“Prava Ludiny” (human rights) monthly bulletin, 2004, #10

On 12 October candidate to President’s post Viktor Yanukovich met with Kharkov youth in the palace of sport “Lokomotiv”. About 20 students, adherents of Yushchenko, wanted to join the meeting. They gathered near the fountain at the Kharkov Central railway station. The group of journalists of the news ATN (7th TV channel) were there too. Law-enforcers tried to persuade the students to refuse from their intent. Suddenly some sturdily-build men appeared near the fountain, encircled the students and forced the journalists out. Journalist of ATN Marina Nikolaeva told later: “They physically pressed me and our cameraman. They covered the camera with hands, waited until the cameraman switched off his equipment and threatened him that if the material would be published, they would kill him. Besides, they promised to put out my eyes because I saw that”. By the words of ATN head Oleg Yukht, this was the first time during 13 years of his work in mass media, when journalists were threatened so openly, especially in presence of representatives of law-enforcing organs.

The students were arrested by militia. Journalist Andrey Voytsehovski, the press secretary of the Kharkov headquarters of V. Yushchenko, tried to make a video record of this arrest, but two men in civilian clothes came to him, took away his camera and threw it to the fountain.

Leaders of six large Kharkov mass media, among them: the editorial board of media-group “Objektiv”, agency of TV news (ATN) and editorial board of Kharkov news, signed the appeal, which read that the pre-election struggle had become dangerous for the lives of journalists, who elucidated the political events. “We, journalists of Kharkov mass media, consider this incident as an outrageous violation of law and declare that we are not going to endure such pranks without regard for rank. We reckon that the pressure of mass media on the side of any political forces is inadmissible, as well as pressure on the side of law-enforcing organs. We will consider the attempts of such kind as provocations regarding mass media and meddling into our professional activities”, reads the appeal. “We turn to the heads of force structures and organs of state power with the demand to guarantee, in Kharkov and the Kharkov oblast, the fulfillment of Laws of Ukraine “On information” and “On TV and radio broadcasting”. Otherwise we reckon that we would have right for adequate measures, up to calling the population to the acts of civil disobedience”.

On 12 October 2004 the Rivne town court considered the complaint of Valeriy Beylakh, an empowered person of candidate to President’s post Viktor Yushchenko. He complained against the illegal actions of Anatoliy Kaminskiy, the head of the Rivne district state administration, who, in his interview to Rivne interregional weekly “Slovo i chas”, agitated for Viktor Yanukovich. According to the Law of Ukraine “On election of the President of Ukraine” officials of the organs of executive power are prohibited from such actions. The court refused to satisfy the complaint of V. Beylakh.

The court decision was published in the newspaper “Slovo i chas”. The text of the decision was accompanied by A. Kaminskiy’s comment, in which he, in particular, stated: “I am repeating and will repeat: during several last years the present government, headed by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, made much more than previous governments in economic-social and humanitarian spheres”.

Valeriy Beylakh handed the complaint to the Appeal court of the Rivne oblast.

The court considered the presented materials and recognized that Anatoliy Kaminskiy had given the interview as an official and pointed out that the agitation might consist not only in the form of appeal to some actions but also in the attempts to persuasion of something or encouragement to something. So, the collegium of judges resolved to cancel the decision of the Rivne town court of 12 January 2004, to satisfy the complaint of Valeriy Beylakh and to recognize the actions of the head of the Rivne district state administration as illegal and violating the demands of the Law of Ukraine “On election of the President of Ukraine”.

 In the morning of 30 October 2004 dwellers of Chernigiv started to turn to the Chernigiv public committee of human rights protection with the information that they or their acquaintances were coercively held in children’s camps near the village of Piatikhatki not far from Kyiv.

In particular, Igor Yashchenko and Vera Lavrinenko informed us that the newspaper “Obyavlenie” of 27 October 2004 published the announcement about the vacancies of cleaners for the work on 31 October and 1 November. After the phone call they met with Svetlana, a representative of the organization that was hiring the workers, who explained them that they would work on 29 and 30 October in Kyiv, transport to Kyiv and back would be free of charge and they would get 25 hryvnas for every day of work. Besides, the employees promised to transport the workers home every night.

The departure was appointed on 29 October, at 13:00. The people came to the appointed place and waited for a representative from Kyiv. He arrived only at 15:00 and they got the order to go to the plant of silicate production, where the main column was formed. Igor and Vera calculated that the column consisted of 17 buses with register numbers of the Chernigiv oblast. In their opinion, the majority of the passengers of the buses were students of colleges and technical schools younger than 18 years. The column was escorted to the boundary of the Chernigiv oblast by two cars of Chernigiv road militia, after the boundary – by two cars from Kyiv.

During the trip Svetlana, who was in charge of the group, told to passengers that they would work in Kyiv building the tents for Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk groups for the support of Yanukovich. Yet, the buses passed Kyiv and transported the people to the Obukhovskiy district of the Kyiv oblast, towards the village of Piatikhatki, to the children’s camp “Kashtan”. About 19:30, after the arrival to the camp, the young men appeared, who started to count the people in the buses, allegedly, for their nourishment. They refused to answer any questions. Electric lighting was absent in the camp. The manager of the camp led the people to the dining-hall with a torch. The youths from Kyiv, who received the newcomers from Chernigiv, began to persuade them to stay there for night. They promised that on the next day, 30 October, the visitors would be transported to the central square of Kyiv to a concert and later would be driven back to Chernigiv. Yet, the people demanded to render them buses for return to Chernigiv. After two hours of rather strict talks one bus was given to the group from Chernigiv. Only 53 persons could go by this bus, and several hundreds remained in the camp. In other words, these people stayed in the camp contrary to their wish.

Besides, on 30 October 2004 Kirill D. turned to the ChPCHRP, who stated that his friends, students of Chernigiv juridical institute, on 29 October departed, by order of administration of their institute, for Kyiv to the meeting in support of candidate to presidency V. Yanukovich. Yet, after the meeting, instead of returning home, they were put to buses and transported, contrary their will, to the camp “Yasne” near Piatikhatki, where they spent night. In evening of 30 October the friends told to Kirill by phone that they were held under guard in the camp and were not let out, that it was promised that they would be released only on 31 October, but they doubted this.

The Chernigiv public committee of human rights protection, taking into account the importance of the above-described events, has collected and studied the information about the removal on 29 October of numerous group of Chernigiv inhabitants and reckons that the unknown persons restricted freedom of about 1000 persons, among them a great deal of minors.

The events around this incident and their form give the grounds to believe that on the day before election the unknown persons brutally violated the rights of citizens of Ukraine to the freedom of movement with the goal of their coercive use for provocations, which, after all, could result in derangement of presidential election. These illegal actions of the strangers factually endanger the fundamental constitutional rights of these Chernigiv dwellers – the rights for health and life.

We are very anxious about the fact that the top officers of law-enforcing organs knew about these actions, since the column of buses was escorted by militia cars, but they did not take any measures for termination of brutal violations of constitutional rights of citizens.

The above-mentioned facts give grounds to the Chernigiv public committee of human rights protection for anxiety about the observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms of Chernigiv dwellers, whom the unknown persons try to involve in political provocations around the election of the President of Ukraine and who are kept, contrary to their wish, in the camps near the village of Piatikhatki, the Kyiv oblast. The actions of these unknown persons have characteristics of the violation of Articles 27, 29 and 33 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

So, we demand from the persons, who hold the Ukrainian citizens contrary to their will in the camps near the village of Piatikhatki, to release these citizens and help them to return home!

We demand from law-enforcing organs and prosecutor’s office to take the urgent measures for termination of the illegal actions and for disclosure of the guilty!

