UKRAINE: RIOT POLICE BEAT MOURNERS AT BURIAL OF THE PATRIARCH OF THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
Record ID:
261903
UKRAINE: RIOT POLICE BEAT MOURNERS AT BURIAL OF THE PATRIARCH OF THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
- Title: UKRAINE: RIOT POLICE BEAT MOURNERS AT BURIAL OF THE PATRIARCH OF THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
- Date: 18th July 1995
- Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (JULY 18, 1995) (REUTERS TELEVISION - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV PEOPLE OUTSIDE CATHEDRAL 0.05 2. CU UKRAINIAN FLAG OUTSIDE CATHEDRAL 0.09 3. WIDE OF INTERIOR CATHEDRAL / FUNERAL SERVICE IN PROGRESS (3 SHOTS) 0.25 4. SV BODY OF DEAD UKRAINIAN PATRIARCH VOLODYMYR IN COFFIN 0.29 5. SV FUNERAL PROCESSION OPPOSITE
- Embargoed: 2nd August 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KIEV, UKRAINE
- City:
- Country: Ukraine
- Reuters ID: LVA3P2W23DBPS42NYOS3H17MERXU
- Story Text: Riot police on Tuesday (July 18) beat mourners at the improvised burial in Kiev of the patriach of the breakaway branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has split from the Russian Orthodox Church.
About 1,000 mourners accompanied by nationalists wearing uniforms scuffled briefly with police on Tuesday before being allowed to gather outside St Sofia Cathedral.
Refused permission by religious authorities to bury Patriarch Volodymyr inside the cathedral, they smashed the pavement outsi its walls and dug an improvised grave.
But as they were heaping dirt on the coffin, Berkut (eagle) riot police charged into the square, firing tear gas and striking worshippers with truncheons.
After the beatings, hundreds of police ringed the square and priests resumed the interrupted funeral service while about 500 worshippers watched.
The director of St Sofia told views any burial in the grounds required government permission and approval from archeologists.
The partiarch's coffin was buried in the makeshift gravesite after negotiations between ministers and senior clergy.
Volodymyr, who spent 19 years in Soviet labour camps, headed the breakaway branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which split from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992 after Ukraine's independence from Soviet rule. He died of a heart attack on Friday Despite backing from Ukraine's post-independence leaders the church has failed to win recognition from the world Orthodox hierachy. Volodymyr's pro-Moscow rivals also retained the allegiance of most of Ukraine's 35 million Orthodox faithful.
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