By Kateryna Serhatskova
February 28, 2014  Ukrayinska Pravda.Life
Translated by Olia Knight
Edited by Isis Wisdom
Source: http://life.pravda.com.ua/society/2014/02/28/154600/

Three months of forceful confrontation. A couple thousand wounded, almost 100 killed, over 300 people missing – this is the outcome of revolutionary events in Ukraine. On the day when “Berkut” riot police first beat people on Maidan, it was impossible to imagine what the peaceful act of protest would result in.

On that same day, November 30, 2013, a civil initiative was created that is now known, by those people who are more or less informed about events in Ukraine, as – “Euromaidan SOS.”

On Novemeber 30, 2013, the “Center for Civil Liberties” organization was supposed to hold a big all-Ukrainian seminar. It never happened. Instead, these community activists began to think about how they could really help those who suffered at the hands of the “Berkut” [special forces] riot police.

“We realized there was no structure that would work as an intermediary liaison between victims and advocates prepared to provide legal aid,” says Oleksandra Matviychuk, a founder of “Euromaidan SOS.” – Having had experience working in Russia on Bolotnaya Square, and in Belarus – we were members of the Committee of international control over detainees, and went there after the dispersal of protest rallies, as well as during searches and arrests of activists – we knew what we needed to do.

Some time around 10 am, we launched a Facebook page, and by the end of the day our page had over 10,000 subscribers and three “hotlines.” We started receiveing phone calls from victims, witnesses, relatives of those arrested, as well as lawyers. Since that day, our initiative operates  round the clock, 24/7.

All photos are by Artem Zhavrotskyi

“Many of our people worked sitting on the floor.”

If the initiative started off with the intent to provide legal help and search for wounded people, now “Euromaidan SOS” is an integral part of the protest process itself.

People turn to our “hotline” to find the missing and identify the dead, to report legal violations of law and to provide financial assistance, some people have even sought medical help. Our initiative group performs an incredibly large amount of work.

In the “hot” hours – during events at the Presidential Administration on Bankova Street, Hrushevskiy Street, and Instytutska Street – about 200-300 volunteers worked at the office of the “Center for Civil Liberties,” and about 20-30 people work during peaceful times.

“Many of those who worked here had to sit on the floor, we had to set up three additional back up internet lines,” says Matviychuk.

According to “Euromaidan SOS” coordinator and human rights lawyer, Nazariy Boyarsky, over 600 people were declared missing after the February 18, 2014 clashes on our “hotline,” and after the “dictatorial laws” were adopted on Janury 16, we received about 1,000 similar reports.

“We found most of the people, however there are still about 300 people missing,” says Boyarsky. – The majority of the missing people were found in the first days after the escalation of violence. Usually, they just didn’t have time or were not able to inform their relatives about the state they were in or their whereabouts.”

According to the activist, there are six major directions in which the initiative works:

1. To find people who are detained against their will by law enforcement agencies.
2. To take the wounded to the hospital and those who do not want to give their real names, being mindful of the experiences of those police detained straight out of hospital wards from information the hospital administration provided. Often the doctors themselves would not give out the names of the wounded people for their safety.
3. The deceased. In this case, “Euromaidan SOS” volunteers went to the morgues, identified the victims and informed the relatives about the found bodies.
4. Infrastructural reasons for people being reported missing. For example, when the movement of traffic in Kyiv was limited, and cell phone operators could not bear the overload and the system broke down, people were not able to report their whereabouts.
5. One more reason was that some of the protesters did not inform their relatives about their whereabouts because they did not want the relatives to worry.
6. Moreover, many of the people during the active phase on Maidan were in hiding from possible prosecution and as a precaution did not inform anyone about their whereabouts.

Nazariy remembers most two stories that fall under this category. One of them – the story of the disappearance of Dmytro Bulatov, an “Automaidan” leader and activist:

“For almost two weeks, we kept trying to do everything possible, we collected witness statements as to where they saw him, checked them out, went to places where he might have been hiding. I think we hit a limit when a psychic called and told us about his whereabouts, and our volunteer had actually gone there. This story was emotionally difficult, since we realized that Dmytro had something bad happen to him.”

Nazariy also remembers a story with a good ending.  “A woman contacted us about her daughter, who was a minor, and for whom she had been looking for over two weeks. The mother did not know for sure if her daughter left for Maidan. We gave the girl’s photo to the journalists, and one day a correspondent incidentally saw her on Maidan and found out that the young woman fell in love and that she and her sweetheart were expecting a child.

The daughter was afraid to tell her mother about all of this, but we managed to get them in contact with each other, and this story has an almost Hollywood ending with a revolutionary flavor of love.”

“Violations similar to those in Ukraine have not occurred in either Belarus or Russia”

For the duration that “Euromaidan SOS” has been in existence, activists have collected a large amount of photo and video evidence, applications, and contacts, of witnesses and wounded, of those who were persecuted, those threatened to be beaten or killed, and those whose rights were violated for political reasons.

All this information has been put into a large database, which will be assigned to human rights groups for further independent investigation.

According to Matviychuk, the amount of human rights violations that transpired in Ukraine, she had not seen anywhere else. “In Belarus and Russia, they could arrest up to 900 people a day. But they did not have kidnappings, tortures, or murder.  Advocates from those countries always helped us and said that everything took place much easier there.

However, the number of violations in Ukraine has started increasing like a snowball, with new episodes [of violence] happening constantly, and we had no time to devote to the consequences – we had too much ongoing work. Nobody was ready for some of the cases.

For example, the relatives of missing people received phone calls with ransom demands, and then it transpired that those people had already passed away. So, they tried to profit from a person’s tragedy. We immediately informed the police about those cases.”

The activists of “Euromaidan SOS” do not receive any money for their efforts – this is exclusely volunteer work, and people are literally “charged up” to offer help. According to the words of one of the intiative coordinators, the journalist Maria Tomak, they only asked the subscribers of their Facebook page from time to time to refill their cell phone accounts, since they have to make a lot of phone calls, – and people promptly reacted to such requests.

Hundreds of people visited court hearings for detained activists, they took shifts, and went to morgues. Internet users helped out as well: when the initiative needed help with urgently printing out leaflets of important information, translating the documents or providing photo and video reports about violations, people promptly coordinated and provided the necessary support.

“At the present time, we have taken on yet another function, when we provide not just operative support, but analysis and systematization of accumulated information, – says Tomak. – There is a need for management leadership. We especially need a person who would be responsible for working with the public, producing messages to put pressure on the system [of government].

Also, we need to finalize the investigation of events on Maidan on November 30, 2014, the events on Bankova and Hrushevskiy Streets on December 10 and 11 of 2013, as well as the events of February 18 through 22 of 2014. Lustration must be started from these investigations. The people who gave orders must be brought to justice.

If we leave this evil without the proper reaction it deserves, there is no point in talking about reforms. It is highly critical at this moment, otherwise our mission will not be completed.”

According to the founder of “Euromaidan SOS,” volunteers are ready to transfer all the collected and stored information for the analysis, evaluation and investigation of human rights violations so as to prosecute the perpetrators.

“It is a matter of prevention. We do not want something like this to ever be repeated. And we are alarmed by the actions of those in power. We did not work this hard so that behind our backs they could bring back old politicians to govern the country, nor those who simply divide ministerial portfolios amongst themselves. 

We have worked to ensure that “Euromaidan SOS” would not be needed in our new country.”