We appeal to public organizations of Kyiv to take measures for organization of rendering aid to the Chernigiv dwellers, who became hostages of the political intrigues in the outskirts of the capital!

 On 18 October 2004, on the day of visit of candidate to presidency Viktor Yanukovich to Chernigiv, activists of the public action “PORA!” turned to the Chernigiv public committee of human rights protection (the ChPCHRP, in what follows) with the information that their colleagues were massively detained and transported in unknown direction. In the course of check of this information it became known that the persons, who introduced themselves as militia officers (in many cases they did not show any documents), forced the members of the organization “PORA!” to get into cars, thus brutally violating their constitutional rights. As a rule, this happened in crowded places in presence of scores of eyewitnesses. According to the information we got, in many cases the militiamen (?) used the car ВАЗ-2106 with Kyivan registration numbers.

In order to find the Ukrainian citizens, who were driven away, we phoned to all district and town militia precincts, but got the answer that such persons had not been transported there. Yet, some time later, the activists, who had cell phones, managed to phone to their acquaintances and told that they were kept in Novozavodskiy and Desnianskiy district militia precincts of Chernigiv.

However, when relatives, acquaintances and colleagues of the disappeared came to these precincts, the militia officers, contrary to operating laws, in particular, the principles of activities of law-enforcing organs stipulated by Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine “On militia”, gave the lying answer about absence of the detained activists of “PORA!”. Only after several attempts of various public and political figures, in particular, MP V. Atroshenko, it became possible not only to meet with the detained citizens, but even to achieve their release. As it became known to the ChPCHRP, 12 citizens of Ukraine-activists of the public action “PORA!” were detained and later released.

The detained told that, contrary to the operating law, no accusations were presented to some of them, although the militiamen said to several detained that they resembled the persons, who, on the day before the detention, had stolen a cell phone, or the men, who, a month ago, had raped somebody in the town park.

Detention of Tetiana Pekur, a student of the Chernigiv state pedagogical university (the ChSPU, in what follows), was quite typical. After her detention and placement to the Desnianskiy district militia precinct, she was kept there for several hours without any explanations. When she asked the militiamen about the reasons of her holding in the precinct, they answered that nobody was holding her. After that she stood up and tried to leave the room, but a militia officer blocked her way and made her to sit down. This fact evidences on the commitment of the crime envisaged by Articles 264 and 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Only MP V. Atroshenko managed to protect the girl and release her. The deputy was the only person, which was permitted to enter the precinct because of his status.

Thus, the above-mentioned detentions evidence on violation by militia officers – the official figures and representatives of the state – of the Ukrainian Constitution and operating laws, as well as Article 5 of the European Convention on protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, which is ratified by Ukraine.

Yet, the most brutal violations of constitutional rights of Ukrainian citizens started in Chernigiv in the evening of 18 October, after the departure of candidate to President’s post V. Yanukovich. About 18:30 Oleksandr Kovalenko, a third-year student of the ChSPU, was detained by five strangers in the hostel of the university. The student was transported in unknown direction by the car AUDI-80 with registration number 468-20ММ.

All attempts of Oleksandr’s acquaintances to find him in militia precincts were unsuccessful, since they got the answers about the absence of such detained in these precincts. Yet, the car, in which the young man had been taken away, was found near the Chernigiv town militia precinct. The people, who were near the town precinct, informed that the car belonged to an officer of the directorate for fighting the organized crime.

Yet, at the entrance of this militia precinct it was said that nobody with surname Kovalenko was conveyed there on this day. Only when the ChPCHRP advocate, together with O. Kovalenko’s roommate, handed the application about disappearance of Oleksandr, the officer-on-duty informed that the boy stayed in the town precinct.

At the same time the militia officer brutally violated the constitutional rights of O. Kovalenko, refusing to admit an advocate to him. Any other attempts to contact the young man were unsuccessful. After 10 p.m. MP V. Atroshenko managed to get to the building of the town precinct. Top officers of this law-enforcing organ assured the MP that the brutal violation of rights of Ukrainian citizen O. Kovalenko would be stopped immediately and he would be released in 20 minutes. V. Atroshenko also learned that the boy was suspected of coinage offence.

Yet, the student was not released either in 20 minutes or later. After the second talk of V. Atroshenko with militia officers, the latter again promised to release Oleksandr after 20 minutes, but later it became known that he would not be released, since he was suspected of a crime and would be held in custody.

According to operating laws, the ChPCHRP rendered an advocate to O. Kovalenko, and the advocate immediately began to represent Kovalenko’s interests. Yet, it should be noted that the advocate was admitted to his client only more than 6 hours after the detention; thus, the constitutional rights of O. Kovalenko, in particular, the demands of Article 29 of the Constitution of Ukraine, were brutally violated. Now the ChPCHRP and its lawyers continue their attempts to achieve the restoration of constitutional rights of Kovalenko and his release.

On 19 October brutal violations of human rights in Chernigiv became even more active, in particular, the mass detentions of Ukrainian citizens-representatives of public action “PORA!”. So, four more activists of the campaign were detained because of obscure reasons.

However, the culmination of persecutions by political reasons occurred in evening of 19 October 2004. About 10 p.m. representatives of public action “PORA!” phoned to the ChPCHRP and informed that the illegal, in their opinion, search was conducted in the flat of one of their activists.

Representatives of the committee arrived to the place, and saw groups of militiamen, both unformed and in civilian clothes, near the mentioned house. The house was encircled. When the ChPCHRP members tried to enter the house, several militiamen approached them, who, for some reasons, introduced themselves as “activists of candidate to President’s post V. Yushchenko”. From the talk with the group of activists of “PORA!”, who walked out from the house after some time, we learned that the search connected with a criminal case was conducted in the flat of member of the action “PORA!” O. Lomako. O. Lomako’s colleagues informed that they saw how, in the course of the search, the militiamen “found” false hryvnas in his dwelling. Moreover, they told that representatives of the Ministry of Interior, contrary to Lomako’s demands, as well as the demands of the Criminal-Procedural Code of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Constitution, did not give him the opportunity to invite an advocate.

Yet, the ChPCHRP advocate O. Trofimov, in spite of the attempts of law-enforcers to stop him, managed to meet with O. Lomako and concluded the agreement about representation of his interests. After this the search was continued in presence of the advocate. During the search the militiamen found a pan under O. Lomako’s gas-stove, in which they disclosed a substance resembling explosives, capsule and a fuse.

On 3 a.m. of 20 October 2004 O. Lomako has been transported to the Chernigiv town militia precinct, where he is held until now.

The Chernigiv public committee of human rights protection thoroughly collected and analyzed the information about this case and acknowledged that during the search the representatives of the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine had committed a number of deeds, which could be regarded as violations of operating laws, in particular:

1. By testimonies of Tetiana Pekur, who was present in O. Lomako’s flat when the militia came, the law-enforcers violated Articles 365 and 126 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, because physical force was groundlessly applied to her (according to her complaint, an unknown militia officers slapped her in the face);

2. Contrary to O.Lomako’s demands, he was not permitted to invite an advocate, so Article 45 of the Criminal-Procedural Code of Ukraine, Article 29 of the Constitution of Ukraine, Articles 5 and 13 of the European Convention on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms were violated;

3. A court issued the sanction for the search of the flat of Oleksiy Lomako, who never lived by this address, and militiamen conducted search in the flat of Oleksandr Lomako, so, in fact, the law-enforcers exceeded their authorities and violated Article 177 of the Criminal-Procedural Code of Ukraine and Article 5 of the European Convention on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The above-mentioned facts give grounds to the Chernigiv public committee of human rights protection for anxiety about the observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the region, in particular, the Ukrainian Constitution, the European Convention on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms and other international documents ratified by Ukraine. The fact is very worrying that the persecutions are carried out by the belonging to certain association, that is there are features of violation by Ukrainian state officials of Article 11 of the European Convention on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

We want to point out that Ukraine, being a participant of the European Convention on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the Concluding Act of the Helsinki Agreement on safety and cooperation in Europe of 1975 and Copenhagen Agreement of 1990, assumed the obligations to observe the international agreements on human rights, including the standards on conduction of election, but the recent events in the country, in particular in the Chernigiv oblast, give rise to doubts about their observance.

