This film was shot by the Rule of Law Foundation TV studio

   
    , covering events in the field of human rights in Ukraine in 1994 – 1995. The film was made within the framework of the Annual Human Rights Video Report project, supported by the International Renaissance Foundation.
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    Interview
    Vladimir Javorsky
    Ukrainian Helsinki human rights Union
    This was an extremely difficult year for legal experts and human rights organizations. On one hand we are growing and developing, setting greater challenges for ourselves. On the other hand the elections exacerbated social and legal problems to such an extent that we were overwhelmed by the flood of violations and complaints. Incidentally, the rigged elections finally exhausted people’s patience, which had a positive result – society cleaned itself up, it became more free…
    
    Volodymyr Chemeris
    NGO "Institute republic"
    regarding the right to peaceful assembly, which is what we’re concerned with, violations during the election campaign were notably fewer than during the period leading up to it, from Spring 2001 to spring 2004. In that period there were many illegal and aggressive police actions against participants of peaceful meetings. You remember the Ukraine against Kuchma movement and the later marches of students from Sumy. The students’ statement in Sumy, in my opinion, was a general signal of the start of the revolution. The students, whose action had been banned and prosecuted by the authorities, nevertheless asserted their rights. During the actual election campaign, the main incident of violation of the right to peaceful assembly was undoubtedly the break-up of a peaceful demonstration of Yushchenko supporters near the central election committee. That was where the only blood of the revolution was spilt.
    
    Vladimir Javorsky
    Election violations were very varied, from administrative pressure on citizens, employees, the press, businesses, candidates’ election staff and members of election Committees, to much more serious violations – illegal searches without warrants, arrests of political activists, ‘temniky’ or illegal press censorship and so on. Criminal cases were opened and family members investigated. The authorities instigated mass repression and pressure on supporters of opposition candidates. All state and law enforcement mechanisms were used: tax police, Public Prosecutor’s office, police, even customs. All this was built into a complicated system with only one purpose…
    
    Olexiy Tarasov
    The Chernigov public committee of protection of human rights
    The goal was to bring to state power the candidate from the state, Yanukovich. I’ll also tell you about the methods the state used in these elections. I and my organisation were witness to these methods, many of which we documented. I can say that violations in the first two rounds were numerous and flagrant. For example, there are many witnesses to the participation of local government representatives in state campaigning for the pro-government candidate. This also applies to municipal and government institutions, schools, hospitals. Staff of these institutions, in particular directors, gathered their subordinates and clients and told them: «Look, what you’ve got now is thanks to the existing authorities and their candidate. And if you don’t vote for him you’ll have nothing, no medications, no treatment, you’ll die».
    I was personally witness to how representatives of the regional administration and other state bodies collected together village communities and inhabitants of small towns and told them to vote for the government candidate – they even threatened them publicly. Human rights organisations opposed such occurrences and documented them on film. Now you’ll see on film the moment when one and the same person votes in a third polling station in Crimea… We filmed many such incidents. Here for example, this incident was filmed in Sumy region…
    
    
    Employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Sumy region (masked):
    I, an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Sumy region, would like to say the following. On the night of voting, November 21st 2004, a group of armed bandits arrived in an electoral district in Belopolskogo area, Sumy region. They smashed up the polling station and injured a policeman. With the help of the locals one of these bandits was detained. He admitted that he had been brought there on a bus from Donetsk region in order to smash up that exact polling station, and had been promised payment of 500 hryvnas. Afterwards this bandit was taken to Sumy where he was released without questioning by lieutenant Bessalov, deputy head of the ministry of internal affairs of the region. Isn’t that disgraceful?
    
    Lyudmila Alekseeva Moscow Helsinki group (Russia)
    The events of 1994 in Georgia, Abkhazia and Ukraine show that the citizens of these countries took to the streets because their most intrinsic right had been violated; the right to free elections. The national temperaments of these countries are very different, but in each one falsified election results marked the point when national patience finally ran out.
    
    
    Orthodox Priest
    We are in Troitsky cathedral in the city of Sumy. On the eve of the second round of elections the diocesan clergy were gathered by orthodox bishop Iov and at each entrance leaflets were handed out containing the following: this is a campaign leaflet for Victor Yanukovich, and it opposes Victor Yushchenko. Together with the head of the cathedral we took these leaflets with only one purpose – to make sure the lies written there were not distributed further. We did not distribute these leaflets, and did not suggest it to other believers. I as a priest categorically do not support the hierarchy of our Ukrainian Orthodox Church and patriarch Vladimir and those clergy who have made the church a training ground for political ambitions. It is unacceptable; our sole task is praying to god.
    
