Outside the building of the Volyn Regional Council, where another session of this representative body was to begin, Volyn residents gathered to call on the deputies to express their attitude toward the pressing problems of the region and the state. Among the most fundamental issues that, in the opinion of Volyn residents, should have been brought before the regional council session were an assessment of the actions of the regional executive authority in the field of the agro-industrial complex, the state's foreign policy problems, and personnel policy in the region.
All these issues were prompted, in the opinion of the protesters, by the inept management of the region by the executive authority and by the regional administration's order dismissing from his post the deputy head of one of the RSA departments, the head of the regional organization of the People's Movement of Ukraine, Volodymyr Banada.
A representative of Viktor Yushchenko's bloc "Our Ukraine" in Volyn, People's Deputy Volodymyr Bondar, emphasized that the regional council deputies must listen to the opinion of the citizens and must take a worthy position on all fundamental issues brought up for consideration at the session. In particular, he noted that "Volyn residents will watch the hand of every deputy and will ask how each of them expressed the will of their constituents."
Today's rally did not go unnoticed by the regional leadership, as had been the case until now. And although the head of the Volyn RSA, Anatoliy Frantsuz, to whom the protesters appealed, did not come out to the rally participants, his deputies, Stepan Rodych and Volodymyr Panchyshyn, "communicated" with them. The government representatives tried to emphasize their "achievements," among which were "timely payment of pensions, stable bread prices, and growing wages." However, amid chants of "Out!" and general whistling, they were forced to move on to a small "their own" alternative rally, whose participants were representatives of district state administrations, tax officials, and employees of budgetary institutions.
It seems the authorities had prepared for the event in advance and with all seriousness: in addition to people who, in a "voluntary-compulsory" manner, held placards with slogans supporting the authorities' activities and accusing the opposition, behind the administrative building and in the area adjacent to the square there were numerous "detachments" of police and "Berkut," and SBU officers with video cameras.
People's Deputies of Ukraine Viktor Pynzenyk, Yuriy Klyuchkovsky, Ihor Hryniv, Volodymyr Bondar, Serhiy Slabenko, and Stanislav Phydenko are taking part in the regional council meeting. According to preliminary information, all the issues proposed by the opposition have been included in the agenda.
