SIMFEROPOL, January 24. /ITAR-TASS/. The parliament of Ukraine’s Crimea has urged President Viktor Yanukovich to declare a state of emergency in the country gripped by riots against new laws aimed to curb public protests.
“Violence is spilling over from Kiev’s Maidan (Independence Square) to Ukrainian regions like a tumor. In seven regions extremists are storming local governments, build barricades and are forming illegitimate bodies of power,” said an appeal by the presidium of Crimean parliament. “The fundamentals of the constitutional system and the system of government control are under a threat. We address Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, the Council for National Security and Defense and people’s deputies with an appeal to stop the rampage of lawlessness, anarchy and violence overwhelming the country, to declare a state of emergency,” it said.
The appeal offers “to stop budget financing of the regions that have declared themselves above the law and where the regime has been forcibly overthrown”.
In their appeal, Crimean parliamentarians said they had already appealed earlier for a state of emergency in case of a necessity. “If our voice had been heeded, Ukraine would not have found itself on the verge of a civil war,” the document said. The presidium of the Crimean parliament also urged citizens to transfer money to support interior troops, police from the Berkut special police force who “form a live shield in the way of getting rowdy extremists from armed gangs. They need our support today as never before. It is our civil duty to lend it,” the appeal said.