Fury in Ukraine after police accused of raping woman

Hundreds of Ukrainians attempted Tuesday to storm a police building in a small southern village after two officers were accused of beating and raping a young woman, in a case that has reignited fury over police brutality in the former Soviet republic. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych took personal control of the investigation into allegations made by 29-year-old Iryna Krashkova, while the interior ministry dismissed local police chiefs. According to television footage, residents of the village of Vradiyivka in the southern Mykolayiv region shouted "Shame!" as they threw bottles and stones at the local police department. The attack on the building came after authorities refused to detain one of two policemen accused by Krashkova of taking her into the woods and raping her last Wednesday. She remained hospitalised on Tuesday with a broken skull, facial injuries and multiple bruises from the attack. Shots could be heard as police used tear gas against protesters who tried to storm the building, some of whom were covered in blood. Locals also rallied in front of the police building for nearly two hours later Tuesday, demanding the arrest of the second suspect. Krashkova, a resident of Vradiyivka which is located 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the city of Mykolayiv, accused two policemen, Dmytro Polishchuk and Yevhen Dryzhak, of assaulting her. Police refused to detain Dryzhak, claiming he was on duty that night and could therefore not have raped her. A taxi driver who is alleged to have helped the two policemen by taking the woman into the woods was also detained. The incident caused shockwaves in the capital of Kiev, with the president's office saying he had asked the General Prosecutor to launch an investigation. Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko dismissed local police bosses, including his chief in the Mykolayiv region, but asked local forces to investigate the storming of the police department. Zakharchenko, speaking in parliament on Tuesday, admitted that the crime cast a shadow over the forces of law and order in the country of 46 million people. "Such shameful facts bring to nought all the positive police achievements," the interior minister said in televised remarks. Ukraine's opposition said it would put together a special parliamentary commission to look into the crime and called for the dismissal of the interior minister. "We believe that Ukraine cannot have an interior minister without control of a police force which torments, beats and rapes Ukrainians," said prominent opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk.