Interior Minister Anatoly Mohylyov has recently spoken a lot about human rights. He even said during a July 9 TV show on Inter channel called “Big Politics” that “in relation to each violation of human rights we will carry out a most rigorous investigation.”
Yet human rights violations by officers at the Interior Ministry itself mainly arise from the top minister’s instructions.
Since 2005, the Interior Ministry has had a Public Council on Human Rights that had been created in 2005 under then-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko. I co-chaired the council.
But since the arrival of the new government and the new minister, members of the council tried for more than three months to hold their next meeting, but to no avail.
The government order that established this council under Lutsenko, No. 1243, has not been canceled.
So, I feel I must fulfill my duties. Having no opportunity to make my recommendations during the council meetings, I am forced to do it publicly.
Checking everyone
As far as troublesome instructions issued at the top of the ministry go, let’s start with Instruction No. 236 dated April 8.
If you are a foreigner in Ukraine, pay special attention, as this order could affect you significantly. It unjustifiably increases the powers of Interior Ministry officials, calling for “constant control over the stay of foreign nationals on service structures, carry out thorough checks of foreign nationals’ documents, give particular attention to whether they have registration cards issued by border guards.”
All these requirements are in gross contradiction with the existing laws. Imposing constant surveillance over a person and checking their documents are specialized procedures that are regulated strictly by law.
They cannot therefore be applied on a massive scale, whether in relation to Ukrainian or foreign nationals.
Freedom of movement
In addition, according to Instruction No. 292 from April 23, railways are to re-introduce tickets containing full names, dates of birth, and the number of a person’s ID. The objective is, supposedly, for the public’s good – to seek out criminals.
Yet the Interior Ministry does not care that it is a blatant violation of the right to privacy and treats all Ukrainians as potential criminals. This system would hamper freedom of movement, which can only be restricted under global social threats – war, terrorist acts, mass riots or natural cataclysms.
None of these are taking place in Ukraine. Instead there is the overt wish by the Interior Ministry to control the movement of citizens in an arbitrary and unhampered fashion in the manner of police states.
Do we really wish to demonstrate the full power of Ukraine’s “police state” to guests arriving for the Euro 2012 soccer championship?
Who needs privacy?
The introduction of mandatory fingerprinting of detainees is another example of systematic and wide-scale violation of privacy rights, which has increased dramatically under Mohylyov.
Interior Minister Anatoly Mohylyov
Under the nation’s law, the procedure should only be carried out against those who are accused of criminal activities or those subject to administrative penalties. Yet it is currently applied widely against certain groups of the population, such as the Roma who are specially detained for that purpose, and then released.
Such actions reinstate old forms of discrimination against the Roma which the Interior Ministry – before Mohylyov took over – had, over recent years, gotten rid of.
Peaceful gatherings
During the first 100 days of new management at the Interior Ministry, regional and national media published more than 350 critical articles regarding how the police handled peaceful gatherings, such as protests. This was more than in 2007-2009 combined.
The nature and scale of these violations leaves no room for doubt that unlawful acts on behalf of the police were conducted with the Interior Minister’s full approval. Illegal actions included: preventing people from taking part in peaceful gatherings and giving preference to one side over another during them; unwarranted interference with peaceful gatherings and detention of their participants; unlawful failure by the police to respond to scuffles between opponents; and excessive use of force against participants in peaceful protests.
Given the current situation, I am forced to state publicly that the Interior Ministry leadership has chosen to implement repressive measures against peaceful assembly, despite the lack of any threat of mass riots or terrorist acts. Instead of cracking down unlawfully, the police should have used these protests as an opportunity to test their skills and tactics on how to use a minimum amount of force to maintain peace and security.
Torture and fudging figures
Reports of torture and other forms of violence by the police, some with a fatal outcome, have recently become more frequent.
From June 11-14 alone, four deaths were reported as a result of police actions. Another victim ended up in emergency care.
In my opinion, this is directly linked to the unprofessional and twisted goal of maximizing the number of people prosecuted, which Mohylyov mentioned during the July 9 TV program.
This self-stated goal is even worse than the assessment of work by the percentage rate of crimes solved, which used to be the case until 2005, and will lead to mass falsification of figures in order to misrepresent achievements and thereby receive bonuses.
Isn’t this where the 30 percent increase in the number of registered crimes during the first six months of 2010 comes from?
It’s pretty safe to assume that this figure will rise at the expense of trivial crimes, while the organizers and those who commit serious crimes – drug traffickers and the leaders of organized criminal gangs – will remain at large.
Pressure will also be widespread for those who are accused of crimes to confess to other ones they had not committed, so that that they can be added to the list and improve reporting. There is no need to mention that presumption of innocence is entirely forgotten in such cases.
The analysis made of the first 100 days under the new Interior Ministry leadership by former human rights advisers in the ministry clearly shows that no less than 60 percent of cases involving removal of weapons, ammunition and explosives are regularly falsified.
And this is done to create the appearance of improvement in police work.
What human rights?
There is no more pretense about observation of human rights as all projects in this sphere have been stopped.
As the former human rights advisers wrote: “The new Interior Ministry leadership, headed by Anatoly Mohylyov, has returned to a model of a police department as a closed and self-sufficient system with its own interests, which are radically divergent from those of the public.
The nature of the ‘reform’ measures over the last several months leaves no room for illusions and clearly demonstrates that the police do not like civic activity, and that they intend to significantly restrict it. We are also forced to note that the public statements from the [ministry] about the need for co-operation with the public have no practical application and remain merely populist slogans.”
The Department for the Monitoring of Human Rights and its 18 employees were dissolved by a ministerial order in March.
During the July 9 television show, the minister also insulted these people. Only an entirely biased person could fail to see the enormous work done by that police department in less than two years, related to human rights.
Hundreds of citizens who complained of unlawful actions by the police received assistance.
They helped to uncover significant cases of police abuse. It was thanks to the former staff that the mobile groups monitoring observance of human rights in the ministry’s detention centers began working systematically, improving conditions in temporary detention centers.
Conclusions
There can be many views about changes the country underwent in the last few years.
There is a clear awareness among Ukrainians that the government should serve the people, and not vice versa. Citizens want the authorities to spend taxpayers’ money to operate a police force that protects human rights, not one that violates it and oppresses citizens.
The police have no right to act without taking the population’s needs into account. It cannot pretend that it doesn’t matter how many people lose their lives or health as the result of unlawful actions by law enforcement.
In view of this, the Interior Ministry leadership should radically change their attitude to cooperation with the public, as well as to human rights, and stop violating them. They should reject statistics that foster violence, and stop imitating their fight against crime.
If they fail in this, they need to be ousted.
Yevhen Zakharov is the chairman of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and co-chairman of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group.
