- Title: UKRAINE-CRISIS/MAIDAN FILE Ukraine marks first anniversary of Maidan massacre
- Date: 18th February 2015
- Summary: VARIOUS OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF PROTESTERS PERISHED ON MAIDAN AND CANDLES
- Embargoed: 5th March 2015 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Ukraine
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVALVLP28CCADIVWY3FTDBXPHMF
- Story Text: Ukraine marks the first anniversary of tragic events in central Kiev, when over a hundred protesters were shot dead during the Maidan uprising that toppled then president, Viktor Yanukovich. The victims are now known as "the Heavenly Hundred." For millions of Ukrainians, killing of protesters was a crime against humanity.
Independence Square or Maidan was the rallying point in Kiev where the anti-Yanukovich revolution largely unfolded between November and February. The killings there quickly were recognised as a milestone in modern Ukrainian history, part of a chain of events that set off a separatist conflict and Russian incursions that have shaken the country to its core.
February 20 was the bloodiest day of the Maidan uprising. Over 50 protesters and 3 police officers were shot and killed. A day later, opposition leaders signed a European Union-mediated peace pact.
The public demanded answers and justice. But the investigations are testing Ukraine's ability to rise above the kinds of failings that have hobbled the country ever since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Kiev has had two revolutions since independence. A host of endemic problems - political corruption, racketeering, a divide between speakers of Ukrainian and Russian - have left it feeble and fractious. Another of the state's chief failings, outside observers say, is a broken justice system. Under Yanukovich and his rivals before him, courts and cops were political instruments. Yulia Tymoshenko, runner-up to Yanukovich in the 2010 presidential election, was jailed in a case widely criticised as political.
Public pressure mounted to prosecute the perpetrators. Within a week, Yanukovich, by then a fugitive, was indicted for the mass murder of protesters. An interim government disbanded the Berkut, a force of several thousand whose name means "golden eagle."
In April 2014, prosecutors arrested three suspects, members of an elite unit within the Berkut riot police. Senior among them was Dmytro Sadovnyk, 38, a decorated commander, who was accused of ordering his men to fire on the crowds on the morning of Feb. 20. The three stand accused of massacring 39 unarmed protesters. On Sept. 19, the case took a turn when a judge released Sadovnyk into house arrest - and, two weeks later, he went missing.
Another gap in the prosecution: to date, no one has been apprehended in the shooting of policemen. According to Ukraine's Ministry of Interior Affairs, between Feb. 18 and 20, 189 police officers suffered gunshot wounds. Thirteen died.
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has signed a decree last year to award the title of the Hero of Ukraine to the members of the Heavenly Hundred. He also stressed the importance of properly investigating the deaths of people on Maidan and punishing the guilty ones. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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