Destruction of the largest urban park in Europe

[Brigadire]

Dear Sirs

In Kharkov, Ukraine from 20 May to 2 June 2010 there was confrontation between city authorities and residents of the city. The reason for the confrontation was the cutting of trees for highway construction in the central city park. The city authorities have attributed the construction of roads need to prepare for the Euro 2012 football matches in our city. In fact, the main reason is the construction of the illegal sale of land by the city authorities in Kharkiv under private development. Realizing that the destruction of the park in the downtown area of 130 hectares, significantly worsen the ecological condition of Kharkov, city residents have the protection of the park.
Everything was happening quite harshly. The citizens who defended the park to break up the militia, the people who passively resisted the authorities (just stood there hugging the trees) were arrested and beaten. On the defenders of the park set against the bandits and crushed by bulldozers.
When people are trying to protect the park from deforestation climbed trees, lumberjacks sawing trees together with people.
Hard to believe that such things happen in a civilized country in the 21 century. But unfortunately, it is a fact.
We gathered video footage and eyewitness accounts of what happened on the site gorkypark[dot]x10[dot]mx.

The fact that happened after the above events and how things are now, you can find on www[dot]kharkovforest[dot]com.

 

[Old Rocks]

Greed. The common denominator.

 

[gslack]

I thought Europe was way ahead of us on this type of thing? We are told by the environmentalists here how European countries are so much better than we are about preserving things like this... Seems all is not a green utopia in Europe after all...

 

[Trajan]

ooops, thought this was a thread on Sarkozy bulldozing Banlieues'...

 

[Brigadire]

With your permission'll bring a little theme. Forgive me for my ignorance of the language I use google for translation.

After the above events, after we force drove out of the park, there have been several developments.

Many participants of the opposition had been convicted of "resisting the authorities". Two convicted in the Amnesty International recognized
Prisoners of Conscience www[dot]amnesty[dot]org/en/library/asset/EUR50/008/2010/en/fdc82d1d-8a4f-4902-986d-bbb97306ef64/eur500082010en.html .

We have a civil hearing on the protection of green spaces in our city. A hearing was held on June 19. He came on a few thousand people, residents of the city. But the city authorities have falsified the results of the hearings. This event has been chosen deliberately small room in which people were only supporting the position of city authorities. Others remained on the street. Despite the fact that all who came received a mandate of voting, the votes just were in the hall. www[dot]youtube[dot]com/watch?v=awXK3cAXHVs.

In our treatment finally reacted to UEFA. They sent a formal request to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. But the authorities are trying to deceive and UEFA. Our President says that the road is a bypass www[dot]president[dot]gov[dot]ua/en/news/17424.html . In order to understand that this is nonsense enough to look at a map of Kharkov: maps[dot]google[dot]com[dot]ua/maps/ms?hl=ru&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=50.027897,36.244197&spn=0.010201,0.025663&t=h&z=15&msid=104412723484450370923 .
What could be the bypass of the city center and how it can pass through the park?

Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Kolesnikov said that "we cut down instead of build a new park." We believe that Gorky Park our property. We are proud that in the heart of our city is untouched piece of nature. Do you think if the Parisians said today demolish their Eiffel Tower, and then someday instead build a new one, how would they react to this?

Sorry for my post is excessively politicized - I do not like politics, but for some reason in our problem it is becoming more and more.