A rally took place in The Hague’s center to commemorate those who died in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa on 2 May 2014. The protesters demanded those guilty of innocent people’s killings should be brought to justice, and also urged the media and public to turn the spotlight on the Ukraine crisis.
“This year, we have again gathered in the center of The Hague to pay tribute to Odessa victims who died three years ago,” said Dmitry Pisarev, an organizer of the rally. “Despite of the fact that a longer period of time is getting us further from those gruesome events, we do not want Odessa to be forgotten. Until justice is won in Odessa, until perpetrators are punished, we will be rallying and drawing attention to the events in that city.”
The West has imposed an information blockade regarding the developments in Ukraine, he said.
“What is going on there is whitewashed or hushed up here, as if unanimously consented,” he added. “Today’s protest of ours is another attempt to break the information blockade and address people directly.”
Another participant in the rally, Onno Frowein, said that Dutch authorities had ignored results of the consultative referendum on the association between the European Union and Ukraine. Those Nazi followers from the Right Sector far-right party and Azov battalion, who killed people in Odessa, would be granted with the right to visa-free travel to the Netherlands and other Schengen countries, he said.
The Black Sea port city of Odessa saw riots on May 2, 2014, during which Right Sector militants (the movement recognized as an extremist organization in Russia) and football fans from Kiev set the Trade Unions House on fire. A tent camp where activists were collecting signatures for a referendum on Ukraine’s federalization and for the status of a state language for Russian was flattened. The activists sought shelter in the building. However, the attackers did not let anyone leave the burning Trade Unions House building. Around 48 people were reported dead and nearly 250 injured in the clashes and in the fire in the Trade Unions House.