Google – AFP, Marianne Barriaux and Oleksandr Savochenko (AFP), 15 February 2014
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An
anti-government protester wearing a balaclava and a military helmet stands
behind an anti-riot police shield on the Maidan (Independence square) in Kiev,
on February 15, 2014 (AFP, Martin Bureau)
|
Kiev —
Protesters occupying Kiev city hall said Saturday they stood "ready"
to vacate the premises, in a gesture of goodwill after authorities released all
those detained in the anti-government unrest rocking the country.
The
"headquarters of the revolution" since the protest movement rocking
Ukraine began more than two months ago, the building where 600 to 700
protesters camp out is highly symbolic and the concession comes ahead of a
fresh, mass demonstration due on Sunday.
But in a
strongly worded interview, jailed opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko warned that
nothing short of President Viktor Yanukovych's resignation would satisfy
protesters, up in arms over his decision to ditch an EU pact in favour of
closer ties with Russia.
Speaking to
AFP Saturday, Yuriy Syrotyuk, the number-two of the nationalist Svoboda
(Freedom) party that controls the occupied city hall, said protesters stood
"ready" to evacuate, and could do so "in a few minutes, at most
half-an-hour" if the green light was given.
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An
anti-government protester stands on
a barricade in Kiev, on February 15, 2014
(AFP, Martin Bureau)
|
The
evacuation of the building was one of the conditions set by authorities as part
of an amnesty law that stipulates all detained protesters will be freed -- but
only if some parts of the Ukrainian capital are vacated.
Yanukovych
approved the law at the beginning of February after protests in Kiev turned
deadly, shocking the country and prompting the shaken president to start
negotiating with the opposition.
On Friday,
authorities announced they had freed all 234 detained members of the protest
movement, adding that charges against them would also be dropped if conditions
of the amnesty were met.
Some of
them have been charged with fomenting mass unrest, which carries a sentence of
up to 15 years in jail.
The move --
welcomed by the United States -- appeared to be a concession from the
government in a bid to ease tensions, and Yanukovych himself promptly appealed
to the opposition to yield ground too.
-
Yanukovych must go -
Protesters
stormed city hall, on the main Khreshchatyk avenue in central Kiev, on December
1 following a brutal crackdown on demonstrators the previous night.
It is run
with military precision, housing hundreds of protesters who sleep there to get
out of the biting cold and gather for meetings, English lessons and other
activities.
And while
the opposition has still not unanimously agreed to vacate the building, most
members support the move, Syrotyuk said.
Arseniy
Yatsenyuk, one of the three main opposition leaders, said in a statement that
protesters would remain on Kiev's occupied Independence Square and in other
public buildings, but tellingly made no mention of city hall.
The
opposition has also agreed to vacate "part" of Gruchevsky street,
where the deadly riots took place at the end of January, to allow traffic to
move freely.
But as
protesters geared up for the mass demonstration on Sunday due at 1000 GMT --
the 11th since the unrest began -- Tymoshenko said that Yanukovych must go.
"The
only subject of negotiation with Yanukovych is the conditions of his
departure," the former prime minister who was imprisoned in 2011 said in
an interview with weekly Dzerkalo Tyzhnia.
 |
Map of Kiev
produced on February 9, 2014 shows the location of public
buildings occupied by
protesters and zones of control (AFP/File,
L. Saubadu, J. Jacobsen)
|
In city
hall, Commander Ruslan Andryko of the protest movement said as much, noting
that while they may vacate the building, "the revolution has only just
started."
And on the
square, Marina Nekrasova, who strolled in the sprawling tent city under a low,
grey sky with her young daughter, said she did not know how long the occupation
would continue.
"But
when Yanukovych resigns, we will all have a big party here," she said,
smiling.
Outside the
country, in Berlin, tortured activist Dmytro Bulatov, who sought treatment in
Lithuania before travelling to Germany, pledged to fight to the end.
"I
want to go back to Ukraine," he told reporters, ruling out applying for
asylum. "We will continue to resist and to protest."
For her
part, Tymoshenko accused Yanukovych of having become a puppet of Russian
President Vladimir Putin, saying Ukraine had lost the independence it gained
from the Soviet Union in 1991.
"Our
European friends believe that after long negotiations and loans they can bring
Yanukovych back onto the European road," Tymoshenko said.
"They
will not be able to do that. Because it's not Yanukovych who decides, but
Putin."
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