New interior ministry employees report being followed and pressured by 'old' police system
Members of the Myrotvorets (Peacekeeper) Battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, many of whom were civil activists before the Revolution of Dignity and joined volunteer battalions going to the front in Donbas, say several officers at the interior ministry have "it in for them."
Myrotvorets member Serhiy Bondar during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday said several members of the old police force who passed re-evaluation and joined the National Police of Ukraine have been following them since December 2014, except during the periods they were deployed in the anti-terrorist operation zone in eastern Ukraine.
"This was repeated many times by the prosecution in the [murder case involving Ukrainian journalist, blogger Oles] Buzyna [who was murdered in Kyiv on April 16, 2015]. As soon as fighting on the front died down and the guys began returning, we were again followed," Bondar said.
According to him, a group of former police department chiefs incorporated into the new police force is behind the surveillance.
"Today people who have taken active part in the social life of the country, and then for a long period of time were on the front, are not only deprived of their rights and opportunities to legally become members of the country's law-enforcement agencies … they are being squeezed out of armed law-enforcement units. We know for sure that there was a criminal search and top interior ministry officials pressured the leaders of the Kyiv 2, Harpun [Harpoon] and Myrotvorets units in order to limit our membership in these formations," said Bondar.
The Myrotvorets member said civil activists were deliberately beaten during the spring of 2013.
"We are all people who are active in society with our position. We fought from 2010 against illegal construction, disregard for the law … during the regime of Yanukovych [disgraced former Ukrainian president] three fabricated criminal cases pursuant to Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine [hooliganism] were opened against me. They followed us during the [Euro]maidan revolution, militia officers escorted 'goons' to beat us up. Those who followed us have never been punished. They are working at the same jobs," he said.
A member of the interior ministry's Harpun volunteer battalion, Oleksandr Voitko, said that after members of his battalion detained police colonel Vladyslav Derkach on suspicion of cooperating with Russian special forces, threats to members of the C14 (Sich) organization [of young Ukrainian nationalists] increased.
"In March 2016, five members of our unit received requests to give information about our unit and our commanders. I am recorded as a claimant in a criminal case, not a suspect in any case. This goes to show that a criminal group within the interior ministry is continuing to harass patriots," Voitko said.
Speaking about the motives for following civil activists, Harpun member Voitko said "the aim is either to fabricate against us some kind of criminal case or use information [we have] for revenge."