Taking this into account, we:

1. Demand to restore the rights of representatives of public campaign “PORA!” detained on 18 and 19 October 2004 in Chernigiv, to release the innocent, to find the officials guilty of the ungrounded mass detentions for political views and to bring these officials to responsibility envisaged by law!

2. Appeal to representatives of law-enforcing organs to obey the principle of superiority of right, to stand aside from the political gambles, not to adjust their activities to somebody’s political interests, to observe the Ukrainian laws, to respect constitutional rights and freedoms of people!

3. Want to believe that the events of 18 and 19 October 2004 in Chernigiv would become an example of erroneous actions of law-enforcing organs, which would never be repeated in future!

Members of the Chernigiv public committee of human rights protection

 (an excerpt from the report on the observance of human rights, connected with the election process, in the Chernigiv oblast in September and October 2004)

Human rights, election, organs of state power

According to the information of the press-service of the Chernigiv oblast state administration, the oblast coordinating headquarters for preparation and conduction of the election of the President of Ukraine was created by order of the Central election commission. The goal of this headquarters is the promotion of preparation and conduction of Presidential election in Ukraine and guaranteeing of the fulfillment of the demands of the Law of Ukraine “On election of the President of Ukraine” in the framework of given authorities.

The oblast headquarters are headed by M. Strilets, the first deputy head of the oblast state administration. The plan of work of the oblast coordinating headquarters was elaborated, as well as the plan of measures of the oblast administration for guaranteeing the fulfillment of the Law of Ukraine “On election of the President of Ukraine”. The persons were appointed in every territorial electoral circuit, who would be responsible for study of the activities of the organs of executive power and local self-government concerning the material and technical provision of territorial and district election commissions.

The organs of local self-government permanently work in contact with corresponding territorial and district election commissions. Yet, the Chernigiv Public Committee of human rights protection evidences that, during the training conducted for the members of district commission in the Desnianskiy district of Chenrigiv, representatives of the organs of local self-government, who were invited to the training, somewhat one-sidedly interpreted the provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On election of the President of Ukraine” trying to extenuate the level of responsibility of the state organs for compilation of lists of voters. The cases of presence of representatives of town and district executive committees at the sittings of the commissions without invitation are not rare, which confirms the wish of local power to influence the work of territorial election commissions.

Unfortunately, there are examples of pressure on the members of district commissions. By the information, which was received by the ChPCHRP from one of districts of the oblast, representatives of district commissions were intimidated: law-enforcing organs conducted searches in dwellings of the members of the commissions, who represented the opposition candidates, with the aim to find the proofs of illegal trade with home-brew. The fact of brutal persecution for political views is described in the newspaper “Sivershchina” (8 October 2004): “Several days ago, by the personal order of Viktor Ovdak, the head of the Kozeletskiy district state administration, director of the district library Anatoliy Penskiy has been dismissed for his political views: he is a member of the territorial election commission from candidate Viktor Yushchenko. Anatoliy Penskiy is accused of forcing three village librarians to represent this very candidate in district commissions. A. Penskiy is a highly qualified specialist in librarianship, well-known student of local lore, and the power even did not try to represent his dismissal as consequence of his unprofessionalism. He was made to retire “by mutual consent of the sides”.”

Maybe, the threat of dismissal made the people, present on 18 October at the meeting in support of V. Yanukovich, to come to the heads of their establishments in order to attest their presence.

Another glaring example of application of forcible methods was observed in Chernigiv. A major and lieutenant of militia, who did not introduce themselves, visited the hostel of the Chernigiv pedagogical university after the students’ action in Kyiv. The law-enforcers tried to learn, who had participated in this action. The officers conducted the “explanatory talk” with students. They turned special attention to the students-participants of the action-appeal to territorial election commissions: Oleg Nazarenko, Oleksandr Batiuk and Alina Fesiun. The militia officers promised to the politically active students the “accelerated” graduation from university and many other problems in the case, if they would continue to act in “impermissible” (in the opinion of the militiamen) way: to realize their constitutional right for the freedom of speech and opinion and to take the active part in election processes. The attempt to use the law-enforcing organs for exerting pressure on the politically active part of the population was vividly demonstrated, when militia stopped the vehicles, by which citizens tried to get to Kyiv for taking part in the action near the CEC on 24 October.

The adduced examples evidence that, on the eve of the election, the representatives of power use administrative and forcible methods as the tools for political struggle. The committee reckons that the cases of use of administrative resource in the Chernigiv oblast are systematic and endanger the conduction of transparent, democratic and free election.

Freedom of speech and the press in the oblast editions

Our committee carried out the monitoring of all social-political printed mass media of the Chernigiv oblast, which were published during last month; were published regularly; were published for more than 12 months and were distributed through “Ukrposhta”. So, we studied the editions, which had permanent readers and were distributed on the commercial basis.

Not all mass media pay the proper attention to pre-election agitation and the events that occur around this or that candidate to President’s post. For instance, the newspaper “Desnianskaya Pravda” devotes the majority of its materials, which concern the election, to the activities of pro-power candidate Viktor Yanukovich. The topics of these articles are different: some of them describe the visit of the Prime Minister to the Chernigiv oblast, others – the “protest meeting against extremism”. One can easily notice the pro-power views of the authors of articles and their negative attitude to representatives of opposition headed by Viktor Yushchenko. This is proved by the article titled “Nationalism is a disease”, which elucidates the events in Ivano-Frankivsk on 24 September. This article quotes the indignant words of Volodymir Koloniari, an MP from the fraction “Regions of Ukraine”: “You, members of “Our Ukraine”, brought up a gang of scoundrels!” Below the newspaper quotes the statements by Viktor Yanukovich on this topic.

The opposition newspaper “Sivershchina” is a counterforce to the above-mentioned edition. The articles published by this newspaper criticize the operating government. This is confirmed by a number of articles with such titles as: “Pensions and deposits for two months” (No. 39 of 24 September 2004), “The power violates law again” (No. 40 of 1 October 2004), “Poisonous regime” (No. 39 of 24 September 2004) and many others. There are very many publications – appeals of Viktor Yushchenko to Ukrainian people, in which he urges the citizens to active deeds. The article “Is Moroz honest?” was published in the October issue of the newspaper. The author writes: “Many persons erroneously think that O. Moroz is an honest, decent and democratic man, who cares about people”. The article tells that Moroz headed “group 239” – the majority, which worked against people, in interests of power. So, one can draw the conclusion that the weekly “Sivershchina”, as it is typical for opposition editions, devoted most of its materials to V. Yushchenko and his activities, as well as drawbacks in the work of operating government headed by V. Yanukovich.

As to the newspaper “Gart”, it, in our opinion, adheres to most neutral political position. So, recently this newspaper has published the materials about Oleksandr Moroz, Viktor Yushchenko, Anatoliy Kinakh, not to mention the candidate from power. Two interesting articles were printed in one of issues: “Prosecutors are also prosecuted” and “Moroz demands apologies from Yushchenko for false accusations”. In the first article O. Moroz stated that he would protect V. Yushchenko “in spite of the unfair and unrestrained statement of the leader of “Our Ukraine””. In another one the leader of socialists demanded public apologies for his accusation of participation in poisoning of V. Yushchenko.

