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Armed police officers
wearing the uniform of Ukraine Berkut riot police stand alongside road
policeman on the streets of Simferopol. [PHOTO SOURCE: http://mashable.com/2014/03/16/crimea-votes-the-day-in-pictures/#VoZa18_rTuqg]
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INTERNET SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkut_%28special_police_force%29
Squad of Militsiya of Special
Assignment "Berkut"
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Active
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1992–2014 (Ukraine)
2014–present (Republic of Crimea) |
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Country
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Ukraine (originally)
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Type
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Role
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Size
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400 (Republic of Crimea)
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Part of
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Ukrainian
Ministry of Internal Affairs (1992–2014)
Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (2014–present)A |
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Engagements
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2014
Ukrainian revolution
2014 Crimean crisis |
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The
"Berkut" (Ukrainian:
Бе́ркут), eagle
in English, specifically the Golden eagle, was the system of special police of the Ukrainian militsiya
within the Ministry
of Internal Affairs. Since late March 2014 its Crimean unit in the Republic of Crimea
has been incorporated into the Russian
Ministry of Internal Affairs preserving its old name. Following the 2014 Ukrainian
revolution, when Berkut was held responsible by the new government
for most of the nearly 100 civilian
deaths, acting Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov
signed a decree that dissolved the agency. As a result of the 2014 Crimean crisis
and the referendum in
Crimea the Russian Federation
granted accession to the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as federal
subjects of Russia on 21 March 2014. Three days later Russia
announced that the Crimean Berkut unit would preserve its name as it
incorporates into the Russian Interior Ministry.
Berkut
was Ukraine's successor to the Soviet OMON.
It operated semi-autonomously and was governed at the local or regional level (oblast, raion, city). Initially used to
fight organized crime, it became used as the Police (Militsiya) for Public Security. Its full
name was "Berkut" Separate Special Assignment Unit(s) of Militsiya.
There was a "Berkut" unit in every region (oblast) and every big city
of the country. Among the several special police units in Ukraine,
"Berkut" became a catchall name for all the others.
The
main stated purpose (in Ukraine) of the national special force was crowd
control; however, the Berkut have also been accused of taking part in
racketeering, and of terrorizing, attacking, and torturing Ukrainian citizens, including in
recent years voters who would elect non-Yanukovych candidates to local governments.
and had a well-documented history of kidnapping, attack, and torture of
protesters including during Euromaidan and to a
lesser extent the Orange Revolution.
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Berkut officers in 2007
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1
Etymology
Berkut
means golden
eagle or Aquila chrysaetos in the Ukrainian language, referring to a raptor
historically associated with falconry on larger mammals, particularly foxes. It is
probably a Turkic borrowing, compare Chagatai (börküt), Kazakh бүркіт (bürkit),
Tatar бөркет (bөrket), Bashkir бөркөт (börköt), Kyrgyz бүркүт (bürküt),
Uzbek burgut.
2
Ukraine
2.1
History
The
Berkut was the Ukrainian successor of the Soviet
OMON (Special
Purpose Police Unit), responsible for high-risk police operations including hostage crises
and riots.
Berkut teams participated in many actions of Leonid
Kuchma's regime against the opposition (see Orange
Revolution). In 2013 and 2014 they had been breaking up crowds during the 2013 Ukraine pro-European
Union protests that came to be known as Euromaidan.
2.1.1
Origin and growth
The
order to organize the OMON in the Ukrainian SSR was issued on 28 December
1988, over a year after the establishment of the Soviet OMON back in 1987 and
almost three months later after the issue of official order on October 3, 1988.
The first units were formed in Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Lviv
and Donetsk and were based on selected units of
Soviet Internal Troops
of the Ministry of Interior Affairs. After the fall of the
Soviet Union it was decided to organize such units in every oblast (province)
center as part of the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine. On January 16, 1992 the
order was issued to create quick reaction
force (QRF) units "Berkut", which was fully implemented by
the start of 1993.
2.1.2
Violence and intimidation
Former
Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych has been accused, including by Amnesty International, of using the Berkut to
threaten, attack, and torture Ukrainian protesters. Upon coming to power
Yanukovych had reversed oversight measures established during the Yushchenko
administration to curb Berkut abuse of citizens whereupon the special force
"upped its brutality."
