You're reading: Restrictions placed on Odesa demonstrations two years after 48 people killed

The Odesa Regional Administrative Court has restricted demonstrations and commemorative gatherings on May 2, two years after 48 people were killed in conflicts ignited when a pro-Russian group attacked a Ukrainian unity march.

The court ordered that no demonstrations could be held on the central square near City Hall. Further, the Odesa City Veteran Organization has been banned from holding rallies after the court ruled it had called for disturbing the public order.

The court’s decisions were taken as a precaution against possible violence as residents plan to remember the 48 people killed on May 2, 2014.

Six people died from bullet wounds on the city’s streets after a pro-Ukrainian unity march was attacked by pro-Russian groups.

Another 46 pro-Russian demonstrators did in a fire in the city’s trade union building, where the demonstrators had fled.

Emergency services took an hour to respond.

The court has allowed demonstrations to take place at Kulykovoe Square in front of the trade union building but the only AutoMaidan Odesa group plans to demonstrate, local media Dumskaya reported on April 27.

Soldiers and police officers are already stationed on the square, according to reports of various local media. The National Guard will deploy 400 soldiers over the May holidays to the city, UNIAN reported on April 30, and a total of 2,500 law enforcement officers will be present.

Odesa Oblast Governor Mikhail Saakashvili had earlier called on President Petro Poroshenko to deploy troops but had been rebuffed in separate comments by Ivan Varchenko and Zoran Shkyryak, advisers to Minister of Interior Arsen Avakov. Both said that the national guard does not have a separate policy for Odesa Oblast.

“Some people need to stop with the hysterics leading up to the May 2 (anniversary),” Shkyryak wrote on Facebook.

Fears of repeat violence

“I have no doubt that pro-Russian groups want to use the anniversary of the tragedy on May 2 to destabilize the situation,” Saakashvili told press on May 1.

Fears of a repeat of two years ago have been exacerbated by attacks on anti-Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov protesters on April 26. Three protesters were hospitalized and their tent camp in front of City Hall was destroyed. The camp was set up by activists after Hromadske TV’s Slidstvo.info published documents showing that the mayor illegally owns a large network of offshore companies.

The anti-Trukhanov activists accused him of organizing the attack, saying that their dismantled tents had been loaded onto a truck owned by Gorzelentrest, a municipal company. Sasha Borovik, an acting deputy governor of Odesa Oblast, wrote on Facebook that a camera on the City Hall building had been turned off during the assault, further painting a picture that the attack was organized by insiders at City Hall. Trukhanov was not available for comment.

An office of Pivdenny Bank in Odesa was struck with a grenade launcher late on April 25.

Saakashvili described April’s events as signs of “state collapse.”

Investigation into the deaths still ongoing

The Ukrainian authorities have been widely criticized for the slow investigation into events on May 2, 2014. So far several criminal cases have been opened, one of which involving 20 individuals is now in court, Tatyana Gerasymova told the Kyiv Post by phone on May 1. No one has been sentenced.

The 2 May Group, a group of journalists and experts, told a press conference on April 30 that the police investigators involved in the investigation during 2014-15 should hand back their pay, since they hadn’t earnt it.

Two months ago investigation was passed from the central authorities to the Odesan authorities and is now making progress, according to the group.

In November, 2015 the Council of Europe said the investigation, like the one being carried out into the deaths of Euromaidan protesters in Kyiv, it had “serious deficiencies in independence and effectiveness,” it said.

A report by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for the period of Nov. 16 to Feb. 15, 2016 came to a similar conclusion: “(the authorities) have not taken adequate measures for the effective investigation into these events and the protection of judicial independence.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Isobel Koshiw can be reached at [email protected]