Expert: Police must wear Identification Chevrons during Peaceful Assemblies

Civil society can not understand why some military units guard peaceful assemblies, said Oleh Martynenko, the director of the Centre of Law Enforcement Activities Research during a telethon “The Freedom of Assemblies in Ukraine Today”.

He noticed that“when “Berkut” (“Golden Eagle”), a special militia unit, disappeared, new military units emerged, and we [civil society] even do not know who is in charge of them. Even when we find out that this is, for instance, a “Kyiv-1” battalion, we can not find any document on the official web-site of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which gives powers to this unit. There are lots of questions: what powers do they have, can they detain people, who are they – civilians or military? The Ministry of Internal Affairs does not support transparency policy in this issue. We do have questions and how should we react on these units?”

The OZON Civil Monitoring Group Coordinator Valeriya Rybak says that militiamen and other parties must be duly identified during peaceful assemblies.

“I, as a person, who is between different people wearing camouflage or other unrecognizable uniform, can not understand what I have to do in the case of emergency: should I ran or ask them for help,” says Valeriya Rybak. 

Sometimes, during peaceful assemblies, police officers and internal troops do not wear their identification chevrons, which constitutes a violation of Ukrainian legislation.

Valeriya Rybak explains: “We submit many complaints, but we do not receive normal answers concerning investigations which can clarify who are these people and what they do.”

Oleh Martynenko emphasizes that the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not cooperate with the organizers of peaceful assemblies to identify police officers.

“It is true that during peaceful assemblies their organizers do not have contacts with officials in the Ministry. The protesters feel tensions when there are some people who do not belong to them and they do not know whether these people are officers or provocative persons who are going to throw a stone in a police officer. And then police will say: “You see, peaceful assembly became not peaceful and we are authorized to use measures, prescribed by law.” And then – a water cannon, sticks and many publications in press,” added Oleh Martynenko.

It was previously reported that the new patrol police acts according to the Soviet-times Patrol Regulations which do not provide for any algorithm how to act during peaceful assemblies.