Yatseniuk wants Mayor Ratushnyak charged with fanning interethnic hatred

Yatseniuk accused the Uzhgorod mayor of inflicting wounds to his 21-year old girl campaign worker. The girl is now in hospital in Lviv and receiving treatment for brain concussion. She will check out in a couple of days, Yatseniuk said after visiting her. The lawmaker said he will protect her family and supervise the accident personally.

This was not merely a cruel beating, this was an abuse of one’s office, he added. “Clearly, this is an official crime,” said Yatseniuk.

Yatseniuk said there was another dimension to the incident, accusing the Uzhgorod mayor of fanning interethnic hatred. [Ratushnyak repeatedly referred to Yatseniuk as “an arrogant Jew” using the derogatory now and common in Western Ukraine before 1945 word “Zhyd” – Ed.] “With over 100 nationalities living in Zakarpattya, such a mayor is a real threat for interethnic peace. Yesterday, he started a war against the Jews. Probably, today he is attacking the Hungarians. Tomorrow he will wage war on the Russians, Poles and the rest,” Yatseniuk stressed.

The whole scandal must be tried by a court and the Uzhgorod mayor must be held accountable for the crime of fanning interethnic feud, he said.

“We have the opportunity to stop lozinskys and ratushnyaks and others. The big question is whether there is a political will to do it. If there is no will at present, I will have the political will after Jan. 17, 2010 [date of the next presidential election],” Yatseniuk assured.

The Mayor of Uzhgorod, Serhy Ratushnyak, faced with exposing media reports, strongly attacked journalists and Arseny Yatseniuk. “This arrogant Jew Yatseniuk had been licking the boots of those in power. He is now running for president using the dirty money he gets from his sponsors who are bandits and contrabandists,” Ratushnyak charged in his press release.