\n \nStatement of the Volyn Representation of the "Our Ukraine" Bloc regarding the state of ensuring civil rights and freedoms in the region \n \n \n \nThe level of ensuring basic democratic values: freedom of speech, the right to freely express opinions, the right to peaceful assembly, etc., in the Volyn region is no longer merely a cause for concern, but an urgent need for an adequate response from all healthy democratic forces of the region. \n \nThis refers to the fact that with the arrival of the new regional leadership, the tendentious rotation of heads of law enforcement agencies, increased administrative pressure on budgetary institutions, mass media, and educational institutions, the nature of state administration is acquiring clear signs of a local police dictatorship. \n \nThe last straw in a series of clearly criminal actions was the burning of the car of Mykola Panasiuk, editor of the independent weekly "Vilna Dumka." With the tacit consent, and possibly at the initiative, of the authorities and law enforcement agencies, the actions of criminals are crossing the line beyond which only murder remains. After all, only a coincidence of circumstances allowed human casualties to be avoided during the burning of the car, just as chance helped preserve the life and health of passengers and drivers of cars whose wheels came under the so-called "hedgehogs" [spike strips], which occurred on the day of Viktor Yushchenko's visit to Volyn. \n\nThe law enforcement agencies of Volyn, regarding whose activities in ensuring public order we have no claims, display striking negligence and indifference in investigating criminal offenses. To this day there is not the slightest hint of a serious investigation into the facts of the burning and damaging of commercial properties belonging to Dmytro Moskvych, head of the "Our Ukraine" faction in the Lutsk City Council. By analogy, the same fate should be expected for the investigative actions regarding the burning of the "Vilna Dumka" editor's car — at least, this is what the approaches of operational officers to examining the scene and circumstances of the event suggest. \n\nThe "Our Ukraine" Bloc in the Volyn region also expresses solidarity with the editors of the region's leading publications regarding their protest against the brutal forceful campaign of subscribing to media outlets controlled by the authorities. We consider such actions a gross violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens, a crime that can be placed on par with arson, property damage, and other criminal acts. \n\nWe sternly warn the Volyn authorities and law enforcement agencies about the inadmissibility of continuing such criminal actions. We reserve the right, in the absence of an adequate response to the crimes, to apply all methods of protest and civil disobedience permitted by law. \n \nHead of the Representation of the "Our Ukraine" Bloc in the Volyn Region \nPeople's Deputy of Ukraine \nV.N. Bondar