Odessa
police release 67 anti-govt activists after crowd surrounds police HQ
Sixty-seven anti-government activists detained by police in the south Ukrainian city of Odessa have been released after a crowd of locals blocked the Interior Ministry building. Those released reportedly included survivors from the deadly May-2 fire.
RT,
4
May, 2014
A crowd of Odessa residents, which included many women and elderly people as seen on live video streams from the scene, cheered and hugged the released activists.
RT’s Irina Galushko reported that despite being set free, the activists did not have the charges against them dropped and were asked “to come back tomorrow for their belongings.”
According to Galushko, riot police present at the scene were standing idly by, while the people chanted"Heroes!" and "Freedom!"
The release of just several activists did not, however, appease the crowd. Some of the protesters attempted to get inside the building, shouting "Fascists! Fascists!"
Eventually, 67 activists have been released, Odessa police department’s press service has said. More than 1,000 people were blockading the police department at the time of the statement, according to Itar-Tass. Part of the crowd had broken down the entrance gate and gained access to the building’s courtyard.
Around 100 people rallying in central Odessa on Sunday initially blocked the local Interior Ministry department in protest against the detention of anti-government activists following the tragic events of Friday, May 2. The protesters have been trying to prevent the police from sending the detained, which reportedly include dozens of survivors of the Trade Union House fire, to the regional court building.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry has announced that 160 of the “most active participants in the mass unrest” have been detained and charged with creating “mass disorder” and “threats or violence against the law enforcement.” Earlier, the ministry blamed anti-Kiev protesters for initiating the violence on Friday and even for starting the fire that claimed the lives of 39 of their fellow activists.
Despite clear evidence that the pro-Kiev radicals set Odessa’s House of Trade Unions ablaze and shotat the people from the anti-government tent camp who barricaded themselves inside the building, the Western mainstream media is also being ambiguous about the causes of the tragedy.
Hundreds of people in Odessa on Sunday continued to bring flowers and candles to the House of Trade Unions amid the three-day mourning period for victims of the May 2 clashes. In eastern Ukrainian cities, such as Donetsk, Lugansk, and Kharkov, hundreds gathered for rallies in memory of those killed in Odessa, delivering anti-government slogans.
In the Russian Republic of Crimea, the local government announced a three-day mourning to commemorate the innocent victims in Odessa and to express solidarity with the people of southeastern Ukraine.
In Moscow, people have been taking flowers, icons, candles, St. George ribbons, and Ukrainian flags to the Ukrainian embassy. Many cried, while some rallied in front of the embassy against the coup-imposed Kiev government.
And this is how it was presented on Radio NZ this morning:
The pro-Russian "mob" broke into the police station to release prisoners arrested in confrontations that led to a fire (that remarkably lit itself presumably) killing 40 people (by the way).
The fascist mob,led by Right Sector, that bayed for blood and lobbed Molotov cocktails into the trade union building simply didn't exist.
Here the wounded are pushed into a paddy wagon while the fascist mob looks on
And members of the Right Sector mock the seriously- wounded
Yulia
Tymoshenko thanks the people who set the trade union building ablaze
Timoshenko:
"I want to say big thanks to all who came and fight in Odessa
for our Ukraine. Also I want to tell that all military action that
will be released in nearest future will be against any mass meeting
of people."
Radicals shooting at people in Odessa’s burning building caught on tape
New video has emerged online which shows a man shooting at the windows of Odessa’s burning House of Trade Unions. At least 39 anti-government activists died in the flames on May 2 in the building besieged and set ablaze by radicals.
RT,
4 May, 2014
A man in the video is wearing a bulletproof vest and is shooting several times in the direction of the burning House of Trade Unions.
Another video of the same man shows him speaking on the phone passionately arguing that he and his people are unarmed, while having to confront armed anti-government protesters. The man introduces himself as sotnik Mykola (“sotnik” is what Maidan group leaders in Kiev call themselves) He also says he was wounded in the leg by protesters, although he doesn’t look hurt in the footage.
Both the videos have gathered thousands of views on YouTube, stirring a wave of indignation at the man’s hypocrisy and his shooting at the people trapped inside the burning building.
Survivors of the fire say they had to barricade themselves inside the House of Trade Unions, to hide from an aggressive mob, which had torched their tent camp.
Radicals then began throwing Molotov cocktails at the Trade Unions building, setting it on fire. Witnesses say that those who managed to escape the fire, were severely beaten outside by the besiegers of the burning building.