In many editions of the Chernigiv oblast the drafts of V. Yushchenko’s edicts were published, which, by his words, would come into force at once after his probable victory at the election. The candidate plans to increase pensions, to hasten the return of deposits, to create 5 millions of job vacancies, etc.

There was also interesting information that musicians of six popular Chernigiv rock groups agitated the informal youth of our town to come on 31 October to the election stations and to make their choice. “We will not agitate for some concrete candidate”, explained Stanislav Tavluy, representative of the Center of progressive youth “Apelsin”, to the journalists of “Gart”.

On the whole, practically all printed editions, as before, published the materials in support of only one candidate and did not give the alternative viewpoints. Besides, any of the monitored newspapers almost did not pay attention to the problems of enlightenment of the potential voters on their civil and political rights. So, the goals of the newspapers were purely political.

 The appeal of Vladimir Chistilin, the editor-in-chief of the informational agency “Status Quo” (the only regional informational agency in Kharkov) describes one more violation of human rights and the norms of operating laws.

Vladimir Chistilin claimed about the attempt of his dismissal because of political reasons. “I am forced to hand in the application on resignation on my own initiative, since I, the head of the informational agency “Status Quo”, refused to fulfill the political order to agitate for candidate to President’s post Viktor Yanukovich”.

By words of V. Chistilin, he, being the editor-in-chief and executive secretary of an influential Kharkov mass medium, is seriously worried with the situation connected with violations of the freedom of speech and meddling of director of “Status Quo” into the editorial policy of the agency. Mr. Chistilin also expressed his disagreement with pressure on journalists of “Status Quo” and the attempts of political censorship, which are applied to the collective during the current election campaign.

Vladimir Chistilin believes that biased elucidation of the political events in Ukraine, as well as the tendency of presentation of materials in favor of only one candidate to presidency, violate the legal rights of journalists and contradict a number of laws of Ukraine, in particular, the laws “On information” and “On informational agencies”.

“We have never and nowhere seen the situation similar to the situation in Ukraine on the eve of presidential election”, numerous international observers say. Political figures, journalists and common citizens are saying the same. Yet, it seems that those, who provoke this outrage, neglect these words. They continue to do their dirty work. To violate human rights. To break the operating laws… And the appeals about the violations only stimulate them to new, more and more brutal, methods of struggle with dissent.

P.S. Chistilin had been dismissed on 29 October for absence from work, but was familiarized with the order only on 1 November.

RUPOR

Our authorities have exceeded all bounds of cynicism (if they have are such bounds at all). In the town of Gadiach, the Poltava oblast, as well as throughout Ukraine, the power exerts pressure on voters by all possible means.

So, on the day of arrival of the agitation train of candidate to presidency Viktor Yushchenko, students and teachers of higher education establishments were warned about the severe control over the attendance. Yet, on the day of arrival of V. Yanukovich’s train students were coercively driven from lectures to the square, where the meeting was organized.

Something very different from agitation took place in the local post office. It was proposed to all workers to write the appeal about their intention to vote for Yanukovich in exchange for 150 hryvnas. Ready-witted workers wrote such appeals not only on their behalf, but also on behalf of their relatives. By the way, the promised money was really paid to them. Well, it is a very demonstrative example of increase of Yanukovich’s rating.

Workers of Gadiach fire-brigade No. 23 got the order to carry out (apropos, during working hours) the collection of similar appeals of citizens. Everything was done “voluntarily”. Yet, imagine the reaction of a businessman, who is visited by a uniformed man, to the entreaty to write such appeal.

28 October 2004

This letter was written by a student to his acquaintance. For obvious reasons we will not mention either the educational establishment or the town. Yet, this is not important, since the establishment of authoritarian dictatorship (which is, maybe, even worse than the Soviet one) is the all-Ukrainian phenomenon. In what follows I am quoting the letter:

“A day or two ago I accidentally overheard a talk, which, to put it mildly, worried me. I was in the office of the head of the department of general chemistry. Some man came to the head. “Hello”, he said, “I am going from the sitting at pro-rector’s office. Do you know that tomorrow Yushchenko will come to us? So, the pro-rector asked to organize the lectures so that students would not get to the square. And if you would learn the names of those, who would go to the square, pass the list to the secretary. And then we will solve the question about their sending down”.

And yesterday my brother visited me. He told that there was a place in Severodonetsk, where one could get 5 hryvnas for every torn off Yushchenko’s placard.

Our teachers directly agitate for Yanukovich during the lectures. Recently some presents from Yanukovich were raffled near the institute. And so on, and so forth”.

We have already written about the case, where an official of the Kremenets district state administration demanded from owner of a private shop to remove from the shop the agitation placard in favor of Yushchenko. This story had a continuation in the form of unscheduled check of the shop by tax inspection.

We want to remind that in September an official of the district state administration demanded to remove the agitation placard of V. Yushchenko threatening that in case of non-fulfillment of her demand the administrative punishment would be applied. Similar case was registered in Stakhanov, where one of deputies of the town council, also threatening with administrative punishment, forced a town dweller to remove such placard from his balcony.

In Kremenets Yushchenko’s adherents turned to the public reception office of the VCU and got the explanation that the demand of the official was not legal and there were no grounds for the punishment. The placard was not removed and no direct sanctions were applied for that. Yet, tax inspection visited the shop with the unscheduled check, which may be interpreted as persecution of voters for realization of their right to agitation.

 On 21 October officers of the Stanichno-Luganskiy district militia precinct detained the group of agitators for Viktor Yushchenko and seized agitation materials from them. This was not the first time, when Lugansk law-enforcers impeded the conduction of agitation campaign by the candidates to President’s post.

The agitation campaign “Grad”, carried out by Viktor Yushchenko’s headquarters, is one of the most efficient actions of this candidate in this Eastern region of Ukraine. Mobile groups of agitators visit villages and settlements, they go from house to house and distribute the sets of materials: agitation materials published in compliance with the Law “On election of the President of Ukraine” and elucidative materials (extracts from the Ukrainian Constitution and the laws of Ukraine connected with election rights, which do not contain any agitation information).

According to the words of the law-enforcers, an unknown person phoned to them with the complaint against the actions of agitators, so the militiamen proposed the agitators to go with them to the district precinct. The militia officers looked through the materials and confiscated them under the pretext that the elucidative materials did not satisfy the requirements of the Law “On election of the President of Ukraine” because of absence of dateline envisaged by this Law. However, the properly designed materials were seized too.

Andriy Zuz, the empowered person of Viktor Yushchenko in the 114^th electoral district, met with the head of the district precinct and tried to convince him of illegality of the actions of militiamen, but unsuccessfully. The position of the officer was categorical – everything would be passed to the territorial commission and it would consider the problem. The empowered person directed the complaint to the Lugansk oblast prosecutor’s office with the demand to bring the guilty to responsibility in accordance with Article 157 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

We do not want to estimate the actions of law-enforcers, but we cannot ignore their “political shortsightedness”. For example, we do not believe that the commanders of Lugansk militia never traveled by train No. 20 “Lugansk-Kyiv”, which is “decorated” with anti-Yushchenko leaflets without dateline. Yet, these leaflets do not interest the militiamen.

 

Massive violations of electoral law and the OSCE and CoE standards for elections

Vienna, Kyiv, 28 October 2004.

Free and fair elections represent one of the fundamental freedoms in each society. Only through free and fair elections the citizens have an opportunity to express their assessment of the way the country has been governed since the last elections, and make a choice for its future. Lacking free elections people become mere passive subjects of the State. The history of Europe amply proves that free and fair elections have contributed to prosperity.

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union are deeply concerned that violations of international standards for free and fair elections have persisted and become even more acute in the course of the electoral campaign ahead of the 31 October presidential elections. We appeal to the relevant authorities to take what steps are possible in the remaining days, to protect the political freedoms and rights of the citizens. We fear that given the gravity and widespread character of violations of Ukrainian electoral law and international standards, the legitimacy of the coming elections could be seriously undermined.

