Ukrainians plan new protest

KIEV, Ukraine -- Opposition leaders are planning a rally for Sunday in their bid to force Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's resignation.

It comes after scores of protesters were injured in Friday's demonstration, and an estimated 200 arrested, most of them at Kiev railway station.

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 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.

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.

"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?"

"The voters still support me," he added.

Kuchma said no one should doubt that authorities would deal decisively with similar protest.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Parliament of Ukraine
Ukraine

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