Klitschko, Tyahnibok favor lustration in Ukraine

KYIV. Feb 24 (Interfax) – Leader of the Udar party Vitaly Klitschko and leader of the Svoboda rightwing radical party Oleh Tyahnibok favor lustration in Ukraine.

“The parliament should today solve the issue that Ukrainian people expect them to do: to restore justice and start lustration and reforms,” Klitschko said at a meeting of the conciliatory council in the Ukrainian parliament on Monday.

“We should immediately release all political prisoners, [] create a special investigative committee to probe crimes of the Yanukovych regime with the involvement of foreign experts and weekly reports on the investigation. One should starts investigations in relation to the regime’s leading politicians, ask diplomats to search for people who managed to leave the country abroad, investigate actions of investigators, prosecutors and judges who were involved in repressions against activists,” he said.

The Udar party insists on discussing in the parliament bills on the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and on the ban of the Berkut special services unit, he said.

The image of law enforcement agencies is spoilt, he said. “In order to improve it much time is needed. I am certain that lustration must take place,” Klitschko said on the air of the Inter TV channel on Sunday night citing Georgia’s experience.

There are a lot of patriots among law enforcement officers, he said.

Tyahnibok also called on parliamentary parties to jointly work out and adopt a bill on lustration.

“Svoboda earlier registered a bill on lustration. The situation has changed and the bill needs to be updated. I also want to offer representatives of other parties to participate in working out and adopting this bill,” Tyahnibok said at a meeting of the conciliatory council in the Ukrainian parliament on Monday.

The Ukrainian parliament should also vote a bill banning the Communist ideology, he added.