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| Europe |
| Ukraine Guards Glad to Work for Yushchenko |
| 2005-01-01 |
| Among the orange ribbons, rabbit ears and dyed hair of the Ukrainian students who have become the happy face of the Orange Revolution, a darker color has become more prominent: the green camouflage uniforms of a far-right nationalist group. "We are soldiers on an assignment," said one of them, Roman Dubynevych. "We are here to guard the revolution and to prevent Russia's interference." He commands a unit of the Ukrainian National Assembly-Self Defense Organization, which says it has provided much of the muscle behind the weeks of protests in support of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko — who preliminary results show won last Sunday's rerun of the presidential runoff. Although the protests have not been violent and Yushchenko promises to bring Western-style reforms to Ukraine, the presence of the group, known by its Ukrainian acronym UNA-UNSO, underlines concerns of Yushchenko's foes that his leadership will enflame nationalism and intense anti-Russian sentiment. As the number of orange-wearing protesters declined in recent weeks, UNA-UNSO's dark green uniforms and Iron Cross-like insignia got increasing notice. |
| Posted by:Fred |
#1 "We are here to guard the revolution and to prevent Russia’s interference."Cool. You go, Ukraine! :-D |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-01-01 3:21:50 PM |