What and who hinders reform of the Interior Ministry in the Ukraine?

Why reform the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine can not move? This says the expert of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Oleg Martynenko.

Problems in the Interior Ministry were always, to change something after the Revolution of dignity in Ukraine?

The result of a human rights report that we prepare every year, suggests that the reform in any sphere has not progressed quite significantly, as the leadership of our country in a fairly transparent manner hinted EU representatives. MIA reform could go dynamically and successfully, but it does not start for several reasons, including because of the armed conflict in the Donbass. The system is old and ossified, which transforms any human material, no matter how progressive and good he was. If we do not change the system of work of the Ministry and the Interior Ministry, the new cadets, prepared under the auspices Ekateriny Zguladze (Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine – ed.), Become corrupt officers in the near future.

We have to start reforms, and that makes Zghuladze. This area of ​​reform has received grants from international organizations and thanks to including a financial component, we can move forward. Where there is no adequate budget financing, we are doomed to many years of financial deficits and the same long reformation. Most likely, we need to prepare for it. Let me remind you that the Polish and Lithuanian police are reformed for 20 years, even with the help of the European Union. This is a lengthy process.

But you say that police reform in Ukraine has not started yet?    

This is true. If we assume that the beginning of the reform bills are registered, you can call it the beginning of the reform. But if we talk about specific changes, today only preparing for the abolition of the General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, traffic police should also be transformed into patrol. However, all this is only a preparatory stage, not the Reformation. If we get a new patrol in June, there is a problem of what to do with the old service – 2000 old staff people have to go somewhere. If we dismiss them without a legal basis, then we are no better than the regime of Yanukovych. Therefore, there is a problem of certification of old and new patrol on the same starting conditions. This Bude last longer than until June.

In November 2014 the Ministry of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov presented the reform of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine. Because of this concept is a good one?

We are the director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group Evgeniem Zaharovym in October 2014 prepared a strategy for the development of the internal affairs bodies. On this basis, and with the participation of our Ministry has developed the concept of priority measures of reforming the Ministry of Interior. We wrote about the fact that the Ministry must remain civilized service. This means that the National Guard under and armed part of the border service should go to the Ministry of Defense. But in a counter-terrorist operation Minister insists that the National Guard under and Border Protection with weapons are yet to remain a part of the Ministry of Interior.

We have tried, together with the Ministry of the Interior Ministry to prepare a law on Internal Affairs, which prescribed the political department of the central apparatus of the components – the National Guard under and the police, so that the minister could not directly control them, and could only recommend. For example, how does the Prime Minister with respect to any agency. If this holds true, then we are left with the political hand of the Interior Ministry, if not – we have democratic governance. This bill criticized by some due to the fact that such laws do not exist in Europe. It’s true. But it is vital in the law for the first time to designate that the Minister does not control the police, emergency services, migration and border services, and so on. Policy – separately, the practice – separately.

I can talk about two bills, in which we participated together with Evgeniem Zaharovym – is a bill to the National Police and the draft law on Internal Affairs. We worked with the Department legal support for the Interior Ministry, which oversees Zghuladze. We were ready for a fantastic period of one and a half months to write two bills so that they take into account the possible European practice in the field of policing, and that they displayed the most reformist beginning. Ministry to build the work in such a way that we have not worked with lawyers every day, although we were ready. We met only three times for 1.5-2 hours, where arguing with lawyers arguing the need for specific language in the law. As a result, we have reached a consensus with the lawyers about three-quarters. Last quarter, they have modified without our participation, and when we saw this last piece, all the experts are not political organizations, said it was no good and should be recycled. Interior Ministry’s legal department said ‘yes’ and somewhere in a week and a half there were bills to the Cabinet (these texts, we have not seen).

If we consider this style of work inherent to the Ministry of the Interior Ministry for years, it can be understood. If we assume that we are working in a new way, and the Ministry is ready to take our expertise, I do not believe that 6:00 with enough lawyers for the birth of two really good bill. Now, when all the bills put forward, we do not think that this will be a quick process. If the Cabinet will take it quickly, these bills will have a lot of shortcomings, which we have to redo. When there is a time to gather experts and qualitatively more or less do the bills, and we do not do this, the foreigners, who are monitoring the situation, too, will consider the process of reforming the Ministry of Internal Affairs insufficient.

Sourse, 05/05/2015