Moscow Times:
Protesters March on President's Office
By Anatoly Medetsky
Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 24, 2004. Page 1.
KIEV -- Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko declared victory and led a march of hundreds of thousands of his supporters to the president's office Tuesday night in an effort to stage a velvet revolution.
Protesters were meters away from the presidential administration building at 11:15 p.m. Moscow time, and opposition leaders assured riot police that they would not storm the building.
Yushchenko earlier in the day announced a campaign of civil disobedience and warned that the country was on the verge of civil conflict.
More than 150 Ukrainian diplomats posted around the world denounced the way the vote was handled and said they stood by the protesters.
The western regions of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsa followed the lead of their regional capitals and swore their allegiance to Yushchenko. The eastern region of Donetsk countered by swearing allegiance to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, its former governor.
The United States and the European Union stepped up pressure on outgoing President Leonid Kuchma to order a recount or risk making the country a pariah in the West. (Story, Page 3.)
President Vladimir Putin -- who put himself on a collision course with the West on Monday by congratulating Yanukovych, his favored candidate, even though no victor has been declared -- effectively retracted his congratulations.
Parliament convened for an emergency session to discuss the unfolding crisis and consider an opposition request to annul the election results.
"Ukraine is on the threshold of a civil conflict," Yushchenko told the lawmakers. "We have two choices: either the answer will be given by the parliament, or the streets will give an answer."
But after two hours of debates, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn abruptly adjourned the session when Deputy Ihor Yukhnovsky called on Yushchenko to take the presidential oath of office.
Yushchenko read the oath with a hand on a 300-year-old Bible as lawmakers chanted "Bravo, Mr. President!" Under the Ukrainian Constitution, however, the president has to pledge allegiance on a copy of the Constitution.
Official election results give Yanukovych an insurmountable lead of 49.39 percent to Yushchenko's 46.71 percent, with more than 99.48 percent of precincts counted. Exit polls, however, showed Yushchenko with a significant lead.
About 200,000 protesters rallied in the park and streets around the parliament throughout the day, waving yellow-and-blue national flags and orange Yushchenko campaign banners. Many blew plastic horns.
"You are the heroes of Ukraine," Yushchenko told the crowd. "I believe that our deeds will lead us to political success." He called for a campaign of civil disobedience but cautioned that all protests must be peaceful and law-abiding.
A member of his campaign team urged protesters to be friendly. "Smile at Kiev residents, the police and guests because we have won," he said. "The Ukrainian presidential administration and all of Ukraine will be ours."
People marched in a 3-kilometer column through central Kiev, blocking much of the traffic on the main streets. The marchers chanted "Yushchenko!" and "Down with the convict!" -- a reference to Yanukovych's convictions for robbery and battery in the late 1960s.
Shopkeepers and construction workers along the street waved encouragingly at the marchers, and many residents flew orange flags from their balconies. The few cars that managed to get onto the street tooted their horns in support.
The marchers passed by the Central Elections Commission, but pop music from loudspeakers on top of the building muffled their chanting.
Scores of police officers surrounded the building, but the police were a rare sight elsewhere in the city. A traffic police officer near the building said military units had been deployed outside Kiev. His claim could not be verified.
Some protesters blamed Putin for the scandalous vote. "This wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for Putin," said a woman protester, nodding at the huge rally.
The Kremlin made clear its support for Yanukovych ahead of the vote, sending its best spin-doctors to work on his campaign, and Putin paid two visits to Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Portugal, Putin said Russia will not "recognize or reject the Ukrainian election results until they are officially made public," Interfax reported.
Putin also criticized the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which helped monitor the election and said it found extensive indications of voting fraud. He said the OSCE monitors needed to work "more carefully and thoroughly."
Putin called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis. "Ukraine is a large European state with a developed legal system. You don't have to teach it, it can teach itself."
The group of 150 Ukrainian diplomats released a statement backing the protesters.
"We cannot remain silent and observe a situation that could call into doubt Ukraine's democratic development and destroy the efforts of many years to return our country to Europe," said the statement issued in the name of diplomatic service officials, Reuters reported.
"A nation should be headed by a leader who enjoys the real trust of the Ukrainian people and whose personal moral authority will be decisive in strengthening Ukraine's authority," it said.
Earlier in the day, about 20 mid-ranking diplomats based in the United States, Israel, Germany, Austria and Malaysia signed a statement saying: "The people of Ukraine, represented by a small portion freezing in Kiev's Independence Square, deserve a different government than the one currently asserting itself."
Although parliament was dismissed early, it would not have been able to pass a no-confidence vote on the election after only 191 lawmakers -- less than the 226 required to have a quorum -- showed up. While such a vote would have carried political significance, it would have been nonbinding because under the law a no-confidence vote must be initiated by the president. Kuchma staunchly supports Yanukovych.
Yanukovych made no public comments Tuesday, but independent Channel 5 television reported that he was preparing to declare himself president.
One television station, Novy Kanal, went off the air, while others allowed broadcasters to wear orange armbands during news programming, Bloomberg reported. It was unclear why Novy Kanal went black. The OSCE said after the first-round presidential vote on Oct. 31 that its programming was pro-Yanukovych.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, about 100,000 people marched through the streets of Lviv, Yushchenko's western stronghold.
In Kiev, many protesters said they had been on the streets since the election Sunday and had no intention of leaving any time soon.
"I have slept for just 10 of the 72 hours, but I am full of energy, enthusiasm and vigor," said Vitaly Rogatyuk, a 23-year-old reporter from Svitlovodsk.
He said he was ready to use force to bring Yushchenko to power.
Others, however, were more reserved as to how far they would go. "I don't feel like going to war," said Serhiy Sokurenko, 23, a radio technology student. "If there is a victory, it should only be peaceful."
Channel 5 and other media are reporting that bloodshed could occur in the city in the near future as the mass of opposition protesters - which Post reporters downtown have estimated at almost a million - meet the militiamen and "tourists" mobilized by the government.
Sources report that Kyiv's Borispyl airport has played host to a continuous stream of air troop convoys from Ukraine's east, in particular Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk. Both city's are part of the core of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's support.
Sources report that a column of about 20 to 30 trucks are moving along Solomenska toward the city center; and that along Krasnozvezdnaya a "huge column of cars full of soldiers" are moving toward the bus terminal.
Hundreds of buses full of unknown people who refused to engage in dialogue with journalists and explain the reason for their coming to Kyiv have appeared in the capital over the last several days.
As the mass media has reported, they are probably supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych whom the government is bussing in from the country's eastern regions. Kyiv is also full of hundreds of militiamen and special forces.
Sources are also reporting that many soldiers from Ukraine's regions are being relocated to Kyiv. Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk denies these charges.
In particular, sources in the city of Alexandry reported to us today that a helicopter regiment has been dispatched to the capital.
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