Police And Fences Keep Rival Protesters Apart In Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Extra police were deployed as the Ukrainian Constitutional Court resumed hearings yesterday into the standoff between the former Soviet republic’s President and Prime Minister over the dissolution of parliament and a call for early elections.

Ukrainian riot police protect the Constitutional Court headquarters in downtown Kyiv, on Thursday, while supporters of Viktor Yanukovich hold their flags and shout slogans. Thousands of both Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and President Viktor Yushchenko blocked the entrances to Ukraine's Constitutional Court on Thursday, prompting riot police to intervene to allow judges in for the second day of hearings into the legality of a presidential decree dissolving parliament.
Thousands of supporters of President Yushchenko and the Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych, gathered at the court in Kiev, where police and a metal fence separated rivals to avoid a repeat of Wednesday’s chaos when judges were prevented from entering the building for an hour.

The court is to rule on the legality of Mr Yushchenko’s dissolution of parliament this month and call for new elections.

The President and Mr Yanukovych both say that they will respect the court’s decision.

Proceedings are being watched closely by outside powers, anxious about the political direction of this country of 47 million people, located between the European Union and Nato to the west and Russia to the east.

Source: Times Online