Відповіді

• 2002.09.18 | franko

  Document: DONE. (Stattja povnistu)

  Our conversation took place on the 1st of June. It started in the premises of an emergency clinic, continued in the taxi,
  and was over near the building where Ihor lives. I met Topolya ("Poplar", a nickname Igor was given due to his 2 meter
  height) on the 15th December 2000 in the "tent city" of "Ukraine without Kuchma" action, located on Maidan Nezalezhnosti
  (Square of Independence). Until the day of his arrest, 9th of March 2001, we used to communicate almost daily, and I am
  confident in saying that the guy is totally incompliant to the general stereotype of an UNA-UNSO member, which is created
  by the majority of ukrainian mass-meia.
  
  He has no xenophobia, extreme views, hatred and "itching fists". He is
  generally a peaceful and serene person, never seen agressive or irritated. He has no criminal habits either. He speaks
  decent classical Ukrainian language, with no profanity or slang. However, he does not stay away from important events,
  never passes by unfairness. His deeds are always thoughtful, he thinks before he does. "Warm-hearted and cold-minded" -
  that's exactly about Igor Mazur.
  
  The last time we met was the 9th of March, after the fights near the
  Presidental Administration. Members of UNSO, who were staying together with him in "Leningradskyj" militia department,
  told that he had his arm badly injured, and had to carry it in front of himself all the time, not being able to use it.
  That was all we knew. That made our meeting joyful and touching.
  
  The look of Igor Mazur today is very disturbing. He always used to be of slim build, but now, after 14 days of
  hunger-strike, having lost 12.5 kg, he looks like a living dead: sunken cheeks and eyes, a bruise on his leg, staying
  there since the 9th of March, a large scar spanning his right wrist.
  
  He changed inside. But he is not broken. His spirit is what's all right. It's just he suddenly became more adult. His
  words got more distinct, phrases - more thoughtful, his mood - more calm, although more determined. Whereas it could be
  said that what drove him was passion and interest, now they are changed to a firm persuasion: Ukraine's ruling regime
  does not deserve to exist. It is criminal and anti-popular in its essence.
  
  Ihor still re-lives those days. Having been barred during the peak of the public protest moods, he has not yet got a grip
  on today's reality, wants to know about what actions are planned for the near future, presents countless proposals and
  ideas, and can't get why the wave of oppositional activity went down.
  
  When I came to visit him in the hospital, I came across with his 6 visitors, who had been our neighbours in the tent
  city. Igor informed us that he had asked the doctor for dischargement from hospital, since the fourth anniversary of his
  wedding, and his wife's birthday were to take place in the coming weekend. The doctor, keeping in mind the boy's health
  state, had been refusing, but eventually he was talked into that.
  
  It was raining cats and dogs, and none of us had either an umbrella, or a mere raincoat. However, Igor refused to wait
  till the rain stops. "You know, - he said to me, - if I had been told in the National Security Service's isolator that
  I'd been free, I would undoubtedly have gone home at night barefoot and naked on the snow rightaway.
  
  We caught a cab and went to Kharkivskyj district of Kyiv, where Ihor lives. However we found that guys from the National
  Security had been there and had left a notice calling Ihor to present himself on an interrogation on the 2th of June (on
  Saturday!). The National Security officials are working fast and hard to fight the internal enemies. We wish they were as
  good fighting the foreign ones.
  
  
  - Ihor, we haven't seen each other since the 9th of March. Tell me, where you've been and what's happened.
  
  - As for me on March, 9th I enjoyed ?warm welcome? at the Leningrad District Militia Headquarters. Before that at 6,
  Dimitrova Street the militia had beaten us with boots, rubber batons and iron rods. At the Leningrad District Militia
  Headquarters we were met by the ?Berkut?. On the way to our cells all of us received several dozens of punches and hits
  including those made with obtuse objects. On the night of March,10th we underwent one of the most terrible nowadays
  ukrainian phenomena - the interrogation. They not only beat the prisoners but also frighten them with long term
  imprisonment so that the man often prefers to endure short beatings than stay behind bars even though later he may be
  released innocent. 3-4 months? imprisonment during investigation is normal for today?s Ukraine.
  
