You're reading: Thugs attack festival crowd, injuring three in Irpin

A pro-Ukrainian rock festival came under attack froma gang of unidentified thurgs on Sept. 26. Concert organizers blamed the mysterious incident on unspecified government authorities who are politically opposed to the event's patriotic message.

Two dozen men descended on the Gaidamaki.UA festival in Irpin, a town 25 kilometers northwest of Kyiv, under cover of darkness. They swept past security guards at the entrance and briefly scuffled with police before disappearing into the night.

Unofficially, six people were injured in the assault – two concertgoers, two private security officers and two police officers. Official reports say only three people were injured seriously enough to be hospitalized.

But initial reports say that the attackers were armed with baseball bats and iron rods were later discounted by the authorities. No arrests have been announced and no motive for the bizarre attack has been identified by police.

The festival organizer, opposition parliamentarian Oles Doniy, suggested a political motive could have been behind the incident.

“The bands scheduled to play at the festival are known for their xenophobic and ultra-nationalist songs.”

– Vadym Kolesnychenko, a vociferously pro-Russian lawmaker in Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.

The festival brought together opposition politicians and patriotic rock groups whose stance run contrary to the vision of Ukrainian history and culture espoused by President Viktor Yanukovych’s administration, which has been labeled “pro-Russian” and even “anti-Ukrainian” by critics.

There is clearly tension between the festival’s participants and the ruling pro-presidential Party of Regions.

Vadym Kolesnychenko, a vociferously pro-Russian lawmaker in Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, had appealed on Sept. 24 to the Security Service of Ukraine to keep tabs on the event, warning it would be used to foment public unrest and incite rebellion among young Ukrainians.

“The bands scheduled to play at the festival are known for their xenophobic and ultra-nationalist songs,” Kolesnychenko said. Jewish Forum leader Arkady Monastyrskiy and Ruslan Bortnik, head of the Common Chain Russian nationalist organization, co-signed the letter. The event’s organizer’s denied such accusations.


‘Small-town gang’

The incident occurred on the last evening of three-day long festival in Irpin’s Victory Park commemorating the 20th anniversary of a hunger strike by students in October 1990, a key event in the run-up to Ukraine’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

“Around 8:45 p.m. on Sept. 26 a group of about two dozen men entered the park,” Misha Orlyuk, a festivalgoer, told the Kyiv Post. “It was dark. The attackers wore tracksuits and looked like a medium-sized small-town gang.”

Orlyuk, 25, said he stumbled upon the group minutes after an altercation between several of its members with two police officers guarding the entrance to the venue. “I saw members of the group flee after security guards hired by the concert organizers intercepted them about 50 meters from the concert stage,” he said. “It was all over in less than 10 minutes.”

The account corroborates the official police version, which says a group of 20-30 aggressive youths entered festival grounds without buying tickets, overpowered two policemen and approached the concert stage. At least six people were involved in the ensuing melee with private security guards. When it was over, two gang members, two policemen and two security guards were taken to hospital for treatment of various head and hand wounds.

The Vulkan security firm hired by festival organizers confirmed that two of its employees were injured in the attack, but refused to comment about their injuries or talk about the altercation.

Controversy

The festival had caused controversy even before it started, with critics accusing it of inciting extremism, which organizers denied.

Festival organizer Doniy, a lawmaker from the Our Ukraine–People’s Self Defense parliamentary bloc, said extremist rhetoric was discouraged during the festival and alcoholic beverages were strictly prohibited.

Evening performances by popular Ukrainian music groups, including TNMK, Mertvyi Piven, Vertep, Tanok na Maidani Kongo and Tartak, were the main attractions at the jubilee. The Hr 50 price of admission provided access to independent television station stars and daily lectures on a wide variety of topics, ranging from Cossack history, Security Service of Ukraine archives and the law on local elections to post-modern Ukrainian culture, the lyrics of Taras Shevchenko and how to organize a new opposition movement.

Lecturers included Soviet-era political prisoner Stepan Khmara, former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, as well as Ukrainian nationalists Ivan Zaets and Yuriy Hrymchak, both lawmakers with parliament’s Our Ukraine–People’s Self Defense bloc.

Jerom Rozendaal, a Dutch journalist resident in Irpin who attended several of the tent talks, said they resembled opposition pep rallies. “I much preferred the music,” he told the Kyiv Post.

Motive

Doniy suggested a political motive for the attack on the festival, which was used in part to drum up opposition to perceived “anti-Ukrainian” policies promoted by President Viktor Yanukovych and Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk.

“Perhaps the latest attacks on government critics and on the festival are being coordinated through one entity?” he told the BBC on Sept. 28, referring to the government’s crackdown on opposition politicians.

“Organizing provocations and creating an atmosphere of fear and hatred in society is the hallmark of both the organizers of the Gaidamaki.UA festival and their puppet masters, who hold the strings and stand behind the curtains.”

Vadym Kolesnychenko, a vociferously pro-Russian lawmaker in Yanukovych’s Party of Regions.

“Either this is the explanation, or the authorities are trying to create an atmosphere where everything connected to Ukrainian culture and free press is regarded as abnormal and unpleasant.”

He said the incident reminded him of when so-called “anarchists” mysteriously appeared and attacked opposition demonstrators during the Ukraine Without Kuchma protests in the early 2000s in opposition to former President Leonid Kuchma, who left office in 2005.

However, pro-government lawmakers blamed the Irpin concert organizers.

In a post to his website on Sept. 27, Kolesnychenko urged law enforcement agencies to find the organizers of the attack, alleging dirty tricks by the opposition.

“Organizing provocations and creating an atmosphere of fear and hatred in society is the hallmark of both the organizers of the Gaidamaki.UA festival and their puppet masters, who hold the strings and stand behind the curtains,” Kolesnychenko said.

Tabachnyk also took a potshot at the opposition on the same day in comments that appeared connected to the attack.

“Instead of offering a valid alternative to the current political course and the development of society, our opponents are resorting to political terrorism and hooliganism,” he said.


Kyiv Post staff writer Peter Byrne can be reached at [email protected].