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Ukrainian Protesters Receive Mass Text Message Ordering Them To Disperse
schneidafunk writes " Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.' was the message sent to thousands of protesters as a new law prohibiting public demonstrations went into effect."
From NYTimes: "... Protesters were concerned that the government seemed to be using cutting-edge technology from the advertising industry to pinpoint people for political profiling. Three cellphone companies in Ukraine ... denied that they had provided the location data to the government or had sent the text messages, the newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda reported. Kyivstar suggested that it was instead the work of a 'pirate' cellphone tower set up in the area."
I've been following this stuff all day, because this just got seriously violent:
> Police authorized to use firearms, two dead from shooting already
> Ban on using fire hoses in sub-zero weather lifted
> Hospitals tending to wounded protesters have been attacked by police
> Snipers out in force
> Armored Personnel Carriers already deployed, an Army tank unit is being moved into the city
> Opposition members of government resigning en masse
> over 100,000 protesters in Kiev main square
Things are very bad for Ukraine right now. I don't fully understand the ideological issues they're fighting over, but I can certainly recognize the nature of the government's response.
Everybody should scan through this - the images alone are powerful: https://twitter.com/Euromaidan...
the NSA is, on pro rata of the population, 20 times smaller than the Stasi.
Translation: It's okay, as long as we do it more efficiently.
they don't have any enforcement arm
Translation: Outsourcing is the new black.
they don't systematically create files on their citizens
Translation: It's not a file if you never look at it! And it's not systematic because... we... uh... use computers to do it!
Nor to they hire informant among the public.
Translation: Paying people is SO 1980. We have Facebook now.
they don't seem to be politically active
Translation: Outsourcing is the new black.
I don't fully understand the ideological issues they're fighting over
A quick summary:
The protests started small and peaceful when president Yanukovich bowed to Russian pressure and reversed the political course away from signing the association agreement and trade deal with EU. Many people had high hopes for that and got disappointed. Still, the protests were in 10,000 people bracket, demanding to keep the EU course, and were almost dissolving in a few weeks, except for a few die-hard fans.
But then the rulers decided they could simply "clean up" the remaining protesters at night using riot police. They beat up the poor guys (mostly students) badly. Dozens of people were heavily injured and had to stay in hospital. A few have gone missing. Extreme unjustified brutality was filmed on multiple cameras.
That's when the protests scaled up to 500,000 people at some points. They also formed militia troops from ex-military to keep them safe. And the demands shifted from the EU topic to the replacement and punishment of the police minister, prime minister, and possibly the president. Still, the protests were largely peaceful, they were just not going to dissolve this time. And the president chose to ignore them completely and wait it out. It's winter, after all.
After two months of waiting, seeing people won't go home, they decided to criminalize the protests, free speech in press and social media, and a whole range of other common freedoms, giving more power to the police at the same time. Bypassing all due procedures (not even counting votes), a 10-pack of corresponding laws was passed. Then everyone with a brain saw it was sliding towards a dictatorship, and disagreements with the riot police got hotter and hotter, until it eventually came to tear gas on one side and Molotov cocktails on the other side, and now also bullets.
If you want more detail, browse the BBC new archives, their coverage is generally good. The only common mistake in Western press is that they still call these protests "pro-EU", when in fact now it's more "anti-Yanukovitch and his party". The most active protesters are from the nationalist right wing and are strongly against any union either with EU or with Russia. And the bigger, more peaceful crowd is also more concerned about overthrowing the oppressive government right now, and discuss the foreign policy later.