EuroMaidan has already turned into a shady place. Some protesters decided to leave the Maidan because of robberies, assaults and beatings that happened there quite often in the last months, which they say is now discrediting the protest that took place there just several months ago and which ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.
The EuroMaidan’s self-defense unit number 3 is dismantling
its tents, packing stuff and moves to the Kyiv fortress, a 19th century
architectural monument, in downtown Pechersk district, says Danylo Klekh, head
of the executive committee of EuroMaidan Self Defense. “We have taken such a
decision because nowadays on Maidan a lot of negative things occur and they
have nothing to do with the idea of the EuroMaidan and discredit EuroMaidan’s
self-defense [units].”
Kyiv’s
prosecutor Serhiy Yuldashev described the current situation on Maidan as “extremely
crime-intensive” in his comment to Ukrinform, a Ukrainian news agency, on June,
10. “Starting from the beginning of April the police registered four facts of
murders and more than 10 armed robberies attacks,” he said.
Vitaliy
Yarema, the country’s prosecutor general, believes Maidan has become a dangerous
place for Kyiv citizens and visitors. “Maidan of dignity has turned into Maidan
of criminals,” Yarema said on NTN Ukrainian TV Channel on July, 9.
Maidaners
say these are Ukrainian authorities who try to discredit their reputation.
Volodymyr Pak, head of 14th EuroMaidan self-defense unit that
continues to stay in the Kyiv center, says that people who commit crimes on
Maidan are not protesters. “For example, those people in balaclavas that did
gunplay near the Kozatsky hotel on the night of July 7 are provocateurs. We
recognized them as titushkas (hired thugs) who beat our maidaners in the
winter.”
Anton
from the third EuroMaidan’s self-defense unit who refused to give his last name
because for fear of being ostracized by other protesters says that “criminals
were always present on Maidan, yet nowadays when most ordinary protesters left
to return to work or to defend the country in the east, bandits have become
more noticeable (there).”
To
preserve their reputation nearly two hundred people from the third EuroMaidan’s
self-defense unit aim to move from Maidan by the end of this week. The people
intent to bring the Kyiv fortress in order and to launch a help center for
Ukrainian volunteers fighting with the pro-Russian rebels in the east of the
country. “More than 3,000 of our comrades are in the east now, so we want to
help them with information, money and accoutrements,” Klekh says adding that
they will find sponsors who can help fulfill their plans.
Pak
who keeps on protesting on Maidan suspects that his former friends decided to
move because they got bribes. “I would respect their decision to move there if
they moved because of their credo,” he says. “I think that someone from our
present authorities gave them money to make them leave Maidan.”
Oleksandr
Yaroshchuk, head of the third EuroMaidan self-defense unit, denies the
allegation calling it “lies.” “Nobody offered us money. People who spread such
gossips simply want to stay on Maidan and do nothing,” said.
Pak
himself reluctantly speaks about the sources of funding for the protesters who
live in the tents on the square. “Ukrainians who support us put money into
transparent plastic boxes located in front of every tent,” Pak says. Yet a couple of one- and two-hryvnya notes in
the boxes seen during a Kyiv Post reporter’s visit to Maidan are not enough to
feed several hundred people currently living on Maidan. “Nowadays people
support us with food mostly,” Pak adds.
Kyiv
major Vitali Klitschko repeatedly asked the protesters to leave the squire so
that the city could live a normal life but these efforts still remain
futile. Klitschko still believes he can
convince these people to leave the city center voluntarily. “We give them an
opportunity to move to pioneer camps and health resorts near Kyiv,” Klitschko
said on Ukrainian Inter TV channel on June, 9. “But Khreshchatyk, the city’s
major transport artery, should be released.”
Pak
says they are not going to disperse. “We want the adoption of new
laws, which will
reduce
corruption and
also want that government appointments to be discussed with the broad public.
We
will leave Maidan only after our demands are fulfilled,” he adds. General
prosecutor Yarema says that “the country should work in the
legal field and not be under the pressure of people who call themselves
Maidaners.”
Kyivans
also got tired of the protesters, who provoke disorder in the center of the
city too. Liudmyla Dunikova, one of such Kyivans, is disappointed because of
the current affairs (on Maidan). “I think that these are homeless
people living on Maidan now, as real protesters are defending our fatherland in
the east,” she says. “They should leave the square because the city center
should have its normal look and prestige. In case of need we (Ukrainians) will
gather for new protests very quickly.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya
Trach can be reached at [email protected]
