Who will protect Ukrainian cops?

Ukraine’s militsia [militia, another Soviet hangover, considering that the Rus-sian Federation has formally adopted the notion of police. — Ed.] proves increasingly apt at dispersing peaceful rallies, now and then using regulations tear gas spray cans, but when it comes to an encounter with criminals, they prove lacking professionalism, as evidenced by what happened in Odesa.

Toward the end of last week, three Ukrainian cops were killed and three wounded in a shootout with a team of contract killers while arresting Aslan Dikayev, a national of the Russian Federation whose name was on all points bulletin as a suspected perpetrator of manslaughter. A police officer stopped a car by a road patrol post in the vicinity of Koshary, a village not far from Odesa. Dikayev was at the wheel. He gave the police officer his papers, then got out of the car to open the trunk. It was then that Berkut [Ukrainian equivalent of SWAP. — Ed.] men got active. Their orders were to apprehend Dikayev, but the man hurled a couple of grenades in their direction and started firing his TT handgun while the man in the passenger seat started firing his Kalashnikov. A Berkut man shot and wounded the Kalashnikov-wielding thug, but the third criminal dragged him back into the car, gunned the engine and the car raced away from the scene of the crime.

Says Kostiantyn STOHNII, militia colonel (retired): “This search-and-seizure mission could have been carried out on a higher professional level, but we have a special inquiry commission and it will deliver its findings. The world’s best special operations have been carried out using top-of-the-art equipment. I can only agree with the [Interior] Minister who says our militsia must be upgraded. In that particular case, if we had the right kind of equipment, our mission would have been more effective. As for other reasons, perhaps the factor of quantity should be revised. Perhaps the rank-and-file troops should be transferred elsewhere, leaving behind highly paid, mo-dern-equipped professionals. Low-paid cops will cost this country dearly, considering that Ukraine remains a democracy with a markedly tolerant attitude toward criminals. A couple of years ago I said organized crime wasn’t being combated adequately; that yes, we had to build a democracy, but in a cleverer manner, not by giving the pink slips to Immigration staff, people in charge of passport and migrants traffic control, you name it… Well, we have what we have. In Georgia, the very notion ‘criminal at law’ [i.e., one of the most respected figures in the Soviet/post-Soviet underworld, currently barely recognized, even less so respected. — Ed.] spells criminal prosecution. These criminals are being elbowed out of Russia, but there is Ukraine, their small paradise on earth, all things considered. Name me a country where a car is stopped by a traffic cop who checks the driver’s papers and where the driver gets out of the car without being ordered to do so by the police officer. Those criminals were on APB. They had taken part in hostilities, this was a case not only for the militsia to investigate.

“Aslan Dikayev, as a contract killer, has been on Interpol APB for a number of years. According to www.newsru.ua, he was spotted in Ukraine after two men were shot dead in Baranyntsi, a village in Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia). One of them owned a local restaurant and the other was a cook. Eventually, local police investigators determined the criminals’ whereabouts. The thugs barricaded themselves in a hotel in Odesa. In the course of a large-scale police operation two of the criminals were killed. The third one, 34-year-old Andrii Shematenko, resident of Simferopol, escaped. He is on APB, of course.”

These tragic events in Odesa are unprecedented for several reasons. First, after Aslan Dikayev’s arrest bungled, Minister Mohyliov told journalists: “Why did this operation take so long? Because we had to get the means we needed from other regions.” A statement like this one, made by the Minister of the Interior, would make headlines across the world. Also, the CSI experts and former cops were outraged by the use of grenade launchers and armored personnel carriers in a public place, in the course of a police operation aimed at apprehending several terrorists, or killing them if need be.

Says Vladimir BATCHAIEV, head of the Cherkasy-based regional office of the Ukrainian Human Rights Law Enforcement Monitoring Association: “This operation makes one wonder. To begin with, was it really necessary to make public the fact that the lady who owned the hotel told the police about the criminals? Perhaps because the Ministry of the Interior rules out the possibility of revenge, but I know that there is no witness protection program in Ukraine. Second, the police were supposed to locate and apprehend the criminals, but in the end it was a full-scale military operation using machineguns, grenade launchers and armored personnel carriers in a public place. Such shootouts always threaten innocent lives. Under the law, the Ukrainian militsia mustn’t act that way because the main task of the Ukrainian police is to operate with minimum risks to onlookers, with minimum accidental casualties. As a rule, the suspects are tailed until they are out of the suburbs, then spetsnaz men take care of them. This, of course, takes time and joint planning on the part of all law enforcement agencies and secret police.”