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Українська: Київ 10 грудня 2013. Плакат, який вчить розрізняти
беркут і внутрішні війська
English: Euromaidan poster explaining the differences between Ukraine's Berkut special police and conscripted Internal Troops.
the text of the poster is in Russian: REMEMBER! Not everyone in uniform is a BERKUT! BERKUT: * can use force against the protesters; * they keep themselves behind the backs of the soldiers while stones are being thrown at them, and block the retreat; * they are paid for their service; * they wear GREY uniforms. INTERIOR TROOPS: * are not allowed to use force against the participants of meetings; * government uses them as cannon fodder; * they are 18-19 year-old conscripts; * they wear BLACK uniforms. |
2.1.2.1
Euromaidan
On
30 November 2013, Berkut units in Kiev violently dispersed protesters during the Euromaidan
protest movement, and have since been involved in many other instances of
brutality in suppressing the movement. On 27 January 2014, the Ministry of
Defense announced sharp pay raises for military personnel, and the Cabinet of
Ministers adopted a secret resolution to increase the size of the Berkut force
sixfold to 30,000; they would also be given more power and a reserve fund would
be set aside for additional ammunition. Former head of Security for the
Ukrainian president, General Viktor Ivanovich Palivoda, stated in early
February 2014 that that those officers standing in the front lines of riot
control received pay bonuses, and that they received bonuses for capturing
protesters, included added years of service.
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Defensive line of "Berkut" unitmen
in riot
gear by the building of the Cabinet of Ministers during 2013 Euromaidan
protests.
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2.1.2.1.1
Specific incidents
See
also: List of people killed during
Euromaidan
Writing
in Business Insider in February 2014, Harrison
Jacobs noted: "The Berkut ... has had a long history of brutality, abuse,
torture, and other measures in service of whatever political regime is in
control of Ukraine." According to Ukraine political expert Taras
Kuzio in November 2013, in recent years the force had been increasingly
used to intimidate anti-government demonstrators and to influence the electoral
process.
- 23–25 June 1995 — Assaulted Crimean Tatars near Sudak (Crimea) and helped criminals to escape angry crowd
- 18 July 1995, "Black Tuesday" — Prevented burial of Patriarch Volodymyr (Kiev)
- 24 August 1998 (Independence Day) — Violently dispersed peaceful protest of coal miners (for not having been paid for two and a half years) in Luhansk (governor of Luhansk Oblast - Oleksandr Yefremov)
- November 2000 — March 2001, Ukraine without Kuchma — Protected government from angry crowd
- 19 August 2013 — Attacked Parliamentarians during the 2013 Kiev political protests near city hall
- Beginning on November 22, 2013, attacked protesters of the Euromaidan
- 23 January 2014 — Kidnapped Alexandra Haylak, a 22-year-old volunteer of the Euromaidan medical service, stripped her of all identification, and left her in the woods near Vyshhorod.
- 23 January 2014 — Opposition member of Ukraine's parliament Andriy Parubiy reported that the Berkut was altering standard -issue stun grenades, making them killing devices by wrapping them with nails and other shrapnel and using them against Euromaidan protesters. Parubiy showed reporters samples of the altered weapons.
- On 23 January 2014, Berkut officers arrested protester and Zaporozhian Cossack Mykhailo Gavrylyuk. In temperatures approaching -15 °C, Berkut officers beat Gavrylyuk with blows to his head and torso, then stripped him naked and forced him to the ground. Whilst he was on the ground, Berkut officers put their feet on his head, as association football players would place their feet on a ball, and photographed themselves. A video was later uploaded to YouTube showed, in scenes reminiscent of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal Berkut officers posing for photographs with the naked Gavrylyuk. In a further attempt to humiliate him, Berkut offices forced Gavrylyuk to hold an ice-axe and attempted to make him proclaim, "I love Berkut". The video went viral and, apart from making Gavrylyuk a symbol of Euromaidan, drew an apology from Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko. Gavrylyuk revealed at a press conference after the incident that the Berkut officers also cut a couple of strands of the traditional Cossack forelocks (oseledets) from his head.
2.1.2.2
Defeating citizens' franchise in parliamentary elections
The
Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe confirmed witness accounts of voters
being blocked from access to polls and being attacked along with local election
officials who tried to frustrate the Berkut's practice of falsifying voters'
ballots in favor of Yanukovych's Party
of Regions candidates. Individual cases have been reported of citizens
grouping together and fighting back against the Berkut in order to preserve
election integrity and results.
2.1.3
Anti-semitism
Bernard-Henri Levy noted that in its last days
before the end of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and the
Berkut's disbandment, on its website the group accused Euromaidan leaders of
being Jewish; one accused was Ihor
Kolomoyskyi. Berkut had posted a picture with a superimposed Star of David
and Swastika in order to depict an alliance of Nazis and Jews against
pro-Russians in Eastern Ukraine.
