Ukrainian police receive riot training before next month's European Championships
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Amnesty International label Ukrainian police 'criminal' ahead of Euro 2012
- Say that 'out of control' police could jeopardize the tournament
- Security concerns raised after multiple bomb attacks near host city
- European leaders boycotting matches over treatment of former Ukrainian PM
The Amnesty International
report "Ukraine: Euro 2012 jeopardised by criminal police force"
details how Ukraine's security forces have been implicated in numerous
cases of torture and extortion in cities due to host matches.
According to the report,
one recent case in the western city of Lviv -- where Germany, Portugal
and Denmark will play -- details how two men were beaten, robbed and
then imprisoned by six police officers after a disagreement in a bar.
Prosecutors originally
refused to open a criminal case until CCTV footage emerged of the
incident after one of the men's lawyers gave an interview to a local TV
station.
"The Ukrainian government
must take action now to stop widespread police criminality," said John
Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's director for Europe and Central Asia.
"Failure to do so will
encourage them to continue acting as a law unto themselves and put Euro
2012 fans in danger from a force that is out of control."
Tens of thousands of fans
from across Europe are expected to arrive in Ukraine next month when
the tournament -- which is being co-hosted with neighboring Poland --
begins on June 8.
The Ukrainian government must take action now to stop widespread police criminality
Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Despite huge investment
in the country's transport infrastructure, Ukraine has struggled in the
run up to the tournament. Stadium delays had initially put the country's
hosting of the tournament in jeopardy but now new problems have
emerged.
Hotel prices during the
tournament have risen so sharply due to profiteering that Michel
Platini, head of European football's governing body UEFA, was unusually
critical when visiting Ukraine last month for the opening of a new
airport terminal.
"It's annoying to have
made a lot of investment and then say to people that they can't come
because there are bandits and crooks who want to make a lot of money
during this Euro," he told the assembled press in Lviv.
Security concerns were
raised when multiple bombs exploded in the city of Dnipropetrovsk, close
to Donetsk where England will be playing some of their matches. More
than 20 people were injured in the blasts. The authorities have so far
blamed criminal gangs rather than terrorists for the attack.
And the tournament
received more bad publicity when several European leaders suggested they
might boycott the event in protest at the treatment of former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Tymoshenko, the face of
the Orange Revolution that swept Ukraine in 2004 and 2005, has been in
prison since last year on charges that she abused her powers while in
office.
Her supporters believe
the charges are politically motivated. The current Ukrainian president
is Viktor Yanukovych who lost power during the Orange Revolution.
Tymoshenko would have been a potent foe in next October's parliamentary
elections.
The government deny that
there is any political motivation in her jailing but the former prime
minister has alleged that she has been beaten whilst in prison and has
gone on hunger strike to secure what she says is urgent medical care.
Herman Van Rompuy,
president of the European Union, Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the
European Commission, and the governments of Austria and Belgium have all
said they will not be attending any matches in Ukraine in protest.
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