Those protests set the stage for nationwide demonstrations, known as the Orange Revolution, after the rigged Nov. 26, 2004, second round of the presidential election. Chemerys currently heads the Respublika Institute, a liberal think tank advocating freedom of assembly and campaigning against police brutality. The 49-year-old activist is also a co-founder and current member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.

KP: Who do you represent?

VC: I represent myself and civil society, to a degree.

KP: Who is in charge of Ukraine today?

VC: The oligarch-led system of capitalism still prevails. Wealthy individuals who control political processes in the country regard themselves as the ruling class. Members of other social groups in the system are “outsiders,” a term coined by 20th century philosopher Herbert Marcuse. [Marcuse posited that only outcasts, those who were not enslaved by the society, would initiate social revolution to overthrow capitalism].

KP: When can we expect the next revolution?

VC: The system will change when the “outsiders” change it. A similar upheaval was brewing in early 2000, even before the death of journalist Georgiy Gongadze and the release of audio recordings implicating Kuchma in the crime. Those scandals, like the ones preceding them, were like matches. They ignited nationwide protests, first in 2000 and four years later.

KP: Are there parallels between the situation now and in 2000?

VC: Yes and no. The summer of 2000 was very quiet and stable. Most people thought at the time that Kuchma would be in charge for a long time to come. Earlier that spring, he had received public consent [in a national referendum] to expand presidential authority, disband parliament, etcetera. Everything seemed perfect for Kuchma at the time. Today’s situation is different. The first half of the year was relatively quiet, but the last couple of months have been tumultuous. We have witnessed attempts by the new authorities to limit basic human rights, especially freedom of assembly. Courts have banned meetings and police have broken them up and detained protesters.


KP: Which groups represent Ukraine’s new civil society movement?

VC: There are a number of groups, civic activists, youth groups, journalists, and ordinary citizens who have organized in recent months to defend their personal property and dignity. They include workers in Kherson to protest the crooked privatization of their enterprise, trade unions against adoption of the new labor code, students against police brutality, associations of disenfranchised bank depositors, etc. Each group espouses a different aims, but what they share is contempt for Ukraine’s ruling elite and big capital.

I see a new protest movement in the making, one without any political affiliation. [Former Prime Minister Yulia] Tymoshenko and other political leaders will not be able control it, even if they want to, because the movement will fueled by the same social injustices and human rights violations the Orange Revolution leaders promised to eliminate in 2004. The new movement will likely initially resemble Ukraine Without Kuchma in that it will not – and cannot – be led or controlled by politicians.

KP: Do you think these groups will eventually coalesce into a national opposition movement?

VC: The process of social change is objective. The economic crisis and government social policies have impoverished millions of Ukrainians and relegated them to the fringes of society. These are the outcasts, and they are unhappy. I think spring and summer will pass peacefully. But Ukrainian authorities always give a reason for people to rally against them, and the number of protests could grow in the fall. An idea was floated recently to centrally unite all these various protest groups into one coordinating body under the banner of one social movement, but I think this is impossible. A leader, or leaders, must first emerge from these groups, tie them together, and figure out a strategy. They can’t be installed or managed from on high.

KP: What are you and Respublika concentrating on?

VC: We are currently involved in a campaign to prevent the adoption of draft law on peaceful demonstration scheduled for consideration by parliament on June 17. Together with dozens of other civic organization, we have conveyed our concerns about provisions in the new law to the presidential administration and parliament leaders, including Rada speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, asking that the measure be shelved.


KP: What is the rationale for changing for changing the existing law?

VC: Article 39 of the Constitution is the only law guaranteeing freedom of assembly. No special law governing demonstrations has been adopted. Authorities never make it easy for people to protest against them. The first draft of the new law was passed when Tymoshenko was in charge of government, but changes have since been introduced. We want the new draft law to be examined by the European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission, and for parliament do openly debate the measure before flooring it for a vote.

KP: What provisions in the new law to you object to?

VC: According to the Constitution, citizens don’t need the permission of authorities to gather and demonstrate. They are only required to notify them beforehand. A court can ban a demonstration “only in the interests of national security and public order, with the purpose of preventing disturbances and crimes, protecting the health of the population or protecting the rights and freedoms of other persons. Under Yanukovych, the tendency has been for the court to ban any demonstration that could show them or their influential backers in an unflattering light. The Kyiv Regional Administrative Court has satisfied practically all requests by the Kyiv city administration to ban meetings in the capital. Even if a meeting has not been banned, police frequently walk up to demonstration leaders and tell them to disburse. The new law would make that practice legal.

KP: Who can play an intermediary role between the authorities and their critics?

VC: I worked with Hanna Herman when her Party of Regions was in the opposition. But her role today is changed. I think she is now trying to smooth over the rough patches created by hard-headed members of the president’s new team. Herman may want to help, but is unable. I can’t think of anyone else. The Public Affairs Council on Human Rights under the Interior Ministry is presently headed by Eduard Bagyrov, who enjoys little public support. One of Anatoliy Mohilyov’s first acts as interior minister was to liquidate the ministry’s department on monitoring compliance with human rights. Mohylov has repeatedly dismissed our calls to meet and discuss scandals involving the police and ordinary citizens, such as the recent [May 18] death of a student [Ihor Indilo] held in Kyiv Shevchenkovskiy’s district police station. Human Rights Ombudsman Nataliya Karpacheva has involved herself in that case, but she can only ask questions and make recommendations. Mohilyov has made it plain that he is not interested in a dialogue with civil society.

KP: What lessons can be learned from the color revolutions which swept Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrghyzstan in the mid 2000s?

VC: There are many parallels between what is happening here and events in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. We were all part of the Soviet Union and our trajectory has been the same. Ukraine Without Kuchma resembled the Georgia Without
[Eduard] Shevardnadze movement in 2001. [Mikheil] Saakashvili emerged as opposition leader there in 2003, a year before Viktor Yushchenko did in Ukraine. Citizens in both countries supported these leaders at first, but later came to the realizing that replacing one president with another is not the best way to change the country’s system of governance. The lesson people learned is that it’s not enough to just change presidents.

KP: What do you think of Oleh Tiahnybok and the ultra-nationalist Svoboda Group he leads?

VC: I have known Tiahnybok from the student demonstrations in 1990. Tiaynybok and his group enjoy about 1 or 2 percent support nationally, mostly from oblasts in western Ukraine. The Svoboda group showed up at a rally in front of Kyiv’s Shevchenkovskiy districts police on June 1, but most of the protesters shunned their picket, accusing them of using the death of a student to attract boost their own popularity.”

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