Attack on “Haidamaka UA” Festival in Irpin

On Sunday 26 September, a group of 15 thugs in training gear and with bats fell upon the guards and organizers of the Festival of Resistance Army and Patriotic Songs “Haidamaka UA” in Irpin (Kyiv region).  The following is from the report at proUA, whose journalist witnessed the events.

At 20.30, on Sunday evening, an organized group of young men of characteristic appearance approached the organizers’ table. Some were holding baseball bats behind their back. Reaching the registration table, the thugs immediately began hitting those sitting there and continued their attack fighting the festival’s guards who were seriously outnumbered.  The assailants scattered and fled before backup arrived.

Two police officers who were at the festival in uniform did not take any effective measures and so none of the assailants, as of 22.00, had been caught.  The Festival organizers say that they contacted the Irpin Police Station but that they were ignored, despite the fact that some of the victims have injuries of varying degrees of seriousness.  .

The police version was presented on Monday. The Ministry of Internal Affairs Press Service claim that the Irpin Police Station received a call from the security guards asking for help at 20.30 and that a police unit was sent. They say that they became involved in stopping and detaining the assailants but were even forced to use rubber bullets but “this did not stop the enraged group of men”.

The police statement says that “having stopped the resistance of the offenders, the injured inspector and two young men with wounds were taken to the injuries unit of the Buchansk Hospital”.

The Festival of Resistance Army and Patriotic Songs “Haidamaka UA” is held in Irpin from 24 to 26 September, and includes political discussions, meetings with politicians, journalists and public figures, as well as concerts by well-known Ukrainian groups.

The Festival this year had a rather unpleasant prelude with a National Deputy from the Party of the Regions, Vadim Kolesnichenko, asking the Head of the Security Service to check the legality of holding the Festival.

Kolesnichenko claimed in his letter that “during the festivals the organizers are planning a number of concerts of Ukrainian musical collectives with a pronounced nationalist and xenophobic slant”.

From material at www.proua.com and (police version) http://pravda.com.ua/news/2010/09/27/5418761/