  
  - What type of tortures did they apply to you on the interrogations?
  
  - Whole night police and members of the UBOZ in the ranks of the majors and the colonels were ?pressing? us. They were
  applying to us methods of interrogations that are typical for the police of the totalitarian states, beginning with such
  things as unexpected hits from behind on the head, kidneys, and both ears at the same time, and finishing with various
  twisting of hands, kicks into the groin. But if someone was given in and started talking even little beat then police
  beaten them seriously. The main point was to extract accusing information about someone who was a suspect to make that
  person an accused one.
  
  Next day SBU (Service of the Ukrainian Security) joined interrogations. As always those fellows try to apply not physical
  but psychological pressure. They would remind interrogated of their families, children, education, work, they would say
  that others already admitted their guilt, and that your stubbornness will take you nowhere and it will play only against
  you.
  
  After two days we were taken to the court session in secret from MPs and our lawyers that were waiting for us outside of
  the Leningrad District Police Headquarters. While MPs and lawyers figured out where we went some of us already were
  sentenced to some administrative sentences.
  
  
  - When did you get to the SBU's isolator?
  
  - March 12th I was interrogated by a SBU colonel who told me that a decision about my case is already made and also he
  said that he grantees that I will be put behind bars for two years if I confess and give the full collaboration about my
  brethrens. In the other case he promised me six years according to the article 71 of the Criminal Codex (organization of
  the mass disturbances). At the same day I was taken to the police department at Volodymyrska Street where they composed
  another protocol and then I was taken to the detention center of SBU for those under investigation.
  
  
  - What were your first feelings?
  
  - I was sure that I will spend months in prison but inside of myself I was preparing for years behind bars.? But I didn?t
  have fear. When on March 15th I was coming to the square I knew that I could expect anything from this regime. Therefore,
  I was ready for the worst case scenario.
  
  
  - What did you tell them on the interrogations?
  
  - At the very beginning of the interrogation I declared that I would like to use my constitutional right of the article
  63 of the Constitution and that I refuse to make any statements against me and I demanded an attorney and all of those
  rights for detained persons and suspects that are part of the Ukrainian Judicial Codex. I took such position because of
  the bias of the investigators that immediately took side of my accusers. That?s why I announced that I?d be silent until
  I will not familiarize myself with the investigation materials of my case, or until investigation will not be conducted
  objectively, not for the somebody?s special order.
  
  
  - What made you think that the investigators considered you to be crimnals?
  
  - Because of their actions during the investigation. Firstly, the investigators themselves told us about it. Secondly,
  they tried to connect any facts and things to the events of the March 9 pretty much artificially. For example, they have
  done search in my home and they collected a lot of materials with the symbols of the UNSO, photos, UNS pins, and UNA
  materials. But at the same time they tried to move this investigation from the political plane into a criminal one. They
  tried to portray us as a street gang of hooligans. The matter is that I keep the archive because I am the head of the
  Kiev trade union of the UNSO. That archive contains some materials from the archive of Anatoliy Lupynis, which he gave me
  for keeping before his death. His archive includes some photos and pins of the pro-military character. The fact that I
  ?collected? such things was used as a ground for accusing me in being pathological military fighter. But no one accuses a
  museum archive worker in such crimes for keeping a lot of same kind of materials. I refused to even talk about the
  materials from archive because they are irrelevant to my case.
  
  They are so certain that their crimes will go unpunished that they even do not do any ?rehearsals? before their ?shows?.
  Many of us were hold behind the bars based on the false testimonies of the police officers. What happened with Hryhoriy
  Lyakhovych was typical. As it is known, there is this procedure of identification when a plaintiff or a witness has to
  recognize the suspect among a group of strange people. Hryhoriy was put among a group of the officers of the SBU and
  ?policeman-victim? suddenly ?recognized? one of the SBU officers describing in detail how and at what circumstances that
  officer beaten him. Then one of the inspectors tried to give him a hint said: ?Look again more carefully. Are you sure
  it?s him?? but the policeman were thinking that was a part of the play was continuing pointing finger at his ?colleague?
  and insisting that was the man.
  