A recent tendency reported by Ukrainian NGOs is the use in hundreds of cases of militia action against individuals and organizations believed to support the opposition: unsanctioned searches of premises, arrests, and beatings. Sometimes NGOs are being accused of no less a crime than terrorism. Since these actions are carried out in violation of proper procedure, there is reason to suspect that various law enforcement and security agencies are being used to harass persons and organizations who support the opposition. Army units are being used to create among the population an atmosphere of fear. Ukraine is again on the verge of becoming a police state, which ignores the rights of its citizens and its international obligations.

Another grave feature in the present campaign is the use of political persecutions such as dismissal from work of e.g. journalists, and exclusions from universities.

Regarding media, State controlled TV, in particular UT-1, have consistently misinformed the public on the presidential candidates in news and other programming, promoting a positive impression of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, and carrying only limited and then almost completely negative coverage of his main opponent Viktor Yushchenko.

There has been massive discrimination against the opposition: in the period from May to August, the Government’s candidate received eight times more air time on national TV than the main opponent. The latter was obliquely accused of harboring extremist views and of being allied with extremist organizations. Recently, the media have been used to present opposition figures as terrorists and criminals – before any court had had a chance to decide on the matter.

The only independent TV station of national importance, Channel 5, is now facing closure in what appears to be a politically motivated defamation case. The station’s workers are now on hunger strike to express their protest.

Posters and t-shirts against Yushchenko – and for Yanukovich – have been produced massively. This could not have taken place without the knowledge of the central authorities. This also raises serious questions as to how this material has been financed.

As far as the freedom of association and freedom of movement, authorities have banned electoral meetings of the opposition. The Militia has been used to block people from the provinces to join meetings in Kyiv held by the opposition candidate. On these days, Kyiv has become an almost closed city.

Even more thoroughly than in previous elections, the State have throughout the campaign used “administrative resources”, the huge resources of the State to influence and pressure voters. Workers in various institutions and industries were routinely forced first to collect signatures for his registration and to participate at rallies in support of Viktor Yanukovich.

Yet another reason for serious concern is the dubious quality of preparatory work of the authorities with regard to e.g. voter lists, formation of electoral commissions, etc. The Central Electoral Commission has not done anything to address any of these problems, and thus failed to fulfill its role to ensure a transparent and fair process.

While limited transparency is possible through the presence on the local and central electoral commissions of representatives of all candidates, independent Ukrainian NGOs are not allowed to observe elections. This cannot but limit the credibility of the process, and further erode the legitimacy of the electoral results.

In spite of repeated appeals from Governments, international organizations and Ukrainian and international human rights NGOs, the Ukrainian authorities have chosen not to address the violations of law and international obligations. The elections risk producing a result which will not have the necessary legitimacy and which will further delay the development of Ukraine towards a genuine democracy, and a society based on the rule of law.

For more information:

Yevgeniy Zakharov: chair, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union - Phone: +380 57 2143558

Andrzej Rzeplinski: member of the Executive Committee, International Helsinki Federation. – Phone: + 48 22 5564441

Aaron Rhodes: Executive Director, International Helsinki Federation. Phone: +431 4088822

Volodymyr Yavorskyy: Executive Director, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union – Phone: +380 44 4174118

 

Parents are considered good, if their children and their attitude toward their children are good. The same holds true for the society in general.

What can our youth say about its nation and its authorities?

One would say, “It’s of no importance.” Other would say, “It’s alien.” Still other would say, “It’s hostile to us.”

The judgments by the young are sharp and demanding. But true. The youth wants to live with dignity and earn its living in a decent way. When lawlessness, bribery, and evil are all around, it is not the world, which can be respected or accepted. Our youth has been robbed.

If the authorities feel no shame, if they refuse to apologize to the youth, for which they have failed to create conditions for decent life, then these authorities are bankrupt and evil.

The student’s “egg attack” against the Prime Minister, who is willing to continue the dirty conquest of the evil authorities, is a grand metaphor. A well-fed adult man fell. Why? Maybe because he just imagined that he was thrown at with thousand of eggs and thousands of curses for his desire to go farther on his criminal path of brutality, harassment, and lies. It’s better to fall at once, than to wait until everybody begins to throw curses at you, like at Kuchma!

Ukraine is a land of contrasts. On the one side, there’s a hardworking and thrifty people, on the other side, there’s a lazy, rude, and corrupt mob, which the authorities have been recruiting for their pseudo-Socialist party.

So, these authorities and this mob do hate our youth for its desire to bring our life back to the path of decency and law. It wants a leader, who will be respected by the nation and the world. It does not want boring bankrupts, who have even bored themselves.

The murder of Georgiy Gongadze was a glimpse of the government-sponsored terror. Notorious murders of proactive citizens; gangster-type, out-of-court sentences; expulsions of students from universities for their decent conduct as citizens; use of killers, information killers, and rude “professors” against the moral resistance showed by students; arrests, searches and beatings with the use of youth serving in the militia; use of the disinformation mass media for falsified accusations; use of courts for reprisals against the strongest – what a decay, what a poison and destruction for the nation’s organism by the worms, who will become extinct tomorrow without a trace!

It was Stalin, who taught them branding academicians, professors, and poets as terrorists. But he could, in order to be more persuasive, to shoot hundreds of thousands. They are capable only to have their adversaries “drowned in a toilet.” Cowards and scoundrels, they are going to use chemicals...

If the students have proclaimed “Pora!” [It’s Time], so it’s time, in effect. They want to shorten the agony of those, who are decaying of their own evil.

We, yesterday’s prisoners of conscience, are proud of the honest and brave Ukrainian youth. Who never stood up for his or her honor and dignity, who never fought for his or her right for decent life and never tempered him- or herself in an unequal struggle, that person was never young!

Such people are being used and then discarded.

We spent our youth in the struggle against inhumane Communist regime. Persecution, prisons, exile – that was the school we graduated from, crippled but honest and loyal to Ukraine. And we pass on to you, the young, the baton of duty and dignity.

Don’t lose your heart! Undoubtedly, your sufferings will be shorter. But let’s be united and strong in our defense of the law and order. We are under attack of the creatures produced by yesterday’s KGB and secret agents, merged with the criminal world, alien to morals. But the armed forces and militia will not support them, because they are composed of normal people par excellence, who also crave for the change of those decaying authorities, which preclude them live and work honesty.

Truth will prevail.

You are young and you are to create a design of our future.

Ukrainian prisoners of conscience:

Yevhen Sverstyuk, Nadiya Svitlychna, Vasil Ovsienko, Mykola Gorbal, Genrikh Altunyan, Ziniviy Antonyuk, Yosyp Zisels, Levko Lukyanenko, Myroslav Marynovych, Levko Gorokhivskiy, Zorian Popadyuk, Petro Rozumny, Oles Shevchenko, Vitaliy Shevchenko, Igor and Iryna Kalyntses, Opanas Zalivakha

 

On persecution of the opposition youth in Ukraine

“You’ll be digging your grave by yourself, pal!” militia officers shouted to opposition youth organization member Pavlo, whom they were beating and then violently shoved to a militia car. He was just taking pictures of the well-known events in the Podil area in Kyiv on so called “discovery” of explosives, which were furtively put by militia itself. The tenant of that office was a youth organization, “Pora!” [It’s Time]. It was the youth, against which, using law-enforcement agencies and youth groups specially created to initiate provocations (sometimes employing real students, but most often employing professionals, who are a sort of Fascist-oriented folks, or just disguised themselves as such, ready to crash and ruin everything they be assigned to by some high-ranking officials). In “politically correct language,” it is called the “use of administrative influence,” but for everybody who is thoughtful enough to see the difference between words, it is a usual “criminal influence” used by immoral people.

