Relatives of peaceful protesters killed on Maidan and Euromaidan SOS initiative volunteers appeal to the Dutch voters to support Ukrainian people in their effors of building a free democratic society.
We have lost our closest ones during the Revolution of Dignity. They confronted publicly the corrupt regime that undermined human dignity and in front of the whole world, at the heart of the capital city, the civic protest was shot down by the law enforcement officers. More than 100 people aged between 17 and 83 were killed.
We still find it hard to walk the street, which turned into a shooting gallery for the governmental special forces in those days of February 2014. They were firing and targeting at unarmed people, at those who under EU and Ukrainian flags demanded better future for their country, but instead they were buried wrapped up in those flags.
We are convinced that the best way to honour the memory of those who have died for the freedom and independence of the State of Ukraine would be the actual assertion of human rights in Ukraine.
It is now that we have a chance to build a democratic state with our own hands. We do it despite the resistance of the old system and the military aggression of the Russian Federation with its annexation of the Crimea and launching a conflict in Donbas.
The past several years have added strength and determination to the civil society for it to take control of the country. Thousands of people have come together in horizontal volunteer networks even as far as the smallest towns. They have taken full responsibility to work on a daily basis on reforming our country without any help from the politicians. These ordinary people do some extraordinary things. However, none of such achievements appear in the world news.
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The people of Ukraine have for the second time in the past decade stood up for their choice to build a democratic state based on the values similar to those of the European countries. A very high price was paid for that choice too.
The results of the April referendum in Holland will also have impact on our future. The world that we all live in is all integrated. And we are counting on our efforts to be supported by the people of good will.
Thus, we, the families of the Heaven’s Hundred and volunteers of Euromaidan SOS, call on the people of the Netherlands to come to the referendum on 6 April 2016 and say “Yes” to the human rights principles which know no borders.