Some of the former Chornobyl clean-up workers in Donetsk who have been on hunger strike in protest at the cutting of their pensions have decided to suspend their protest in return for two months pension

The Donetsk Regional Prosecutor asserts that no cause and effect link between the actions of the MIA, Emergencies Ministry or doctors and the death of Gennady Konoplyov has been found, and that the forcible dismantling of the tent Mr Konoplyov and others were in was entirely lawful .

One of the protesters has told reporters that they are not planning to stop their hunger strike and that more and more people are coming to support them. At present in the Mariyinsky Park about 30 former Chornobyl clean-up workers are on hunger strike

The report on the events which culminated in the death of protester Gennady Konoplyov who was on hunger strike in solidarity with former Chornobyl clean-up workers points to clear infringements of the right to peaceful assembly and to the near for a thorough investigation by the MIA with public participation

Former Chornobyl clean-up workers have set up tents outside the Lviv Regional Office of thel Pension Fund. They are demanding payment of their pensions in full and the dismissal of the Head of the Regional Office

The police have for the second time drawn up protocols on administrative offences against the former Chernobyl clean-up workers on hunger strike near the Cabinet of Ministers’ building in Kyiv

In an interview to the authoritative weekly Dzerkalo Tyzhnya, the Head of the Kyiv City State Administration [KCSA] has asserted that bans on the holding of protests in Kyiv depend on the position of the law enforcement bodies, and then on the courts.

The Working Group delegated by the MIA Public Council says that there were violations of legislation by both the Donetsk law enforcement bodies and the judges who banned a peaceful protest action by the Donetsk former Chernobyl clean-up workers.

One of the former Chornobyl clean-up workers on hunger strike demanding full payment of pensions and enforcement of court rulings has spoken of the help they have been receiving and their determination to hold out src=files/photos/1322863930.jpg>

Human rights defenders are scathing of the ban on protests by Chornobyl clean-up workers and the non-enforcement of court rulings ordering social payments to be made to people entitled to benefits

The police have issued administrative protocols against 19 former Chornobyl Disaster clean-up workers who are on hunger strike outside the Cabinet of Ministers building in Kyiv. This is for what they claim are infringements of the rules for holding mass gatherings and citizens’ meetings

The EU Commissioner of European Neighbourhood Policy, Štefan Füle has expressed concern over reports that demonstrations have been obstructed with indications that excessive force was used by police

The Donetsk District Administrative Court summoned members of the former Chornobyl clean-up workers’ protest to a court hearing, forcing men in bad health to wait long hours and refusing to adjourn the hearing to allow them to come with a lawyer

Around a thousand people took part in a symbolic funeral procession on 29 November through the centre of Donetsk in memory of Mr Konoplyov who died on Sunday night when the police stormed the peaceful protest and hunger strike by former Chornobyl clean-up workers and their supporters

Throughout Tuesday former Chornobyl clean-up workers and Afghanistan War veterans picketed the Cabinet of Ministers protesting over cuts to pensions and social benefits. There were a number of incidents with the Berkut riot police

The Kharkiv man, Vladimir Proskurin, who lost consciousness during an action by Berkut riot officers against peaceful Chornobyl clean-up protesters in Kyiv would seem to have been deliberately targeted for arrest, possibly in connection with blunt criticism of the government

On Sunday evening police together with unidentified individuals in plain clothes began forcibly dismantling the tent camp erected by Chornobyl Clean-up Worker outside the regional department of the Pension Fund in Donetsk

The following information was translated only hours before the police, counter to assurances, stormed a peaceful protest as a result of which one man died and at least two others were hospitalized

On 22 November it was quite noticeable that while the court ban on demonstrations was strictly enforced for anybody who looked obviously there to remember the Orange Revolution or to protest the present regime’s actions, Oleh Kalashnikov and his people were anything but impeded by the police

It is a year since the mass protests against the new Tax Code, which led among other things to a number of prosecutions on very dubious grounds of those exercising their constitutional right to freedom of assembly and expression