Word of warning: Vote for self-rule would spell disaster, says Ukraine

Separatist referendum due in country’s eastern regions today.

MARIUPOL/ SLAVIANSK:

Ukraine’s Acting President Oleksander Turchinov told eastern regions gripped by a pro-Russian uprising that they would be courting catastrophe if they voted ‘yes’ in a separatist referendum on Sunday.

The vote, organised on an ad hoc basis with no clear control of authenticity of ballot papers or voter lists, could determine if the Western-backed Kiev government and pro-Russian eastern regions find a compromise, or whether Ukraine slides into civil war. Violence has grown along with the bitter rhetoric in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where the vote will take place.

“A dreadful terror is in train with the support of a large part of the local population,” Turchinov said on his website on Saturday. “It is a complex problem when a population deceived by [Russian] propaganda support terrorists.”

The separatists say they are defending themselves against a Ukrainian government they portray as ‘fascist’ and anti-Russian. Ukraine, backed by the United States and the European Union, accuses Russia of destabilising it, a charge that Moscow denies.

Turchinov urged eastern regions to reject the ‘People’s Republic of Donetsk’ declared by the Russian-speaking rebels, who control a string of cities following weeks of increasingly fierce fighting.

He appealed to political forces in the east to join ‘round table’ talks on greater autonomy.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2014.