  What do you say if even the Manual for Detentions written by the Justice Minister Susanna Stanyk that some members of the
  tent camp had with them was qualified as intentional preparation for the crime? Ukrainian police somehow consider
  people?s desire to know their constitutional rights as a crime same as having at home pictures that was made several
  years before. Though, maybe they wanted to use archive to prohibit activities of the UNA tighten it up in the same case
  with UNSO.
  
  
  - Isn't UNA and UNSO the same thing?
  
  - No. Ukrainian National Assembly (UNA) is a pan Ukrainian party. And Ukrainian National Self-defense (UNSO) is a public
  organization plus it is not registered on the federal level. The organizations with such name are registered in the
  majority of the regions on the regional level. A trade union Ukrainian People?s Organization of Solidarity is registered
  in some regions. Although some people are members of all of these organizations there are many of them that are members
  of the UNSO but not the members of the UNA. For example I am a chairman of the UNA Kyiv city chapter and I am an ordinary
  member of the trade union UNSO. The law does not prohibit this.
  
  
  - What about UNS?
  
  - This organization does not exist any longer. In 1990 it merged with UNA.
  
  
  - How many of you were there in the signle prison cell?
  
  - If you would like to hear about three men taking turns sleeping on one bunk I must disappoint you. In the SBU?s
  detention center there are not so called ?communal rooms?. There are only single and double cells. When the detention
  center is overcrowded there are three men per each double cell.
  
  I was in single cell with monitoring camera under the ceiling for about one week then I was transferred to the double
  cell.
  
  
  - Who, out of your friends, were there with you?
  
  - Eh-h (laughing). They did everything possible that we wouldn?t meet either on our way to the interrogations or during
  our walks. My cellmate was a smuggler.
  
  
  - Then how did you arrange it to launch a hunger-strike on the 16th of May?
  
  - We didn?t agree upon it. You will be surprised but about the fact that some of the detainees are going on the hunger
  strike I learned from the press. Maybe it is strange but I have a possibility to listen to First Radio Program and to
  read some newspapers like ?Fakty?, ?Segodnya?, ?Kievskiye Vedomosti?. Sometimes ?Holos Ukrayiny? was a break where
  sometimes some materials about the opposition were published. We had chance to read other newspapers during visits of our
  attorneys, but we could not keep those newspapers in our cells.
  
  That is why each of us made decision about the hunger strike on their own. That fact that all detainees joined strike
  tells me that I made right chose in selecting my friends. The fact that the strike began on May 16th is not correct.
  Because we could not coordinate our actions some of us started strike on the 16th, others joined on the 17th and 18th
  after they have read about it from the newspapers.
  
  
  - I know that you were on the hunger-strike for 14 days, and lost 12.5 kg. I also know about the compulsory feeding.
  
  - At the beginning they did not provide us with food. They tried to press us psychologically. The old woman that was
  distributing food tried to convince us to give up strike. She would show us the most delicious pieces of food, she would
  tell us that we are not first ones who went on a hunger strike and we are not last ones and that nothing we can change
  with our actions. The administration of the detention center would do the same; same as the doctor to whom we were taken
  on the second or third day of the strike. After the forth day they started forcefully give us glucose injections.
  
  
  - So there were yummy pieces?
  
  It might seem strange to you, but as for a prison, the food is good there. I
  remember spending a month in "Kharkivskyj" isolator in 1996. That was the
  place where it was a problem not to starve to death. Whereas here, I suspect,
  even the hungry SBU guys would sometimes have picked up the food that we'd
  rejected.
  
  - I heard that they intubed your gullet?
  
