KGB Back in Fashion in Ukraine

By Pavol Stracansky Reprint | | Print |

Pavol Stracansky

KIEV, Jul 6 2010 (IPS) - Regular police torture of suspects, a crackdown on press freedom and the right to assembly, and a return to KGB methods of intimidation and forced collaboration are part of “alarming” breaches of human rights in the Ukraine, international and domestic rights groups have warned.

Just months after Viktor Yanukovych won presidential elections, critics say he is turning the former Soviet state into a dictatorship.

Government opponents claim they have been harassed, criticism of the government is being suppressed with violent dispersions of peaceful anti- government protests, and others warn that the country’s secret service has made a worrying return to the use of Soviet KGB methods.

Heather MacGill, Ukraine human rights expert at Amnesty International, tells IPS: “There have been signs that things are worsening, and we are greatly concerned about the state of human rights in the Ukraine.”

In one instance of what critics say are increasing breaches of human rights since Yanukovych came to power in February, environmental activists in Kharkiv city were arrested during a peaceful protest over illegal logging in a park.

Witnesses claim that a private security force, hired by the local council, and local loggers beat up protestors before they were hauled out and handed over to police. Two were handed 15-day jail sentences – on completely unwarranted charges, rights groups say.

Police also stood by when loggers began cutting down trees while protestors, some of whom had chained themselves to the trees, remained tied to branches. Some were injured and, witnesses say, they were then refused medical help.

“This recent event in Kharkiv is very disturbing and by its nature could be a sign that things have taken a turn for the worse because until now we have not had any major concerns about freedom of expression,” says MacGill.

Local journalists say that the government has begun a systematic campaign of censorship in the media, dictating what should be reported and broadcast, and say some have faced physical intimidation.

Press censorship was rife prior to the 2004 Orange Revolution. The more open freedom of the media was widely seen as one of the greatest successes of the revolution.

Journalists at the local STB and Channel 1+1 programmes have claimed that certain topics, including the 1930s mass famine in Ukraine instigated by Soviet leader Josef Stalin, criticism of the authorities, and investigations about politicians’ personal finances, are now off-limits to reporters. Several stories, they say, are completely re-edited.

President Yanukovych has denied the media is being put under any pressure from authorities, but critics doubt his sincerity. They point to a recent move by the government giving the President power over the hiring and firing of judges. The Interior Ministry’s department for monitoring compliance with human rights has been liquidated.

Rights groups also complain about growing restrictions on freedom of assembly. The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) points out that in the last few months courts have begun to ban meetings, police have been sent to break up anti-government protests, and activists have been detained.

There are also warnings that civil liberties are being further eroded as the Ukrainian secret service (SBU) reverts, with apparent impunity, to KGB-style methods of forced collaboration and intimidation.

A university rector last month spoke publicly of how he was approached by an SBU agent who told him to warn students that perceived illegal activities carried out in protests against the new Ukrainain authorities, including holding a protest meeting not sanctioned by the authorities, could lead to prosecution. The agent then tried to force him into signing a letter stating he had understood its contents and that the letter would be kept on record by the service. The rector refused to sign.

“We do not believe that this was an isolated incident. It suggests that the Ukrainian secret service has growing confidence that it can operate with impunity,” says MacGill.

Amnesty International says that continuing use of police torture – a characteristic of the force under all previous political regimes – shows that little has changed in the new authorities’ attitudes to dealing with rights abuses.

“There was no improvement in torture and ill-treatment of prisoners after the Orange Revolution, and there has been no change at all since the new President took over,” says MacGill. “It is business as usual.”

Freedom House, the U.S. rights advocacy and monitoring organisation, has warned that Ukraine risks losing its status as a free country. Last month the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) issued a damning report on Ukraine’s human rights situation.