Opposition activists clashed with riot police in the center of the Ukrainian capital Wednesday protesting a controversial bill that upgrades the status of the Russian language and which critics say would undermine the Ukrainian tongue.
The bill leaves Ukrainian as the only state language,
but allows the use of Russian in Russian-speaking regions in courts,
education and other government institutions. Members of the pro-Western
opposition say the bill would effectively
smother the Ukrainian tongue by removing any incentive for millions of
Russian-speaking Ukrainians to learn and speak it. They also say it
would bring Ukraine back into the Russian orbit and torpedo its efforts to forge closer ties with the European Union.
Lawmakers loyal to President Viktor Yanukovych, who draws his support from the Russian-speaking east and south, rushed the bill through parliament Tuesday night, without giving the opposition much chance to debate and protest it.
Parliament
speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn insisted the vote was illegitimate and
announced his resignation Wednesday, along with a deputy parliament
speaker. Seven national lawmakers announced a hunger strike.
“I have been fooled, Ukraine has been fooled, the people have been fooled,” Lytvyn told reporters.
Up to 2,000 protesters, some clad in traditional embroidered shirts, staged an angry protest against the bill
outside a government building in the center of Kiev where Yanukovych
was to hold an annual news conference. Black-clad riot police in shields
and helmets moved in after the activists attempted to block the
entrance to the building. Protesters hurled bottles of water and sticks
at the police and both sides used pepper-spray against each other.
Ambulances
rushed to the scene to treat protesters and police who were injured in
the clashes. Vitali Klitschko, the WBC heavyweight champion and also an
opposition leader, was injured and had blood streaming from his hand.
Yanukovych’s critics accuse him of using the contentious language
issue to win back support from his Russian-speaking constituency ahead
of the October parliamentary elections as his approval ratings slide
amid economic hardships. They say Yanukovych is using the controversy to
divert attention from the politically tainted imprisonment of former
premier Yulia Tymoshenko and other top opposition leaders, which has
drawn a storm of anger from the West.
On Tuesday, the Strasbourg
court of Human rights ruled that Yuri Lutsenko, a former Interior
Minister in Tymoshenko’s cabinet, who has been sentenced to four years
in prison on charges of abuse of office, had been detained arbitrarily.
The ruling was a further blow to Yanukovych — already stung by a boycott
by top EU officials of the Euro 2012 football championships Ukraine co-hosted last month.
An earlier debate of the bill in parliament caused a violent brawl between lawmakers that left one legislator hospitalized.
Yanukovych’s
press conference was postponed until further notice. His office would
not comment on whether Yanukovych would sign the bill into law or veto it.
