Protesters March on President's Office (Ukraine)

Moscow Times ^ | November 24, 2004 | Anatoly Medzyk

[kupia_kummi]

KIEV -- Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko declared victory and led a march of hundreds of thousands of his supporters to the president's office Tuesday night in an effort to stage a velvet revolution.

Protesters were meters away from the presidential administration building at 11:15 p.m. Moscow time, and opposition leaders assured riot police that they would not storm the building.

Yushchenko earlier in the day announced a campaign of civil disobedience and warned that the country was on the verge of civil conflict.

More than 150 Ukrainian diplomats posted around the world denounced the way the vote was handled and said they stood by the protesters.

The western regions of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsa followed the lead of their regional capitals and swore their allegiance to Yushchenko. The eastern region of Donetsk countered by swearing allegiance to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, its former governor.

The United States and the European Union stepped up pressure on outgoing President Leonid Kuchma to order a recount or risk making the country a pariah in the West. (Story, Page 3.)

President Vladimir Putin -- who put himself on a collision course with the West on Monday by congratulating Yanukovych, his favored candidate, even though no victor has been declared -- effectively retracted his congratulations.

Parliament convened for an emergency session to discuss the unfolding crisis and consider an opposition request to annul the election results.

"Ukraine is on the threshold of a civil conflict," Yushchenko told the lawmakers. "We have two choices: either the answer will be given by the parliament, or the streets will give an answer."

But after two hours of debates, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn abruptly adjourned the session when Deputy Ihor Yukhnovsky called on Yushchenko to take the presidential oath of office.

[Just mythoughts]

AnoBreaking News: Russian Troops Intervening in Ukraine Elections
Private Email from Election Observer in Ukraine | 11/23/2004 | Bob Schaffer


Posted on 11/23/2004 4:38:52 PM PST by ModelBreaker


From: Bob Schaffer

Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 12:10 PM


Friends: some of you know I am in Ukraine as an election monitor. The presidential election was Sunday. There was rampant cheating and falsification reported throughout the country. I can't go into all details of election. I'm using a blackberry to communicate with lots of USA people, news agencies and Ukrainians. Please check news sources on the Ukrainian election background if you're not familiar. Also, I'll be regularly updating the Denver Post. They're setting their web site to post my updates.


Here's the latest:

Russian special forces dressed in Ukrainian Special forces uniforms are in Kyiv. Ukrainian militia have been instructed by the mayor to protect the people from the Russian troops. Ukrainian militia have established a hotline for Ukrainians to report any incidents with the Russians and pledged to protect Ukrainians. These Russians flew into Ukraine this morning. They're now surrounding the administration buildings they say "to protect Kuchma (the outgoing president and his PM Yanukovich). Following is a chain of email messages I've been sending by blackberry. Please pass along to others. Bob Schaffer

-------


PETER: PLEASE SEE UPDATES BELOW. GETTING QUITE SERIOUS NOW. OUR EMBASSY'S PHONES ARE DOWN AND WE'RE NOT SURE THEY'RE AWARE OF THE NEWS OF RUSSIANS (SEE BELOW). YES, PLEASE SEND INFO TO ANYONE YOU CAN, ESPECIALLY PRESS. BOB

---

Dan: is there anything you can do to alert someone in the Denver media to look at news coming out of Ukraine? I know this isn't our normal "beat," but this seems quite serious here. I'll paste below a message I just sent to a ukrainian group. I've been updating several people by blackerrying them events from the street and from the local news. Bob

---

Yes. I'm safe for now. Demonstrators are reassembling in Kyiv. They're coming back stronger than yesterday coming in from the rest of the country. The authorities are trying to stop them. Cars and busses are being stopped by police at the outskirts of the city. The authorities have scattered road spikes on inbound lanes to stop traffic/protesters. People are walking down the highways to protest. Trains into the city have been stopped.


The parliament is meeting now but without the president's supporters or the Communists. After several speeches, they called Yushchenko to the podium to swear him in as the new president (escorted to the podium with guards). The Rada Speaker Litvin walked out. Then the TV station (only one station covers anything about the election and it only covers 30% of the country) went off then cut to news and footage from earlier in the day. This is similar to the revolution in Georgia.


It seems the opposition has now claimed control of the parliament and most likely named Yushchenko as the president. He walked to the podium with a Bible and a copy of the oath in his hand. 300,000 pro-Yushchenko supporters are in the city square and watched what I described above on a jumbo TV. They're celebrating what they believe is their new president. Provocateurs are infiltrating the crowd. Special forces are said to be moving in to disband the crowd. This is now a clearly declared revolutionary effort. A confrontation seems unavoidable now.


It's very tense here. School has been cancled (again) for tomorrow. I'll report more as I learn it.


Now we hear Yushchenko is headed to the city center to address the masses. His lieutenants will be giving instructions to the people outside the Rada building on "what to do."


Telephones in the outlying towns have been shut off.


Now we hear there are Russians in Ukrainian special forces uniforms.

I'll report more as I learn it. May God bless and protect Ukraine and her people.


A representative of the Greek Catholic Church (a man who appeared to be a priest -- dressed as one) announced at the demonstration that he was speaking on behalf of the Greek Catholic Churchn the Kyiv Patriarchiat and several Protestant denominations (Lutheran was the only specific one I heard but there were several others). He said this coalition of churches recognizes Yushchenko as president.