2.2
Dissolution
On
25 February 2014 acting Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov signed a decree on the
dissolution of the Berkut. By then the force had become synonymous with police
brutality for many Euromaidan protesters.
The force was dissolved four days after the opposition forces that had
supported Euromaidan (they included Avakov) had taken control of the Ukrainian government.
In response to the disbanding, Russia started to issue former members of the Berkut Russian
passports in the Crimean capital Simferopol.
On 21 March 2014 in Crimea, Berkut was still active.
One
of the armed separatist groups in Donetsk and Lugansk in June 2014 claimed to
be composed of "more than 1000" former Berkut officers and other
former servicemen and police officers.
However,
there are many ex-Berkut servicemen under the command of the Interior Ministry.
They are fighting alongside the regular army
and the re-established National Guard of Ukraine, which is
partly composed of former EuroMaidan activists, in the War
in Donbass.
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Berkut officers stand guard during a football
match
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2.3
Organization
The
Berkut was a reserve unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
(MVS) and subordinates to the regional (oblast) departments of the MVS. Until
1997 it was under the direct supervision of HUBOZ (Chief
Directorate in Fight of Organized Crime). Due to formation of another quick
reaction force unit Sokil (Falcon) under HUBOZ, Berkut was later
reassigned under the supervision of the Directorate of Public Security of the
MVS. The main duty of the unit was the security of the general public and
enforcement of civil order, especially during mass public events (demonstrations,
parades, sport or concert events, etc.), or in places of increased criminal
activity as part of the fight against organized crime. The Berkut have also
been assigned to provide protective custody of certain individuals, such as
witnesses in criminal trials.
Berkut
members were paid 1.5-2 times more than the average Ukrainian
police officer. Depending on the region, the Berkut's units ranged in
manpower from 50 to 600. Also depending on its dislocation, the unit could have
been commissioned as a company or regiment. As of January 2008, the force
consisted of two regiments, six separate battalions, and 19 companies totaling
3,250 members. One of the regiments is located in Kiev, while another one is
stationed in Crimea.
During the Euromaidan protest movement Berkut members from more the
pro-Euromaidan Western Ukraine complained to the media that they
were "mistrusted" by top commanders.
The
Berkut militia were distinguished by their maroon
berets (also known as "krapovy beret"), an honorary headgear.
Standard Berkut equipment includes AKM assault rifles, PK
machine guns, Dragunov SVD sniper
rifles, UAZ-469
jeeps and the BTR-70 armoured personnel carriers.
Some units are issued with the SPG-9 recoilless rifle and RPG-7 on a need
basis.
3
Crimea
3.1
History
On
25 February 2014, following the 2014 Ukrainian
revolution, acting Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov
signed a decree that dissolved the agency. The Crimean Berkut unit took part in
maintaining public order during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and Euromaidan. Media and Euromaidan
demonstrators had accused Berkut of being excessively violent during these
events. The following day, the newly appointed Russian de facto mayor of Sevastopol, Alexei Chaly, announced the
formation of a new Berkut special police force "in order to maintain
public order in Sevastopol, to prevent unlawful acts of provocation, riots and
looting." Chaly then offered asylum to former Berkut troops, saying
"These people adequately fulfilled their duty to the country, have shown
themselves to be real men, and are now abandoned to the mercy of this rabid
pack of Nazis. For faithful service, today criminal cases are brought against
them. At this difficult time our city needs decent men who could form the basis
of self-defense groups, and in the future the municipal police. We are ready to
provide for them if they join us in our struggle, and to offer safety to their
families.” In response to the disbanding, Russia started to issue former
members of the Berkut Russian passports
in the Crimean capital Simferopol. On 21 March 2014 in Crimea, Berkut was still active. As a
result of the 2014 Crimean crisis and the referendum in
Crimea the Russian Federation granted accession to the Republic of
Crimea and Sevastopol as federal
subjects of Russia on 21 March 2014.A Three days later Russia announced
that the Crimean Berkut unit would preserve its name as it incorporates into
Russian Interior Ministry.
3.2
Organization
4
Notes
A.^ The status of Crimea and
Sevastopol is currently under dispute by Ukraine and Russia; Ukraine and the
majority of the world consider Crimea an autonomous republic
of Ukraine and Sevastopol one of
Ukraine's cities with special status, while Russia, on the other hand, considers Crimea
a federal subjects
of Russia and Sevastopol one of its
federal cities. Both are completely under Russian control.
Видеоролик ко Дню
полиции от МВД по Республике Крым
Video of the Day of the Police of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs of the Republic of Crimea
Published on Nov 13, 2014
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