UKRAINE-HISTORY-UPA-RALLY

A communist supporter shouts slogans during a protest action in central Kiev, 14 October 2007. Police were trying to separate left-wing demonstrators and Ukrainian nationalists marking the 65th anniversary of the founding of a Ukrainian Insurgents Army (UPA), a World War Two guerrilla movement that fought both Nazi invaders and Soviet forces. Veterans of Ukraine’s nationalist uprising in the 1940s and 1950s demonstrated 14 October in Kiev, while pro-Communist groups staged a counter-demonstration nearby, underlined historical tensions in this ex-Soviet republic. About 5,000 people rallied in the centre of the capital to mark the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which spent years fighting Soviet rule. Meanwhile, several hundred leftists and Communists gathered nearby to protest against the rally: they say the UPA was pro-Nazi. Riot police were out in force to prevent the two sides from meeting.
AFP PHOTO / GENIA SAVILOV