Ukraine detains 12 riot police on suspicion of 'mass murder'

KIEV - Reuters

Riot police aim at anti-government protesters during clashes in central Kiev on February 18, 2014. AFP Photo

Twelve members of Ukraine's disbanded 'Berkut' riot police have been detained on suspicion of shooting peaceful participants in Kiev's months-long anti-government protests, a spokesman for the General Prosecutor said on Thursday.
   
More than 100 people were killed, most by police snipers, on the streets of the capital in the run-up to the ouster of Viktor Yanukovich on Feb. 21 and the 'Berkut' force have largely been considered responsible.
   
"By this morning twelve people had been detained, all of them suspected of mass murder on Institutska Street," a spokesman for the general prosecutor told Reuters.
   
Institutska, which leads off from Kiev's Independence Square or 'Maidan', saw the worst violence in Ukraine's 22 years of independence and has since been informally renamed as the Avenue of Heaven's Hundred, a reference to those killed.
   
In the final violent days of the protests dozens of people were picked off by police snipers and general police shooting.
  
Ukraine's acting Attorney General Oleh Makhnitsky said the detainees were members of a specialised force within the Berkut called the 'Black Unit'.
   
"The police officers of this company were trained for special operations including the killing of people. They were overseen by the presidential administration," Interfax Ukraine newswire quoted Makhnitsky as saying.
   
In late February the Interior Ministry disbanded the Berkut, whose name means golden eagle and signifies a predator capable of swooping quickly onto its prey.
   
Later on Thursday a special commision is due to hear the results of a preliminary investigation into the deaths at the 'Maidan' protests.