    Igor Kaminnik: NGO "Road home"
    The authorities are interested in homeless people only during elections. Because then their votes are needed. Between election no one cares about the homeless except some social organisations. There are about 2 million homeless in the country and the state makes no effort whatsoever to take care of them. In general the issue of violation of rights of homeless people has been raised only in the eleventh year of Ukrainian independence, when international donor organisations began to provide funds for solutions to this problem.
    
    
    
    Eugenie Zaharov
    Kharkov city right protective group
    Sometimes citizens in society have worse lives than homeless people. Especially if they get into a situation when they are arrested on false charges and the police use force to beat a confession out of them of crimes they didn’t commit. But this is already an appalling Ukrainian tradition – first of all find any one at all, and then afterwards prove their guilt. There are an awful lot of cases when those who hold out are tortured. The system developed in soviet times, when reporting on crimes was the main criteria for police efficiency. In Ukrainian legislation torture is a grave criminal offence. But these methods are deeply ingrained because they simplify police work and create favourable conditions for corruption. Among modern torture methods are oxygen deprivation, torture with electric currents, beatings…
    
    Nechiporuk
    Police officers took me to a room and pushed a metal crow-bar between my legs, put handcuffs on me, then they connected the crow-bar to a current and begin to turn on the electricity. A policeman called Rybalko started demanding that I confess to murder. Of course I denied it, because at the time of the murder I was at home with my wife. But I could not bear the pain any more… I was forced to confess… The torture lasted all night. They stopped torturing me only in the morning and only because other people started to arrive at work at the police department. But I swear I did not commit this crime, I did not know these people, and I did not know where they live …
    That’s why the court acquitted me, and threw out the charges… In fact the whole case was fabricated…
    
    O. Tarasov
    Our government is hardly ever interested in the lives of ordinary people. People have to take care of themselves, they have to stand up for their rights. Society should be able to put pressure on the state regarding all problems and all violations of human rights. Each incidence of rights violation should be covered by the press. Social organisations find strength in unity. Only thus can the state be made to understand that rule of law and human rights are not just empty words.
    
    
    Lydia Gusina – Rule of law foundation:
    Meanwhile, we are only on the threshold of the road to democracy, and the road is thorny and long. Our society and state are such a motley of ideas and concepts of state-building, it’s impossible to guess where we are going... Are we building a liberal European society or destroying even that which we had earlier?... And our legislation is not developing... You want examples? … please - we know all about telephone tapping. How many people have suffered from unauthorized access to their conversations. It is one of the key infringements of human rights and a trademark of 1994. Nevertheless the law «On interception of telecommunications’ which has been repeatedly discussed publicly remains only a legal project and no one knows when it will be considered in parliament...
    
    Igor Dadjura Ukrainian Internet - society
    Today there’s no legislation regulating the process of communication tapping, but state structures widely use wire-tapping. They collect information from all sources: telephone, internet, correspondence and so on… No user ever knows if he is being listened to. In this way, along with criminals, its easy to monitor conversations of politicians, social activists and organisations investigating political affairs. All this was in 1994 and earlier. You remember all those recordings that were actually illegal but played a vital role in Ukrainian politics. If the law on sanctioned access to communications channels is passed, then a person can go to court in cases of illegal special forces activity. Or take complaints to the ombudsman.
    
    Stefan Uritu Helsinki committee of Moldova
    We post-soviet states share analogous problems. As in Moldova, so in Ukraine prisoners’ rights are violated. Especially those people who end up in pre-trial detention. They can sit there for years… We must do all we can to ensure that a criminal sentence does not turn into torture – in short, that what happens today in the penitentiary system does not happen.
    
    
    Evgenie Zaharov
    To sum up, 2004 was a very positive year for human rights organisations. I can draw this conclusion from the events of the election campaign. Human rights organisations working together managed to halt the wave of state repression of those political activists who opposed kuchmism. Not a single criminal case failed to come to court, not a single case failed to be realised, they were all closed. That was thanks to the co-ordinated work of legal experts who opposed the campaign with their professionalism, efficiency and precision. Hopefully next year we’ll work even better, and the status of human rights in Ukraine will improve.
    
    END
    

Publication of 11 7, 2005.