Polish-Ukrainian conflict during the WW2”. The participants of “Proshchanitsa-2003”: clergy, students, historians and journalists in three days walked about 50 kilometers and questioned the dwellers of more than ten villages of the Lokachivskiy and Ivanichyvskiy districts. Thus, they managed to collect the unique evidence from the witnesses of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict during the WW2 and the exiles from Kholmskiy district, an ethnic Ukrainian land. Now the preparation of the collected information for the publication is carried out.

The law-enforcers interrupted the study of the native land by the young patriots. On 11 July at 7:15 a.m. more than a hundred of the armed officers of militia and special squad “Berkut” dressed in flak jackets encircled the youth camp. Hour and a half later the law-enforcers applied force and “loaded” the participants of the camp to militia buses.

The local inhabitants, who gathered at the place of the incident, were dispersed not less brutally.

The detained were transported in the unknown direction (perhaps, to the Lutsk preliminary prison). They were accused of “the theft of two hens and the potatoes from private vegetable gardens”.

One of the detained contacted by cell phone with Vasyl Chervoniy and Boris Zagreva, the MPs and members of the fraction “Nasha Ukraina”. The MPs met the militia motorcade near the oblast center and demanded from the law-enforcers to comment the anti-constitutional actions.

The buses were stopped after the international highway was blocked near the village of Ugrinyv of the Gorokhivskiy district. After the talk between the MPs and militiamen the youths left the militia buses and got into the transport of the Rivne delegation, which was going to the nearest settlement Pavlivka. The law-enforcers did not present any explanations and apologies.

Yet, this was not the end of the incident. In order to get to Pavlivka the MPs and the released camp participants had to push away two lifting cranes and one dumper truck, which, for some reasons, were standing without drivers across the bridges. Yet, the Ukrainians, who were going to Pavlivka were ready and able to remove all obstacles on their way to the goal. One barrier after another appeared on the way of the Ukrainian patriots. Later it became known that the power exerted pressure upon transport companies, prohibited them to leave the garages, blocked the scores of other buses on other roads. Only five inhabitants of Pavlivka and 120 persons from the entire Volyn oblast got the passes to the official action.

In spite of this, a large part of the Ukrainian patriots managed to force their way to Pavlivka, but they were not admitted to the place of the official reconciliation: all approaches to the graveyard, where the action was conducted, were guarded by four cordons of special militia squads and state guard.

The people, who remained behind the wall of the law-enforcers, organized the meeting, which was conducted on the territory of the Orthodox church near the uncared-for graves of the Ukrainian victims of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict. It was even impossible to read the names on the tombstones. This place was ignored by the authorities. Yet, several trucks with “Berkut” were staying nearby all the time, even during the prayer.