Google – AFP, 25 November 2013
Kiev —
Jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said on Monday she would
begin a hunger strike over a government decision to scrap a key EU pact that
sparked huge protests.
Her
announcement came as President Viktor Yanukovych pleaded for calm after a
second day of nationwide demonstrations over the move.
"I am
announcing an indefinite hunger strike demanding that (President Viktor)
Yanukovych sign an association and free trade agreement with the EU,"
former prime minister Tymoshenko was quoted by her party Batkivschyna as
saying.
"And
if Yanukovych does not sign our agreement with the EU on November 29, wipe him
off the face of Ukraine through peaceful and constitutional means together with
his political and corruption metastases. Don't stop! Go on and never look
back," said the fiery co-leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution.
Breaking
his silence for the first time since announcing the shock decision to put the
EU talks on ice on Thursday, Yanukovych appealed for peace after police fired
tear gas on pro-Europe protesters in central Kiev.
"I
want peace and calm in our big Ukrainian family," Yanukovych said in a
video statement posted on his official website.
Protesters
are angry at Ukraine's failure to sign a key pact seen as a first step toward
EU membership that would have marked a historic break from the Kremlin by the
ex-Soviet state.
The
decision came after the parliament failed to adopt legislation that would have
freed jailed Tymoshenko, a key EU condition for the signing of the cooperation
accord.
Pledging to
continue reforms, Yanukovych said he would not act "to the detriment of Ukraine
and its people".
"No
one will rob us of a dream about a Ukraine of equal opportunities, about a
European Ukraine," he said shortly before Tymoshenko announced her threat
of an indefinite hunger strike.
Yanukovych
said that by postponing the country's EU integration plans, he was shielding
many vulnerable Ukrainians from economic hardship.
"Just
like a father cannot leave his family without bread, I do not have the right to
leave people to the mercy of fate with the problems which may arise... if production
comes to a halt (and) millions of citizens will be thrown out into the
streets," he said.
"That
is why I have to resort to difficult decisions."
On Sunday,
tens of thousands protested in central Kiev in the biggest demonstration since
the 2004 Orange Revolution overturned a rigged ballot and forced new elections.
Another
20,000 returned to the streets of Kiev Monday evening, an AFP correspondent
saw.
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