Time will show whether those currently in power in Ukraine have learned this lesson. What is clearly apparent now is that the Ukrainian militsia police force needs reforms. Proof of this is found in a poll carried out by the TNS Laboratory for Legislative Initiatives this spring, when the respondents were asked how much they trusted the current administration; 17.4 percent said they didn’t trust the courts of law, believing all judges were corrupt. Thus, the residents of Semypolky, a village in Brovary raion, Kyiv oblast, who recently staged a rally in defense of their fellow villager, Vitalii Zaporozhets, the suspected murderer of militsia Colonel Mykola Symonenko, insist that the alleged victim was to blame. They passed the hat around to pay Zaporozhets’s defense counsel and forwarded support letters to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior of Ukraine. During the rally in front of the regional police precinct, their slogans read: “Militsia Brutality Must End!” and “Vitalii Zaporozhets Is Our Hero!”

Needless to say, there are fair-playing and hard-working officers on the Ukrainian police forces, yet the overall view remains disheartening. Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies emerge as a tool being used by those “upstairs” in their power play, or to suppress absolutely lawful rallies of protest. There are, of course, other problems addressing Ukraine’s militsia that serve to aggravate the situation — I mean the increasing crime rate, bad cops, unlawful keeping of citizens at SIZO pretrial detention facilities, acts of violence against inmates to make them give the “right kind” of testimony, and so on. What happened in Odesa is graphic proof of this problem remaining unsolved, displaying all the glaring shortcomings of the current system. What we have is constant hot air sessions and talk about reforms. All this serves to deadlock this issue.

Although the three Ukrainian cops killed in the line of duty were given the inspector’s funeral, attended by the Minister of the Interior and a number of ranking bureaucrats, the sad fact remains: human life costs very little in Ukraine; it is like small change. This is one of the key factors that distance this country from the civilized world; that prevents Ukraine from becoming another European country, leaving it on the post-Soviet garbage heap.

SINGLE-DIRECTION TREND

Vitalii BIVALKEVYCH, head of Zhytomyr branch, Lawyers Association of Ukraine:

“The crime rate is on an upward curve, including grave cri-minal offences, and this is a single-direction trend. What happened in Odesa recently is one of many examples. There have been other shootouts, yet this particular case has made headlines, considering that few such cases are made public knowledge by the regional directorates of the Ministry of the Interior.

“I believe that at least ten articles should be deleted from the Criminal Code of Ukraine, simply because they remain ineffective. Under the Soviets, this code was smaller in size but all its clauses were implemented. The current Criminal Procedure Code doesn’t provide full protection of the person. Defense counsel appears to be the only one capable of protecting the suspect/defendant. This never happened previously. They offer me defense contracts, but the investigating officer may take a dim view of my quicker and more efficient performance, and he can order me off the case, leaving my client without professional defense.”

UKRAINIANS MUST LEARN TO DEFEND THEMSELVES

Lidia TOPOLEVSKA, head of SIM Legal and Political Study Center, Lviv:

“We have the well-formulated Law ‘On the Militia.’ Article 5, entitled ‘Militia Activities and Civil Rights,’ makes it perfectly clear what our police must do, let alone the Constitution whereby every citizen is an individual (whose rights and freedoms must be duly protected).

“What’s happening in Ukraine? The law says that the next of kin must be immediately informed about the arrestee, but in actuality these relatives may receive the information 24 hours la-ter, at best, or remain uninformed, or they can be informed only when it is necessary to pass the hat around, being told the case will be closed if they pay.

“There is even an algorithm that says what one ought to do to avoid confrontation with the police. For example, one shouldn’t take a walk in the evening alone. In other words, we teach people not to have any contact with the militsia because any such contact may lead to unwelcome consequences.

“Besides, a Ukrainian cop may or may not identify himself, may or may not show his badge. There are frequent cases when people are summoned to precincts by phone calls. In other words, our law enforcement agencies often use such techniques to place one in a situation where one has to defend oneself. In short, my answer to the question whether the Ukrainian mi-litsia defend Ukrainians is in the negative. The situation has got so, Ukrainians must learn to defend themselves against police brutality.”