DPR studies status bill, hopes for peace with Kyiv
MOSCOW. Sept 15 (Interfax) - The leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic are counting on a peaceful resolution of the conflict with Kyiv, DRP first deputy prime minister Andrei Purgin told Interfax on Monday.
"We are waiting for the bill, we will study (it) and we hope for a peaceful settlement," he said, commenting on a bill regarding a special status for Donbas, proposed in Verkhovna Rada on Monday.
It was reported that in this bill, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko proposes a three-year special self-administration regime to be introduced in "specific districts" of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and early local elections there to be held on November 9, 2014.
Under the president's bill, which was publicized by the Ukrainska Pravda online news outlet, "a special local self-administration regime will be introduced, from the effective date of this law, temporarily, for three years, in the specific districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which cover districts, cities, towns and villages located within the antiterrorist-operation zone on the effective day of this law."
Under the bill, the state guarantees to "prevent any criminal persecution and prosecution, imposing of the administrative liability and penalizing persons who took part in the events in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions." The bill also "bans discrimination, persecution and prosecution of persons in connection with the events that took place in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions."
Under the bill, the state guarantees the right to use the Russian or any other language "in social and private life, the learning of, and support for the Russian and any other language, and their free development and equality."
The bill also stipulates local elections in this region. Its final provisions recommend November 9, 2014 as a date for early local elections.
The bill also introduces a special appointment procedure for senior prosecutors and judges, leaving these matters up to local self-governed bodies. The Cabinet and other central executive authorities and relevant local governments will sign agreements for economic, social and cultural development in the specific districts.
The bill also stipulates the signing of an agreement for economic, social and cultural development of the specific districts.