So far it is limited chiefly to the beatings, with or without the use of groups of provocateurs. Searches and brutal, arbitrary, and long-term interrogations take place throughout Ukraine on a large scale. They are accompanied by cynical, bluntly illegal and outrageous harassment of the opposition-leaning youth and their parents, when prosecutor’s offices open criminal cases on terrorism charges, having grave consequences.

The circle of hatred is about to lock. Those, who hate people, began with the terror against the Tsar, and today they have come to the terror against their children. Oh Lord, our authorities have experienced a little change since then: the same harassment, the same immoral and essentially illegal groups of provocateurs. And all that is for a sole purpose to prevent real self-organization of the civil society. People say, this breach of the law is under control of the government. Maybe today it is in fact under control and “dosated”. But it’s immoral and illegal. This way the authorities make themselves illegal and illegitimate. The crimes committed by the authorities against an individual or laws inadvertently turn into crimes against humanness and humanity. All of us must memorize this clearly.

Do the today’s words on digging graves sound different from those, which were fiercely shouted by Gestapo officers toward innocent victims of the race, national, and religious hatred at the Babin Yar? The same words were shouted by NKVD operatives in Bykivnya and elsewhere, who regularly used their “persuasive argument of a Mauser gun” at any expression of critical attitude toward the class, religious, and national hatred they were implanting. At least one of us, in a Novosibirsk prison as far back as in late 1978, heard from a local KGB operative in response to a complaint to a prosecutor’s office regarding the placement of the inmate not in the prison cell, but in a so called barrel, “You want observance of the law, don’t you?.. I’ll lead you out and shoot right away... I’ve shot thousands like you without a glitch.” That was the yelling of that outright hater of Ukrainians. “Beat Ukrainians!” shouted his successors – police officers in seemingly independent Ukraine – while scattering peaceful religious march of the Ukrainians at the Sophia Square in Kyiv. And they got away with it! The hatred felt by the authorities of a supposedly new nation toward its citizens has not diminished, but has risen. Because a new generation has already grown up, which is unwilling to live in the air of lies and hatred, in the air of cynical lawlessness, when the society is being forced to accept principles of an animal farm. It claims, “We are humans, not dogs!”

We’ll not guess, what was the color of the authorities’ hatred toward journalist Georgiy Gongadze – anti-Ukrainian, anti-Georgian, or anti-American, or simply anti-journalistic, if journalistic becomes embodiment of honesty and courage. And what kind of words did he hear from the executioners, before they cut off his head either by verdict or just in response to a vaguely formulated desire by the instigators of that terrible crime. By the verdict made absolutely lawlessly, maliciously, cowardly, and secretly. By the verdict made by those people, who, from the peak of their official posts hatefully call other people the “mob.” Those, who have turned the whole law-enforcement system of the nation into a system for defending and holding their power despite the will of that “mob,” so hated by the authorities.

The situation of all the haters is very simple: their outward hatred mirrors their inner uselessness. If such people have no power, it’s a little trouble; if they do, they turn into an outrageous social monster, extremely dangerous for the neighboring countries and all mankind. Hatred at any human level, each and every hatred, hatred on whatever basis – were, are and will be a great obstacle on the path to a civilized development of the mankind.

Why should haters care for any human beings, though? All chieftains and criminal leaders think only of themselves, indifferent to real problems of the country they govern, to problems of an individual citizen, to civilized development of the mankind. It is just because of our light-mindedness, they, fooling the most trustful, gradually manage to drive all the rest of us in their stall of hatred.

Today, for example, they still hope to deceive us with the idea of their own making that freedom and democracy are not acceptable for followers of the Orthodox Christianity. But the numbers of simpletons is on decrease, as well as it is on decrease in the Muslim World, regardless of the unprecedented would-be pure clash of civilizations. So, this worldwide movement toward democracy cannot be stopped by any immoral, anti-civilizing mobilization by fundamentalists. Neither old, nor new; neither there, nor here. The driving force for any societal innovation was, is, and will be the youth, especially the student youth.

Obviously, today we cannot be sure that parents of our opposition youth are ready to support the initiative of their offspring as unanimously, as did parents of the opposition youth in Prague, thereby providing for that other Coming, the Velvet one, the Prague’s Spring of October 1989. We cannot deny that such a possibility could emerge tomorrow, though. Tomorrow, when the convulsions of the immoral authorities will reach their peak, while provocations and groundless repressions against the student youth be halted and all the culprits, guilty in the anti-student hatred and in the use of criminal influence, be severely punished, punished under the current law. The chauvinism practiced by the authorities will not prevail. We are fed up with the domination of the immoral high and mighty.

All the people crave for freedom. The old slogan of solidarity – “For Your and Our Freedom!” was equally relevant both in Prague and in Warsaw, and the current authorities in Ukraine are doing everything possible to make it relevant in Kyiv as well. The result of its victory will inevitably be the dramatic diminishing of the zone of hatred and non-freedom in Europe, and, eventually, in the whole world.

Because the unprecedented 20^th “century of death” does oblige world democratic nations, public organizations, and all people of good will to react against progeny of the “Evil Empire” and still survived supporters of cruel, non-democratic, anti-popular hierarchies of power attempting to restore the old order, contrary to the popular craving for freedom. We have to counterbalance the solidarity of evil, with the more effective - because moral – solidarity of good.

Grandchildren, For Your and Our Freedom!

Zinoviy Antonyuk, Genrikh Altunyan, Myroslav Gorbachuk, Yevhen Zakharov,
Sofiya Karasik, Mykhaylina Kotsyubinska, Irma Krein, Vladislav Nedobora,
Vasil Ovsienko, Irina Rapp, Natalia Skoblinskaia, Nadiya Svitlychna

To: UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
UN Committee against Torture
European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT)
International Human Rights Organizations

The Presidential election campaign, which is under way in Ukraine, is mired with grave violations of the fundamental human rights and basic freedoms. The recent events demonstrate that the Ukrainian authorities have resumed persecution of independently minded people, using law-enforcement agencies as a tool of the political struggle.

Significant resources of the law-enforcement agencies are used for harassment of the opposition-leaning citizens and forgery of criminal cases against activists of the opposition movements.

On 16, 17, and 18 October 2004, militia officers carried out unauthorized searches on the premises used by youth civic information campaign “Pora!” (“It’s time!”), “Studentska Khvylya” (“Students’ Wave”), “Studentske Bratstvo Lvivshiny” (“Fraternity of the Lviv Region”), and the National University “Kyiv-Mohilevska Academy.” Earlier, there were searches in several regional headquarters of the opposition Presidential Candidates. The searches were conducted under far-fetched pretexts, such as search for explosive devices or examination of anonymous information claiming that those organizations were involved in terrorist activities. Several activists of those organizations were detained throughout Ukraine. The most of the detainees were released in a few hours. According to them, during the interrogations, they were questioned about the contents of the distributed publications, critical to the current authorities.

During the search of a Kyiv office of the All-Ukrainian youth civic information campaign “Pora!” militia officers allegedly found an explosive device. That finding became a basis for taking Yaroslav Godunok, the premises’ tenant and a member of the opposition Ukrainian People’s Party, into custody. It is very doubtful, whether that explosive device ever existed or belonged to the organization, because it had not been found during an earlier close search with the use of a militia dog and at the presence of Members of the Parliament. The device was found only when the militia officers remained alone in the room, where the previous search had failed to discover anything. It demonstrates a high probability of the deliberate provocation committed by the law-enforcement agencies. In the room, there were also 3 tons of the opposition literature, which was left sealed after the search. Although only that rather questionable evidence had been found, the All-Ukrainian organization was publicly proclaimed a paramilitary formation, charged with terrorism. On these grounds, a great number of oppositionists are being persecuted.

