Ukraine opposition slams arrests

KIEV, Ukraine -- Opposition leaders have vowed to continue their campaign to oust Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma despite 200 arrests at the latest protest.

An estimated 10,000 demonstrators, armed with bottles, stones and planks fought running battles with riot police using tear gas during Friday's rally in central Kiev.

Taras Stetskiv, a leader of the anti-Kuchma National Salvation Front, said demonstrators would picket the prosecutor general's office and the Interior Ministry building on Sunday to demand the release of their comrades.

Kuchma is under pressure from opponents who say his administration is corrupt and accuse him of being involved in the death of internet journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, whose headless corpse was found outside Kiev last November.

Scores of protesters were injured in the latest demonstration, and an estimated 200 arrested, most of them at Kiev railway station.

"There was everything: violence, property damage, resistance to the security forces using metal rods and bricks," said Deputy Internal Minister Olexander Kharlamov.

"Those who committed these crimes must be held responsible."

Opposition leaders, however, accused the Kuchma regime of intimidation.

"Friday's events show Ukraine has turned into a police state," Stetskiv said. "We are going to sue the police and hold new protests."

Kuchma has defied calls to resign insisting he still has the support of the majority of the population.

He was quoted as telling the German magazine Focus: "I was voted in by more than 16 million people. What should I tell them? That 3,000 demonstrators forced me to resign?"

He added: "The voters still support me."

Friday's demonstration began when about 200 people tried to storm a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the 187th anniversary of the birth of Ukraine's most famed poet, Taras Shevchenko.

It was one of the largest protests against Kuchma, and the first to erupt into serious violence, with at least three policemen injured by flaming Molotov cocktails and several passers-by hit by stones.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Parliament of Ukraine
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