Daniel Sandford in Kiev: ''Nobody knows how long [the truce] will hold''
Ukrainian
opposition leaders are due to meet President Viktor Yanukovych, a day
after the first deaths in protests that have gripped Kiev for two
months.
A fragile truce is being observed but opposition leader
Vitali Klitschko said he would lead pro-EU protesters "on the attack" if
elections were not called.Mr Yanukovych has asked the speaker of parliament to hold an emergency session next week to discuss the crisis.
Two activists were killed in clashes with police in Kiev on Wednesday.
Prosecutors confirmed they had died from gunshot wounds. They were the first fatalities since the anti-government protests flared up in late November over Mr Yanukovych's decision to pull out of a landmark treaty with the EU.
Continue reading the main story
He was eventually taken to hospital. His face and body are covered in cuts and bruises. He has a deep gash across his forehead covered in green medical fluid. His arm is broken and bandaged. He told me that when he looked into the officers' eyes he "could see they were enjoying it".
The police have accused him of firing fireworks at them - something he denies. A Ukrainian MP is going to raise these allegations of torture with the police and government on Thursday.
Torture allegations
The allegations made by a 17-year-old student, Mikhail Nizkoguz, are extremely serious. He says he was tortured for hours. He claims riot police arrested him and beat him with batons; that he was forced to strip naked in the freezing cold and sing the national anthem; that they then cut him with knives.He was eventually taken to hospital. His face and body are covered in cuts and bruises. He has a deep gash across his forehead covered in green medical fluid. His arm is broken and bandaged. He told me that when he looked into the officers' eyes he "could see they were enjoying it".
The police have accused him of firing fireworks at them - something he denies. A Ukrainian MP is going to raise these allegations of torture with the police and government on Thursday.
A third activist, Yuriy
Verbytsky, has been found dead in a forest outside Kiev, after
reportedly being abducted along with fellow activist Ihor Lutsenko
earlier this week. His body is said to bear signs of torture.
The centre of the capital remains extremely tense, the BBC's Daniel Sandford reports.Ukrainian media now say that protesters have taken over the regional state administration buildings in the western cities of Lviv and Rivne, and that the governor of the Lviv region, Oleg Salo, has been forced to resign.
Other unconfirmed reports spoke of attacks on the governor's offices in Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskiy and Ivano-Frankivsk.
Dead men named President Yanukovych has assured the head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, he will not introduce a state of emergency. The two had spoken by phone, the Commission said on Thursday.
But Mr Yanukovych said he had asked the speaker of Ukraine's parliament to hold an emergency session next week.
The speaker said the session would discuss opposition calls for the government to step down and recently-passed anti-protest laws.
Before heading to his talks with Mr Yanukovych, Mr Klitschko urged both the protesters and police to refrain from any further use of force until he reported back on Thursday evening.
0 comments:
Post a Comment