|
 Their popularity stemmed not from their uniforms, body cameras and
tablets, but the fact they did not demand bribes.
The most visibly successful reform to have emerged from the
pro-European Maidan protests in 2014 is now under threat, serving
and former law enforcement officials say, accusing vested interests
of seeking to obstruct and discredit the force.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, a lawyer by training who rose through patrol
police ranks to become Chief of Staff of the National Police, quit
in March, "exhausted" by the pushback against change, he told
Reuters in his first media interview since.
The experience he described shows how fragile Ukraine's progress in
transforming itself into a Western-facing free market democracy
could prove to be.
The police reform, possibly for the first time in the former Soviet
republic's history, "showed international partners that we in
Ukraine are actually able to carry out some reforms," Vlasiuk said.
 Before Maidan, police "would always do what the prosecutors say.
Then it changed," he said. "The National Police positioned itself as
a separate and equal law enforcement power. Prosecutors did not like
it."
"We are seeing the prosecution service chasing patrol officers for
wrongdoings. There is now a tension which is blocking the reform of
the national police."
DEPUTY MINISTER QUITS
In Ukraine, prosecutors have the power to launch investigations into
public servants suspected of wrongdoing -- a power which police
officers say is being abused.
"When you are working within any public service in Ukraine you have
to be ready to deal with a lot of inspections, a lot of bullshit, a
lot of irrelevant regulations," Vlasiuk said.
"And the prosecution is a controlling organ which can punish you
for, in their opinion, improper actions," he said.
The General Prosecutor's office did not provide immediate comment
when asked about the allegations.
The United States and European Union, which are helping to fund a
$40 billion aid-for-reform program for Ukraine, have repeatedly
called for a clean-up of the General Prosecutor's office, which they
see as a key obstacle to fighting corruption.
Several high-profile reformers have been sacked from the government
and prosecution service or resigned in frustration.
First Deputy Interior Minister Eka Zguladze has also quit, to take
on an advisory role in the ministry. Her resignation statement on
Wednesday gave no reason but contained a warning over the fate of
reforms.
"I want to emphasize that these islands of success will drown in the
ocean of corruption, nihilism, the bureaucracy, if we do not build
bridges between them, creating a continent," she said. "And if in
Ukraine we do not have the strength to go forward, the door, that we
just opened, may close forever."
 THE SYSTEM STRIKES BACK
With the help of U.S. money and training, and headed by a former
Georgian minister, the new police force was set up as part of a
root-and-branch reform to weed out endemic corruption.
The new patrol section was launched in July and incorporated into a
revamped National Police force. The patrol officers seemed to be
everything those dreaming of a new Ukraine after Maidan hoped:
committed, trustworthy, less susceptible to bribes and not afraid to
go after the rich and the powerful.
Drawn from all walks of life, they carried smart tablets as well as
body cameras to make police work transparent. In a sign of changing
times, Energy Minister Ihor Nasalik announced on Friday he'd been
given a parking fine -- and willingly paid.
Vlasiuk, 27, was part of a new generation of Young Turks entering
public service after Maidan. He is in the process of setting up an
NGO to provide legal assistance to officers and burnish the police's
image nationally.
[to top of second column] |
His former boss, a Georgian technocrat called Khatia Dekanoidze in
charge of the National Police, described in a separate interview
cases of vested interests undermining change.
An initiative to fire corrupt or incompetent officers by vetting
them in a "reattestation" process has led to hundreds of lawsuits by
sacked officers, some of whom got their jobs back.
Dekanoidze said judges were deliberately reinstating discredited
officers for fear the judiciary could be next.
"This is a revenge of the old system, because the judiciary system,
especially courts, they are part of the old system," Dekanoidze
said.
There are other obstacles to reforms. The police budget is tight in
a country at war with Russian-backed separatists and an economy that
shrank by a tenth last year.
KEEP CALM AND SUPPORT POLICE
An incident that has grown into a cause celebre for the police
occurred on the night of Feb 7. A police car chased a speeding BMW
through the streets of Kiev, recorded on a black and white police
camera in footage later broadcast on TV.
Starting with warning shots, three police officers fired a total of
34 bullets at the car during the course of a 40 minute chase,
according to an interior ministry spokesman. Eventually, one of the
bullets killed a 17-year-old passenger inside.
Prosecutors accused the officer of wilful murder and abuse of
authority; he is under house arrest while they investigate.
Police said the officer was trying to protect the public from a
driver who was drunk. Their supporters protested in Kiev holding
banners saying "Keep Calm and Support Patrol Police" and the hashtag
#savepolice appeared on Twitter.
Anton Gerashchenko, a lawmaker and member of the interior ministry
council, said the case was an example of prosecutors seeking to show
they remained in control by discrediting police.
Dekanoidze echoed that view. "Police reform is the only reform that
is visible, that is a real reform for Ukrainians," she said. So when
prosecutors went after those defending the lives of ordinary
Ukrainians, "it looked like The Inquisition."
She added there were other cases when police had gone after illegal
gambling rackets -- only for prosecutors to open criminal cases
against the officers.
A Western diplomat, who did not want to be identified by name, said
the fight back by prosecutors showed reforms were starting to have a
real impact.
"Prosecutors here are millionaires," the diplomat said. "They are
powerful people who will fight to the very end to protect the
resources vertical they created."
Much will hinge on the performance of the new General Prosecutor,
Yuriy Lutsenko, a former interior minister whose appointment on
Thursday raised eyebrows because he had no legal background.
Dekanoidze said she hopes prosecutors under Lutsenko will cooperate
with the police. "Because ... without a good and fair prosecution,
police can't do anything."
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Sergei Karazy; editing
by Philippa Fletcher)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