The next day there was held a press conference at the General Prosecutor’s Office, where conclusions as to the possible connection of the political opposition to the terrorist acts were made public. This way the General Prosecutor’s Office does more than breaches a presumption of innocence of those, who are being charged. The reckless disclosure of the “confidentiality of investigation,” disclosure of which is a criminal act, demonstrates that the activities carried out by the law-enforcement agencies in this instance aim not at the maintaining of law and order, but at the supply of compromising information for the benefit of certain political forces.

Most Ukrainian TV channels produce their news programs following press releases issued by the state authorities (so called “temniks”). The published “temniks” demonstrate that the authorities try to create in the society an impression of terrorist nature of activities carried out by youth opposition organizations “Pora!” and “Chista Ukrayina” (“Clean Ukraine”).

We receive information from all regions of Ukraine that the Security Service of Ukraine calls for questioning activists of those organizations, predominantly young people, who have never been noticed in illegal activities.

It is becoming a routine practice of the law-enforcement agencies to detain scores of public activists during visits by Viktor Yanukovich, Presidential Candidate and Prime Minister, to various regions of Ukraine. According to our information, just for the last two days, October 18 and 19, during his visits to Chernigiv and Poltava, 17 people, who took part in disseminating of printed materials critical to the Prime Minister, were detained.

In most cases, during the detention, no detention reports are compiled. The detained activists are advised to stay aside of politics. In some incidents, they are threatened to face criminal prosecution. For instance, in Chernigiv, Oleksandr Kovalenko, the detained member of “Pora!” was accused in distributing false money. Others were threatened to face accusation in stealing mobile phones and rapes.

Outrageous violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure do take place during the militia searches and detentions. Relatives are not informed about the detention and lawyers are not allowed to meet with their clients right after the detention. For instance, a lawyer of Oleksandr Kovalenko was allowed to meet with his client only 6 hours after the detention of the latter.

On October 19, a Chernigiv office of “Pora!” was searched. Tetyana Pekur, a representative of “Pora!” was beaten up by militia officers when she tried to phone and tell about the search. As a result of the search, false money and explosives were found. The activist of the aforementioned organization, Oleksandr Lomak, was detained. Similarly to the discovery of explosives in the Kyiv office of “Pora!” it is obvious that these explosives were a result of another provocation carried out by law-enforcement agencies. Everybody knows that the Ukrainian militia has a vast expertise in forging criminal cases based on “finding” of drugs, weapons, and false money.

We believe that these simultaneous, systematic, and mass actions carried out by the law-enforcement agencies would have not been possible, unless they were sanctioned by the leadership of the Ministry of Interior, General Prosecutor’s Office and Security Service.

We believe that the practice of these mass and simultaneous short-term arrests of oppositionists, which last up to 72 hours (until a deadline for bringing a formal accusation), has nothing to do with a free election campaign, has nothing in common with the principles of democracy, and has to be terminated immediately.

The above facts, in our opinion, unequivocally demonstrate that the activities carried out by the Ukrainian law-enforcement-agencies clearly constitute the political persecution of the civic activists, violate the law, contradict the premises of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) and European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR).

We appeal to international organizations to officially warn the government of Ukraine that it is inadmissible to violate the human rights in order to reach one’s political aims.

We appeal to international and foreign non-governmental organizations to support the actions carried out by the Ukrainian human rights organizations as to the protecting rights of persons, who fell victims to the arbitrary detentions, arrests, and other forms of political persecution carried out by the Ukrainian law-enforcement agencies.

Ukrainian Association of Public Organizations

“Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union”

Short information about “Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union”
The purpose of creating and functioning of the Association is provision and protection of the rights and fundamental freedoms through ensuring of practical execution of the humanitarian articles of the Helsinki Final Act (1975) of the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OCSE), other documents adopted as its follow-up, and all other obligations taken by Ukraine in the field of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Members of the Association:

1. Vinnitsa City Public Organization “Vinnitsa Human Rights Group”

2. Ukrainian Community of Political Prisoners and Repressed, including Committee “Helsinki-90”.

3. Public Committee for Protection Citizens Rights and Freedoms (Lugansk)

4. Ecological Club “EOL” (Odessa region)

5. Economic and Social Problems Institute “Respublika” (Kyiv)

6. Congress of National Communities of Ukraine

7. Youth Public Organization Legal and Political Research Center “ SIM” (Lviv)

8. City Public Organization “For Professional Help” (Poltava Region)

9. Sevastopol Human Rights Group

10. Kharkov Regional Union of Soldiers Mothers

11. Kharkov Human Rights protection Group

12. Kherson City Reporter’s Association “Pivden”

13. Kherson Regional Organization of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine

14. Center of Regional Politics Research

15. Chernigiv Public Committee of Human Rights Protection

Well-known participants of the Helsinki movement in Ukrainian were elected to the Supervisory board of the Association: Josyp Zisels, Vasyl Ovsienko, Vasyl Lisovy, Mykola Gorbal, Evhen Sverstiuk, Zinoviy Antoniuk and Evhen Proniuk.

 

The access of candidates to presidency to mass media and the context of presentation of information on election in different mass media are the subjects of the research carried out by the Institute of mass information (IMI), international human rights protecting organization “Article 19” and the Kharkov group for human rights protection (KhG). In what follows we present the results of the IMI monitoring conducted by the IMI, “Article 19” and KhG in Kyiv and regions of Ukraine.

General tendencies disclosed in the course of monitoring:

• From August to the first half of September the mass media rendered disproportionately large access to mass media to candidate from power Viktor Yanukovich in comparison with opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. This tendency intensifies as the election becomes nearer.

• Biased presentation of information about opposition leader Yushchenko is strengthening in almost all central mass media. Besides, the 5^th channel somewhat increased the amount of news of negative character concerning candidate Yanukovich and the government.

• Only Viktor Yanukovich had the opportunity (and realized this opportunity) to express his opinion on practically all topics in central mass media. The basic topic, on which the candidate spoke, was the topic of economics. Least often Yanukovich paid attention to the topics connected with democratization and transparency of state rule.

• Representatives of opposition could not obtain equal access to national mass media. At the same time, the basic TV channels, except the 5^th channel, most frequently connected the information about the opposition with conflict situations.

• During all monitored period the essential part of political advertising was directed not so much to the support of this or that candidate as to discrediting of political rivals. The most discrediting materials were published about opposition leader candidate Yushchenko.

• Regional mass media owned by state represent the tendencies similar to the tendencies demonstrated by national private and state channels: candidate from power gets much more access to voters than other candidates.

• During ten weeks of the election campaign representatives of the parties, which supported candidate to presidency Viktor Yanukovich (Party of regions, NDPU, SDPU (u)), had disproportionately larger access to central mass media than representatives of opposition parties and political groups.

Table 1. Proportion of negative information (in %) about main candidates in the total amount of election news in central mass media in September, October and first two weeks of October 2004

Dynamics of the access of the candidates with greatest rating to mass media

• From August to the first half of September the mass media rendered disproportionately large access to mass media to candidate from power Viktor Yanukovich in comparison with opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. This tendency intensifies as the election become nearer.

In August-October the proportion (in %) of the direct speech of V. Yanukovich in the total amount of direct speech of five candidates in the news was 86.3% on the channel UT-1, 100% on the First national radio channel, 68.3% -- on the channel “Inter” and 73.6% -- on the channel “1+1”.

In the first half of October Viktor Yanukovich got the greatest amount of direct speech in the news on the First national radio channel and UT-1.

