Ukraine’s president proposed an amnesty Friday for all protesters facing criminal charges in the country’s wave of massive anti-government demonstrations.
President Viktor Yanukovych made the offer at a round-table meeting that included three leaders of the opposition that has orchestrated more than three weeks of anti-government protests, flooding the streets of Kyiv with hundreds of thousands of people.
There was no immediate reaction from the opposition figures, who earlier had said they were going to the meeting only to state their demands, including that the government resign and early parliamentary and presidential elections be held.
“There should be an amnesty, in order to give guarantees that the process of confrontation will stop,” Yanukovych said.
“I am outraged by the radical actions on both sides … from the side of provocateurs and from the side of the security forces, which have not always behaved properly,” he added.
A Ukrainian court has released all those arrested during a violent police dispersal of demonstrators near the presidential administration building, one of the demands of the opposition that has conducted three weeks of large protests.
An appeals court spokeswoman, Olga Chaplya, said the last of nine people arrested in the Dec. 1 clash was released on Friday, but the criminal cases against them continue.
The proposed amnesty could be a sizeable step toward resolving the conflict that has threatened Yanukovych’s leadership. The protests began after Yanukovych on Nov. 21 refused to sign an association deal with the 28-nation European Union, choosing instead to back closer ties with Russia.
Demonstrators have set up an extensive tent camp in the capital’s main square, where protesters gather around the clock. After squads of riot police deployed at the square early Tuesday, then withdrew hours later as demonstrators stood their ground, protesters’ spirits have been high. New barricades have been erected on streets leading to the square, cbc informs.
