KIEV, April 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Deputies of the town hall in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk have urged Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, the national parliament, to pass a law on decriminalizing participants in the actions of protest that have been held in the past days in the country’s eastern and southern regions against the new authorities.
“We demand that the Verkhovna Rada should pass within the shortest possible period of time a law on decriminalizing participants in the latest events with the east and south of the country,” the report said. “We’re confident that the adoption of this law will become a starting point for talks on a peaceful settlement of the conflict and preventing bloodshed.”
“We are against the use of force in resolution of this conflict, since the language of ultimatums is inadmissible and only a fruitful dialogue is possible here,” the appeal said.
“We strongly believe that the main thing is to prevent bloodshed,” the deputies said. “The people standing in the building of the Security Service of Ukraine and outside it are residents of Lugansk, whose interest and rights we must defend.”
The appeal also urges the Rada to adopt a law on local referendums so that people would have an opportunity to determine their position on important and pressing problems freely.
“It is likewise important to give Russian the status of a second state language within the shortest possible period and to put full stop to contradictions once and for all,” it said. “We are a united people and an unnatural deterioration of the language problem will not divide us.