(photo Dymytro Yarosh the leader of a right-wing paramilitary group, Right Sector)
KIEV, Ukraine — In an effort to stabilize Ukraine and extend its authority, the interim government has set a deadline of Friday for turning in the illegal firearms that are now carried openly by so-called self-defense groups in Independence Square.
Members of the self-organized defense groups that formed to defend Independence Square and other protest sites during the uprising have been reluctant to comply. They contend that the weapons are needed to defend the country against a possible foreign invasion and to defend their freedoms from potential government abuse.
“It’s not normal to ask people to hand in their weapons in the situation we have now,” Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of a right-wing paramilitary group, Right Sector, said in an interview this week.
“Allow people to keep weapons at home,” Mr. Yarosh said, describing the logic of gun ownership in the context of Ukraine. “Then, when the enemy walks down the streets of your country, you can shoot him right from your own window.”
Members of Right Sector have not just hunting rifles but also military weapons that were seized from an Interior Ministry arsenal in western Ukraine...
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/world/europe/ukraine-sets-deadline-for-militias-to-surrender-illegal-guns.html?hpw&rref=world&_r=0
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