Interfax: Ukraine could set up commission on “snipers problem” – sources

MOSCOW. March 8 (Interfax) – Ukraine could soon announce setting up a commission to investigate the so-called problem of Maidan snipers, which arose after publication of the transcript of a telephone conversation between Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton.

It was reported earlier that the head of the Estonian diplomacy affirmed, in particular, that the snipers were the people of “the new coalition” and not Viktor Yanukovych.

“A decision has been made to announce in the very near future the creation of an official commission, possibly a parliamentary one, and to invite representatives from various parties, including the Party of Regions, and international experts, including, possibly, from Russia too, to participate in it,” a source from Ukrainian security agencies told Interfax by phone from Kyiv.

There are no plans to invite Western experts, he said.

So far efforts to obtain an official confirmation have been unsuccessful.

Such a commission might be set up, but the purpose of its work will consist in “making the conclusion that the snipers operated from both sides,” a Ukrainian law-enforcement source (and a former Berkut riot police officer) said on conditions of anonymity.

“An ad hoc working group, which, according to some reports, is led by (National Security and Defense Council Secretary Andriy) Parubyi has already been set up to prepare such a conclusion,” the sources said.

Asked how the evidence of Ukrainian police officers firing at Maidan activists will be fabricated, the source said that shots could be fired from the weapons issued to the riot police against Maidan activists’ shields, clothing and the wooden parts of the barricades – for better preservation of the bullets.

“It is not ruled out that they will ‘work’ with the dead bodies, though it is technically difficult,” the source said.

“About 40-50 eyewitnesses of the work of special forces’ snipers will be prepared. To make it more convincing, they could be women, elderly people,” the source said.

“In short, in addition to all that they will find physicians and ballistic experts from some forensic criminalistic center, ‘put some safety valves’ so that no one messes up, and disavow the statement that there were no Interior Ministry’s snipers on Maidan,” he added.