Yuschenko is now leading 1 million people from the square and surrounding streets to the administration headquarters of the Ukrainian government. He is in front of the column and many fear he is vulnerable to getting shot. They should be at the steps in 15 mins. Keep in mind, this is where the Russian special forces are stationed, dresses in Ukrainian garb.


If violence comes to define this revolution it will likely be within minutes.


The Georgian President (surrounded by Orthodox priests) just appeared on Ukrainian TV congratulating and encouraging the opposition supporters and "President" Victor Yushchenko. He spoke in Ukrainian which is very significant.


The Russian special forces just stopped the crowd approaching the administration headquarters.

Bob

Sent via BlackBerry


ther thread from different source.

[Lion in Winter]

And, the George Soros candidate wins and the Russian favored candidate loses. Actually the citizens of that country lose... either way.

[eluminate]

hmm so far i heard 200 thousand then 500 k now a 1 mil
wow its mushrooming all within 1 article. You forget to mention that most of those people were brought in from western ukraine by bus & car from; Lwov, IvanoFrankovs, Uzhgorod etc...

Yuschenko is a failed prime minister who wanted to nationalize all the industries to keep them useless and rotting. What a reformer during his reighn over 1 thousand industries were closed due to not having foreign investment. After he got kicked out and Yanukovich got put in over 680 plants got privatized and are now working...

Regions of Donetsk, Crimea, Odessa, Lugansk etc... called out for the Yuschenko team to chill out and except the election results or face a rift and they are the begining of about 8-7 regions that will split off if they continue to dispute.
http://www.ukrnow.com/content/view/1971/2/

[Lion in Winter]

Yes, I can see soros has hs supporters right here in the USA too. Soros now has his man in the Ukraine... I am sure glad his man, John Kerry lost in the USA.

I guess soros is now sitting around thinking that he could weasel the Ukrainians but the GOOD folks of the USA saw right through him.

[Leo Carpathian]

Aaah, JB6, ELUMINATE, LION IN THE WINTER are the Kiev Bob's, See BS Dan Rather's of Ukraine?

Yanukovych spent over 1 billion on propaganda in US, hired PR firms to spread the crap here, and looks like above "champions" are doing their job here on all the Ukrainian postings on FR.

Comrades, you are very transparent and wasting your drivel here. Take a hike and go back to Pravda and TASS.

Admin, maybe time to unsubscribe them?

[eluminate]

So if I vote for Bush I m a reneck and If I think Yanukovich won I m a kgb agent all those people who voted for Yanukovich in the east and south are traitors? and should have no political say at all?.... you want a democracy right it works like this the person who gets the most votes not the one who shoutes the loudest wins...

[Braak]

Got a bad feeling about all this...don't know why, I just do.

[SlowBoat407]

I'm not extremely well-versed in this issue, but based on our own recent election I can at least give an opinion.

It's possible, just possible, that neither man is perfect for the job. It's also just possible that one may be much worse than the other. Soros and Putin have their own reasons for backing their boys, and I frankly don't trust either one. What remains, though, is that just because we think one man or the other should be in the office, doesn't mean that's who should have one. That was the 'Rat trap that so many of us were ready to draw iron over less than a month ago. We have no more chance (or right) to influence that election than any outsider had to influence ours. We will, however, more than likely have to deal with what it produces, no matter what the outcome. Based on what little I know, I probably hope it's Yuschenko. I'll probably change my mind when I learn more about him and wish that someone else entirely had been running.

[dr_who_2]

So far, it reminds me of the end of the Marcos regime in the Phillipines. Lots of confusion. Successful voter fraud has to be kind of like a perfect murder, and I think the sitting party botched it.

[GOP_1900AD]

The potential for tragedy in this is apparent.

[eluminate]

you do realize that this is a very very tense situtation with one part of the country voting 90%+ to 3 in favor of one guy and the other part voting in same fashion for another.

[RockAgainsttheLeft04]

Uggg. I have a feeling that it's about to get really ugly in Ukraine (esp. Kiev), and the worst part is that I don't really understand why.

From all the moaning and whining expressed on FR about why Yanukovyck (or whatever) is worse because Putin and Kuchma endorsed him or why Yushchenko is worse because Soros endorsed him, I've never been able to get a clear answer to my simple question:

Do we really have a dog in this fight, and which one is he?
Which one of the candidates is a better choice for America, because he will be the one I support.

Which one (if any) supports the greatest degree of free market capitalism?
Which candidate will provide us with the most support in both the War on Terror and the war in Iraq?

[eluminate]

tough to say dude. Free market wise Yanukovich is a better man for the job because Yuschenko is backed by nationalists who complained about foreign investment. Yanukovich would probably join Russia in the CIS ecconomic zone and abandon the rejected path that Ukraine took thinking EU would let enter. After they got rejected entry into consideration they turned away from Eu. Probably the troops that are now in Iraq will stay put and cooperation between US and Ukraine will depend largely on the US reaction after the fact and weather the critisism will translate into aid cut offs if it does tit for tat will ensue and relations will freeze up forcing Ukraine to look east.

However if Bush & Team get over the elections and realize that if they continue strengthening Ukraine they will have a friendly state it might become better relations. A clean slate is really what it needs post election.