July 19 2004, 11:55

Grain harvest in Donetsk Region will be controlled by police

The entire process of grain harvest in Donetsk Oblast (eastern Ukraine) will be controlled by law enforcement bodies (militia), the regional newspaper Donbass has informed with reference to a spokesman of local militia department.

These measures have been assumed with the aim of preventing grain thefts, the spokesman said.

A militia officer has been already "assigned" to each agricultural enterprise in the region, he siad. Special purpose operative squads will be working in places where appearance of thieves is considered to be most likely. Militia has taken under observation all the routes of grain transportation from fields to storage facilities. It will be also preventing from unsanctioned use of harvest and other machinery, provided to local agricultural producers under "governmental guaranties", and will be permanently checking the conditions of storage and "safeguarding" of grain.

The newspaper informed that last year 71 criminal cases had been started in the region, 20 of which were connected with the facts of grain thefts "in large and especially large amounts". These crimes reportedly inflicted 6 million hryvnias of damage.