  Yes, the majority of us had that procedure, but not me. Maybe, this selective
  attitude is the consequence of the hunger-strikers' health condition. Since I
  am only 28 years old, my health is not damaged, and I endured the
  hunger-strike well, and I let them know that it would have been hard to intube
  me - then they limited themselves to glucosis injections.
  
  - Wait a minute, Ihor, according to what I see on your medical card, your health is not perfect?
  
  When I was talking about my undamaged health, I meant the absence of
  chronic sicknesses, which could get acute during the hunger-strike. I am
  afraid that after the 9th of March beat-up I could face first health problems.
  
  - Weren't you offered any medical treatment?
  
  I was given very little of it. After we arrived, a doctor examined us
  superficially. Told us to do some physical excersises. If I'd fallen, they
  would probably do something. Since I didn't, they looked at the swollen parts
  of my body and told it would pass with time. They said the same thing about my
  arm: "You can move the fingers, so it's not broken." The reason of sand in
  my urine, according to them, was not the beat-up of the 9th of March, but an
  inflammation caused by poor feeding outside the bars, no matter that my
  kindeys were perfectly clear then.
  
  - I recall the student hunger-strikes in 1990. They used to take us to the clinic every day, and flushed our stomachs.
  
  We used to make stomach flushes for ourselves on our own. The best evidence of
  the "quality" of medical treatment offered by the isolator staff was my
  hospitalization after I left the isolator. That means that the prison doctors
  and "freedom" doctors had different criteria of a healthy person. And knowing
  that I was recognized as a "not-so-healthy" person, you can imagine the
  situation of the others, who used to have had health problems before.
  
  - What about the other guys?
  
  I know that Ruslan Zajchenko, who has his gall-bladder removed, and who was,
  as I saw it, beaten by feet in his stomach during the arrest, had his sickness
  gone acute. He had a hernia surgery. The SBU guys say that the surgery
  operation was successful, but what is "successful" in terms of SBU? It is
  impossible to check the outcome of the operation, because even the lawyers
  can't obtain the information about Ruslan's location. Andrij Shkil's blood
  pressure fallen down to 90/60, now he has heart problems.
  
  - Why don't they hospitalize him?
  
  They are probably afraid that it will be difficult to make the doctor let him
  go back to the isolator, since his health condition demands lasting treatment.
  
  - The court's desicion of changing the precaution measure was announced near
  10AM, however, you were released near 5PM. What was the explanation of the
  investigators?
  
  There was no explanation. The isolator is not a place where one can walk around
  and demand anything freely. They told me to get prepared, locked in the cell
  and disappeared for a while. Later the investigator wanted me to testify. He
  said I would be released if I'd testified. After I refused, they found another
  reason: the T-shirt and socks I had been offered, had disappeared (no matter
  that I had my clothes on), and they demanded that I returned them. I offered
  my spare clothing, in case they really thought I could have stolen the
  prison's property.
  
  - You weren't aware of your dischargement from the hospital till the last moment. However, according to the call-up note,
  which arrived to your home before we did, the SBU officials had known about it beforehand.
  
  9th of March showed that hospitals are a part of penitentiary system in
  Ukraine. As soon as a young ukrainian-speaking man would arrive there with an
  injury, he would immediately be taken away by the police to the precinct.
  One shouldn't be stunned by anything after learning those things.
  
  - Ihor, let me ask you a seditious question: being free at the moment, do you have a temptation to get away somewhere.
  Since there can be years of prison waiting for you.
  
  I can;t think of such things, because when they released me, they warned me
  that my behaviour and observing the undertaking not to leave the place would
  impact the other prisoners. I will not set them up. Moreover, my escape would
  confirm my guilt, which I don't feel. I love my land. I am more patriotic for
  Ukraine than some SBU officers. I defended the Constitution and democracy of
  Ukraine with my actions. Even as a man, I cannot deny my own actions now. I am
  not afraid, nor am I ashamed. On the contrary, I am proud to be a participant
  of the "Ukraine without Kuchma" action and hope that our efforts will not be
  in vain. Someday Ukraine will become a democratic European state.