Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Parts of Yushchenko's speech at Maidan tonight (most of the text is paraphrased to some extent, not quoted directly):

- In the past 17 days, a new nation has been born, a truly European nation, all thanks to you, the people, who protested the falsifications in a peaceful and civilized way - not a single drop of blood has been shed

- Thank you to the army and the police; thank you to the mayor of Kyiv, Oleksandr Omelchenko

- The conditions that we put forward, our demands that have been satisfied:
  • The Supreme Court has cancelled the election results
  • The Central Election Commission, some of whose members betrayed tens of millions of people, has been disbanded
  • Election laws have been changed in order to avoid falsifications during the re-vote
  • The government that inspired falsifications has resigned
  • Prosecutor-general, Vasilyev, has resigned: he's paid a price for putting more value into phone conversations with Medvedchuk, Kuchma's administration chief, than the Ukrainian laws (Bilokon, minister of internal affairs, and others are to follow Vasilyev)
- A special thanks to the young people, the students - they initiated the most important events at Maidan. All of us here were students once - but what these young Ukrainian citizens have done is an incredible, exemplary deed

- Separatism, a nonsensical idea of autonomization - I'm addressing people of Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv regions: do not trust those of your local leaders who were lying to you; there is nothing to divide us as a people. The spirit of unity has been ruling Maidan for 17 days already - and we have to take this spirit and carry it over to every corner of this country

- No one's rights are going to be violated - no matter who you voted for, or what temple you go to to pray to God

- One step remains to victory - we all have to be well-organized and well-prepared on Dec. 26; the headquarters are now working on a specific plan; the tent city will not be disbanded but re-organized because everyone has to go to their regions and work hard for victory; the campaign headquarters and the rescue committee will still be making announcements from the stage at Maidan

- You are all heroes - be proud of yourself!

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