“We couldn't go down, we were seeing people from other floors being brought down and then those rioters down there attacked them like a pack of wolves,” a survivor of the fire, who was hiding on the roof of the building, told RT.
Afraid of falling into the hands of radicals, people didn’t leave the House of Trade Unions, where dozens eventually burnt alive, suffocated or jumped out of windows.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry however offers a different version of events, saying the victims of the violent unrest started the fire themselves, when they began throwing Molotov cocktails from the upper floor.
Multiple videos of the incident, however, show Molotov cocktails flying from outside the building.
Several hundred people rallied overnight in Odessa outside the local police headquarters, demanding the release of the fire survivors who had been detained on May 2.
People claim around 60 survivors of the Trade Unions House are currently being held in jails. The rally participants told journalists that anti-government activists who managed to get out of the burning building were first beaten by nationalist militants outside and then detained by police.
Many of the rally participants were holding pictures of their relatives and friends, who have been missing since clashes broke out in Odessa two days ago.
Avoiding
facts? MSM
uncertain who is behind
deadly Odessa blaze
Despite clear evidence that the pro-Kiev radicals set Odessa’s House of Trade Unions ablaze on Friday killing dozens, the mainstream media is being ambiguous about the causes of the tragedy.
RT,
4 May, 2014
On Friday, Ukraine’s eastern town of Odessa saw brutal street battles between pro-autonomy activists and nationalist radicals which left 46 people dead. The majority of the victims died in the Trade Unions House that was set on fire by pro-Kiev radicals.
Very carefully worded commentary on the tragedy in Odessa came from the mainstream Western media, as if they were trying to avoid assigning the blame to those who actually set the building on fire. Their coverage of the event was heavily reliant on statements from Kiev that blamed the violence on pro-autonomy activists, as well as witness accounts given by the nationalist Right Sector members.
Based on their reports, it may seem that the House of Trade Unions just caught fire.
“At some stage yesterday – and it still unclear exactly how this started – but there were rival pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian protests here. It led to fierce street clashes, which culminated in a huge fire in a building last night,” reported Sky News.
“Violence is escalating in Ukraine. Police in normally calm Odessa say a clash between pro-Russians and government supporters led to a fire that killed at least 31 people,” said a report by Fox News.
But the actual video footage from the scene of the incident clearly shows how pro-Kiev radicals are throwing Molotov cocktails into the Trade Unions House where pro-autonomy activists were trapped.
Asked by the Washington Post who had thrown Molotov cocktails, a pro-Ukrainian activist Diana Berg admitted “Our people — but now they are helping them to escape the building.”
The BBC website merely quoted the regional office of Ukraine's Interior Ministry, writing that “it did not give details of how the blaze started,” stressing that “the exact sequence of events is still unclear.”
Reuters news agency reported that “a pro-Kiev march was ambushed, petrol bombs, stones, explosive devices were thrown, police soon lost control and the building was later set on fire.”
CNN covered the incident by stating that it was “unclear exactly what may have caused it [the fire].”Later, however, the channel acknowledged the fire was started byKiev supporters throwing Molotov cocktails at the building.
The New York Times goes with the headline: ‘Ukraine Presses Pro-Russia Militants After Fighting Spreads to a Port City.’ The words “pro-Russian militants” could create the impression that those were not just ordinary people and anti-Kiev demonstrators trapped inside a burning building, but militants. And that kind of wording can almost justify the act of killing, notes RT’s Gayane Chichakyan.
The Guardian quotes a member of extreme-right nationalist group Right Sector as saying "The aim is to completely clear Odessa [of pro-Russians]… They are all paid Russian separatists.”
Such statements - be they from Right Sector, or the coup-imposed government - perpetuates a narrative that whoever opposes the Kiev authority and feels strong ties with Russia is simply a puppet of Moscow. And this narrative is just perfectly in line with how the US and European officials see the situation. They have firmly sided themselves with the authorities in Kiev and are ready to justify and defend whatever action Kiev takes against the protesters, says Chichakyan.
If we need any further proof that Radio New Zealand is a puppet of the National Party and subservient to John Keys masters in the U.S. we have it now.
ReplyDeleteWar is looming in Europe and John Key, Washington's man in Parnell will follow lock step the U.S. to war in support of a Fascist Oligarchy installed by the C.I.A.
Don't be fooled by the disinformation, this is a last ditch attempt to save the U.S. from economic collapse and the whole world will be made to pay.
The only thing that is needed is to report egregious garbage varbatim without any questions.
ReplyDelete