NTN, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1900 12 Mar 08/BBC Monitoring/(c) BBC

Text of report by private Ukrainian television NTN on 12 March

[Presenter] Four parties have held an anti-separatist rally outside the regional council in Transcarpathia today, and tents were pitched there. Some 300 protesters are demanding the cancellation of the regional council's resolution which recognized the Rusyns as a nationality and are protesting against a Hungarian monument that was erected at Veretskyy mountain pass.

[Correspondent] Transcarpathian councillors had to enter the regional council building accompanied by shouts of "shame!" They got this sort of treatment for recognizing the Rusyns as a nationality last year. The protesters argue that their decision led to separatist sentiment in Transcarpathia.

[Andriy Sheketa, captioned as participant in the rally] Demands made by Father Sydir [apparently a local priest] in Moscow to the effect that a separate self-governed territory be created under international control in Transcarpathia Region are probably the first result of this decision by the regional council.

[Yevhen Zhupan, captioned as head of the people's council of the Transcarpathia Rusyns] There have been individual statements made by individuals, it's their right. Our Ukraine is a democratic country. I believe that the Rusyns are recognized across the world. They are represented in the Federal Union of European Nationalities. The UN recognized the Rusyns.

[Correspondent] The protesters' second demand is that the construction of a monument to Hungarian statehood at Veretskyy mountain pass be stopped. In the late 19th century, the Hungarians already erected a monument marking the centenary of their fatherland.

[Oleh Kutsyn, captioned as head of the Transcarpathia branch of the party (apparently, right-wing Freedom association)] Why now? Why at the exact spot where Sich Fighters [Ukraine's pro-independence military units in the early 20th century] were executed? Why haven't our authorities got round to exhuming their remains or finding their graves in the 16 years since independence?

[Correspondent] The Hungarians call protests against the monument chauvinism and say the monument will be ready by this summer.

[Mykola Kovach, captioned as head of the Association of Hungarian Culture] Ukraine's legislation clearly mentions ethnic minorities' right to erect monuments honouring significant events in their national history.

[Correspondent] The protest outside the regional council is open-ended.

[Video shows protesters shouting "Shame! Shame!", holding posters "No to foreign provocateurs! (Regional governor Oleh) Havashi, out! Freedom association", "Get Hungarian imperialism out of Ukraine. Freedom association", "No to separatism in Ukraine! Freedom association". Among the organizers of the rally are such right-leaning groups the Freedom all-Ukrainian association, Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian National Self-Defence, the Stepan Bandera Trident and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Ukrainian news agency UNIAN said at 1202 gmt on 12 March.]

Credit: NTN, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1900 12 Mar 08

Return to the 2008 News Archive index