Ukrainian Opposition protesters ended a two-month occupation of city hall in Kiev yesterday and opened a road to limited traffic, meeting an amnesty offer aimed at easing a stand-off over President Viktor Yanukovych’s rule.
The authorities, for their part, withdrew riot police from a flashpoint district of the capital, near the Dynamo Kiev football stadium, where at least three protesters died in January in violence between ultra-radical activists and police.
Apparently accepting that the protesters had met the authorities half-way, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the amnesty would come into force from today.
Criminal charges would be dropped against those protesters for violations committed between December 27 and February 2, it said – a period that includes a week of clashes in which six people were killed and hundreds of police and protesters injured.
Despite the conciliatory moves, Opposition leaders sought to keep up pressure on Yanukovych, telling a rally in Kiev’s Independence Square that he must abandon “dictatorial” powers and let them form a government independent of him.
Tomorrow, Yanukovych may present his candidate for prime minister to Parliament – a choice that will show whether he is ready to make more concessions to the opposition after 12 weeks of often ugly street confrontation.
Opposition leaders made clear yesterday they would also push in Parliament for constitutional changes to reduce Yanukovych’s powers.
The unrest was sparked by Yanukovych in November when he spurned a free trade agreement long in the making with the European Union and opted for a $15 billion package of Russian credits and cheaper gas to shore up Ukraine’s ailing economy.
The revolt spiralled into countrywide protests at perceived sleaze and corruption in the Yanukovych administration, and has triggered a geopolitical tussle between East and West.
As Russia beckons with the aid package, the United States and its Western allies have urged Yanukovych to move back towards an IMF-backed deal with Europe.
As yesterday’s peaceful rally unfolded on Independence Square, attracting several thousand, young club-wielding masked men from the radical fringe of the protest movement were on patrol,looking for government agents known locally as “titushki”.
A group of about 40 young men, wearing black balaclavas and carrying shields that announced they were from the 14th “self-defence” unit, marched through crowds gathered near the Dynamo Kiev football stadium, a frontline in the unrest.
All the same, tensions in the area abated, with riot police leaving the streets and protesters opening a passage for limited traffic to pass barricades and reach government headquarters and parliament.
Western governments have expressed fears of an escalation of conflict and breakdown of law and order unless Yanukovych meets Opposition demands.