The proportion of direct speech of V. Yushchenko in the total amount of direct speech of five candidates in the news in August-October was 1.66% on the channel UT-1, 0% -- on the First radio channel, 10% -- on the channel “Inter” and 7.66% -- on “1+1”.

In the first half of October the proportion of informational presence of Yushchenko essentially increased on TV channels “Inter” and “1+1”, but his appearance was, as a rule, represented in negative light. More or less equal access to viewers was provided by the 5^th TV channel, which transmitted the direct speech of all candidates with greatest rating, except, maybe, candidate Natalya Vitrenko. In August the proportion of direct speech of V. Yanukovich in news of this TV channel was 42% of all amount of direct speech of five candidates, and the proportion of V. Yushchenko’s – 45%. In September these numbers were 32% and 49%, respectively.

Context of presentation of information about main candidates to President’s post

• Biased presentation of information about opposition leader Yushchenko is strengthening in almost all central mass media. Besides, the 5^th channel somewhat increased the amount of news of negative character concerning candidate Yanukovich and the government.

The effect of unequal access of candidates to mass media is strengthened by the biased context of presentation of information about the candidates from opposition, in particular, V. Yushchenko. In the course of time this tendency changes: in the first half of October one fifth, and sometimes even one fourth, of all news in prime-time on the channels UT-1, “Inter” and “1+1” had the negative slant regarding the leader of opposition. Only the 5^th channel, “Golos Ukrainy” and the First national radio provided more balanced presentation of news. In the news of the 5^th channel there were 4% of negative information about V. Yanukovich in August, 6% -- in September and 9% -- in the first half of October.

Table 2. Proportion of positive information (in %) about main candidates in the total amount of election news in central mass media in September, October and first two weeks of October 2004

Topics of elucidation of the activities of main candidates in the news

• Only Viktor Yanukovich had the opportunity (and realized this opportunity) to express his opinion on practically all topics in central mass media. The basic topic, on which the candidate spoke, was the topic of economics. Least often Yanukovich paid attention to the topics connected with democratization and transparency of state rule.

• The information about representatives of opposition was, most frequently, connected with conflict situations.

During the period of monitoring Viktor Yanukovich had the opportunity to express his opinion on practically all topics – from economic development to constitutional reform. He did not speak only on the topics connected with democratization and transparency of state rule. The information positive for Yanukovich concerns, as a rule, “positive economic consequences” of his work on the post of Prime Minister, “improvement of social maintenance” in the country and the successful international activities of this candidate.

Oleksandr Moroz, Petro Simonenko and Natalya Vitrenko rather frequently declared in the news about their intentions to “improve the social maintenance” and to integrate with the European Union or CIS countries.

The information about Yushchenko, most often negative, was presented in the context of social conflict, probable or existing interethnic conflicts, as well as in the context of “contradictions” between Eastern and Western Ukraine.

Access of main candidates to regional mass media

Regional mass media owned by the state represent the tendencies similar to those demonstrated by national private and state channels. Monitoring of mass media in the Crimea, in Transcarpathian region and in Kharkov showed that the proportion of direct speech of main candidates (and representatives of headquarters of V. Yanukovich and V. Yushchenko) was noticeably unbalanced in favor of the candidate from power.

Table 3. Proportion (in %) of direct speech of main candidates (and representatives of headquarters of V. Yanukovich and V. Yushchenko) in some regional mass media owned by the state in August and September 2004

The tendency, which was observed in regional mass media since the second half of September, evidenced the actualization of national questions.

Context of political advertising

• During all monitored period the essential part of political advertising was directed not so much to the support of this or that candidate as to discrediting of political rivals. The most discrediting materials were published about opposition leader candidate Yushchenko.

The first mass medium that began to use such method of influence on citizens was the state TV channel UT-1. Since September all central media, except the First national radio and oppositional 5^th channel, started to use this method. The lion’s share of the advertising trailers negative for V. Yushchenko are the trailers of Roman Kozak and Oleksandr Yakovenko: practically all advertising trailers of these candidates discredit the leader of opposition. Essential part of political advertising of Dmytro Korchinskiy is also directed to distortion of Yushchenko’s image.

It should be noted that the figures for the entire October will, probably, be higher than for first two weeks of the month.

In September about one third of all political advertising trailers on ICTV channel were also negative as to V. Yushchenko.

Table 4. Proportion of negative advertising trailers (in %) about V. Yushchenko in the total amount of political advertising trailers in central mass media (August, September and first two weeks of October 2004)

During the first half of October the number of advertising trailers in support of the acting Prime Minister somewhat exceeded the number of trailers in support of his opponent Yushchenko (on “Inter”: 41 trailer for V. Yanukovich and 25 – for V. Yushchenko; UT-1: 89 and 79, respectively; “1+1”: 32 and 25, respectively). The advantage of total size of Yanukovich’s advertising over Yushchenko’s one was larger: the average duration of advertising trailers of V. Yushchenko was about 15 seconds, and the average duration of Yanukovich’s trailers – about 25 seconds.

Access of representatives of political parties to central mass media

• During ten weeks of the election campaign representatives of the parties, which supported candidate to presidency Viktor Yanukovich (Party of regions, NDPU, SDPU (u)), had disproportionately larger access to central mass media than representatives of opposition parties and political groups.

In what follows we adduce the proportion of the direct speech of different parties in the total amount of direct speech of parties in the news (on “1+1”, “Inter”, UT-1 and the First radio). In August the Party of regions, NDPU and SDPU (u) had 75%; bloc “Our Ukraine”, Yulia Timoshenko’s bloc, Ukrainian People’s party and party “Our Ukraine” – 9%; CPU and SPU – 17%. In September the Party of regions, NDPU and SDPU (u) had 76%; bloc “Our Ukraine”, Yulia Timoshenko’s bloc, Ukrainian People’s party and party “Our Ukraine” – 9%; CPU and SPU – 7%; other parties – 7%. In the first half of October the Party of regions, NDPU and SDPU (u) had 90%; bloc “Our Ukraine”, Yulia Timoshenko’s bloc, Ukrainian People’s party and party “Our Ukraine” – 10%; CPU and SPU – 0%; other parties – 0%.

In the first half of October representatives of the Party of regions dominated in the news of central mass media: they had 641 seconds of direct speech on UT-1, 337 – on the First national radio, 317 – on “Inter” and 225 – on the channel “1+1”.

Methods used during the monitoring

The goal of the project “Candidates to presidency and access to mass media” is assessment of the level of the access of candidates to central and a number of regional mass media, as well as the level of impartiality at elucidation of their activities, views and features.

One of the basic criteria of assessment of the access is the proportion of direct speech of every candidate on these or those TV channels and in newspapers.

Impartiality of the materials about candidates was assessed on the basis of two factors:

• Level of impartiality of journalists’ attitude to candidates;

• Level of impartiality of the context, in which the activities of candidates were elucidated.

All materials, which have direct or indirect connection to presidential election and appear at primetime on TV channels, the First national radio and in newspapers, are the subjects of monitoring.

All materials are divided into following groups and categories:

1. News: all informational messages in TV news, in newspapers and on radio channels.

2. Chargeable political advertising.

3. Direct/allocated access: all free of charge materials, which are controlled by the candidates;

4. Opinions: articles, features, in which the position of the author on the election is expressed, or the topics connected with election race.

5. Special features on the topic of election: TV debates, interviews with candidates, special reportages about the course of election campaign, etc.

6. Enlightenment of voters: materials, which contain the detailed information on the questions, connected with the election procedure and voting, rights of voters, probable violations, etc.

The news are also classified by the topics (social maintenance, economic development, state budget, conflicts, etc.). Besides, sources of information and language of the news are also fixed.

Monitoring of mass media is realized by the group of researchers, which underwent the training on the questions of use of methodology.