Kiev: Ukraine on Saturday suspended Kiev`s mayor and the deputy head of its security council after a brutal police crackdown last month on a pro-EU opposition protest in the capital.
President Viktor Yanukovych, who ignited three weeks of demonstrations by rejecting a pact promising closer ties to the EU, announced the move by saying the two officials were suspected of "breaching the constitutional rights of citizens" taking part in the protest.
Baton-wielding riot police roughly dispersed around 1,000 protesters camped out on Kiev`s Independence Square in the early hours of November 30, injuring dozens.
The two suspended officials, mayor Olexander Popov and Security Council deputy chief Volodymyr Syvkovych, are being probed on suspicion of pressuring Kiev`s police chief "to use violence" against the protesters, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka told journalists.
Pshonka said prosecutors would ask the courts to put the the mayor, the deputy security council chief and the police chief, Viktor Koryak, under house arrest for overstepping their authority.
The dramatic announcement came as Yanukovych supporters mounted a Kiev rally right next to the camp of pro-EU protesters demanding his resignation.
Organisers put their number at 200,000, while police estimated 60,000 people attended. Both figures appeared inflated, according to AFP correspondents at the scene, Kiev`s Europe Square.
At the nearby Independence Square, anti-Yanukovych demonstrators furious at the president`s refusal to sign the Association Agreement with the EU are camped out behind barricades.
The opposition called the rival rally a staged event by Yanukovych`s Regions Party, alleging that state employees were brought in under threat of being fired. They said they feared the aim was to disrupt their camp.
Police today filled the street in the 200 metres (yards) separating the rival demonstrations.
"We came to Kiev to support our president," said 29-year-old Dmytro Khorunzhy, who was bussed in with 1,000 others from Kirovograd region to Europe Square. "We want stability.... The (anti-Yanukovych) protests are wrecking the Ukrainian economy."
"Don`t divide Ukraine, don`t build barricades," Prime Minister Mykola Azarov urged at the pro-government rally.
"The politicians who promote hatred and division of Ukraine don`t belong in today`s politics. Their place is at the garbage dump," he said.
