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World Jewish News
One of those harmed during the attack on the Indepence Square rally
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CNCU and Vaad of Ukraine Address on November 30 Violent Breakup of Independence Square Rally
30.11.2013 Congress of National Communities of Ukraine (CNCU) and the Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations (Vaad) of Ukraine Address on November 30 Violent Breakup of Independence Square Rally
For the first time since Ukraine gained its independence, we, the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine (CNCU) and the Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations (Vaad) of Ukraine, are forced to turn to European structures and the global community for support, as we see a real possibility that Ukraine may be turning back towards totalitarian Soviet times.
Before dawn on November 30, 2013, a peaceful rally in support of the association with the European Union had been violently broken up. Dozens of unarmed and unresisting youths were beaten with truncheons, bodily harmed, some - seriously injured; approximately 30 were arrested. Earlier, journalists and policemen were beaten in Marininsky park by government-hired thugs, the so-called “titushky.”
Currently, on the morning of November 30, the Ukrainian Special Forces “Berkut” (“Golden Eagle”) have surrounded St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, where the peaceful protesters, exhausted both physically and mentally, are hiding. The monks of St. Michael's saved the protesters from the special forces’ truncheons.
Civil society cannot see these barbaric events as the promised “building of Europe in Ukraine.”
We condemn this bloody crackdown on a peaceful demonstration and the violence towards the protesters at Independence Square. We demand that the cruel actions of law enforcement officials, acting at the behest of the government, be condemned. We demand support for the right of Ukrainian society to freely express its views on the fate of its country.
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