Posted on 12/30/2004 1:52:16 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
KIEV, Ukraine -- Odds that outgoing Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma will face charges of killing a journalist four years ago are mounting, The Times of London reports.
In June, a parliamentary committee accused Kuchma of involvement in dissident journalist Georgiy Gongadze's acid-bath and beheading, and now a former bodyguard has revealed what he says are secret recordings of Kuchma ordering the killing.
Kuchma has immunity from prosecution as president and has sought guarantees from his newly elected successor, Viktor Yushchenko, that neither he nor his relatives will be charged after he leaves office.
That, however, is unlikely as solving the notorious murder was one of Yushchenko's key campaign issues when he said he had "a moral obligation," along with finding out who poisoned Yushchenko himself with dioxin.
At least 11 journalists have died under suspicious circumstances in Ukraine over the past decade during Kuchma's rule.
By Jeremy Page
Pressure grows for President Kuchma to face trial in Ukraine
FOR four harrowing years, Lesya Gongadze has waited for the Ukrainian authorities to tell her who beheaded her son, Georgiy, and allow her to bury his mutilated corpse. To no avail she has spent countless hours in the mortuary, where his acid-burnt body still lies, and endless days being questioned by prosecutors about his work as a reporter exposing high-level corruption.
But since Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition leader, won the presidential election rerun on Sunday, hopes of bringing her son’s killer to justice have taken on a new lease of life. And one of the key suspects is Leonid Kuchma, the outgoing Ukraine President.
A parliamentary committee accused him in June of involvement in Mr Gongadze’s murder and a former bodyguard has revealed what he says are secret recordings of Mr Kuchma ordering the killing.
“They know all the answers,” Mrs Gongadze told The Times. “I am worn out and tired, desperate. They are monsters. They want to chew up a mother’s heart piece by piece.
“My son was killed because of the political mess in our country. He was a great, talented and free man.
“He was selected by the State to be a sacrificial lamb to show others what happens to free men.”
Gongadze’s murder is the most gruesome and notorious of all the scandals that tainted Mr Kuchma’s ten-year rule over this former Soviet republic.
It triggered massive protests against Mr Kuchma in 2000, which political analysts say paved the way for the “orange revolution” of recent weeks. It could now be his undoing.
Mr Kuchma has immunity from prosecution as President and wants guarantees from his successor that neither he nor his relatives will be charged after he leaves office.
But many opposition MPs — and many ordinary Ukrainians — still want to put him on trial.
Mr Yushchenko has highlighted four cases he wants to pursue — Gongadze’s murder, the cut-price privatisation of Ukraine’s top steel mill, the falsification of last month’s election results and his own poisoning with dioxin.
“I have a moral obligation to Gia,” he said during campaigning, using Mr Gongadze’s nickname. “Those guilty will be prosecuted — not only this, but other important cases.”
Evhen Marchuk, a former Defence Minister, said last week that Mr Gongadze’s case would be solved within six months if Mr Yushchenko won the election.
Andrei Fedor, a lawyer for Mrs Gongadze, agreed. But he said that no progress would be made unless Mr Yushchenko dismissed Svyatoslav Piskun, the prosecutor-general.
“Yushchenko must choose a new prosecutor-general who is moral, professional and effective,” he said. Mr Piskun was sacked in October 2003 amid accusations of corruption, but Mr Kuchma reinstated him this month.
Also key to the Gongadze investigation is Mykola Melnychenko, a former major in Mr Kuchma’s security detail, who has released the excerpts of what he claims are secret recordings of the President.
They reveal a voice that Ukrainians widely believe to be Mr Kuchma’s ranting against Mr Gongadze.
“I’m telling you, drive him out, throw him out,” the voice says. “Give him to the Chechens . . . drive him out, undress him, leave him without his trousers, let him sit there.”
Mr Gongadze was editor of a news website Ukrainska Pravda, which often reported on high-level corruption. He also travelled to the United States days before Mr Kuchma visited in 1999 and organised a news conference denouncing the lack of media freedom in Ukraine.
At least 11 journalists have died under suspicious circumstances in Ukraine over the past decade.
Mr Melnychenko, who has political asylum in the United States, has so far only released about 10 per cent of 800 hours of recordings. He has promised to hand over the rest to the Ukrainian authorities once Mr Kuchma leaves office.
But Mrs Gongadze fears that even under Mr Yushchenko, it will take time before reporters can work without fear of meeting her son’s fate.
She said: “The old people are still in power. And thieves are thieves and will stay thieves. He [Yushchenko] needs to remove all that human excrement from the body if he wants to heal the State.
“They just don’t care about human life or the fate of this country. They are bloody psychopaths sick with money. Money diggers. Sick.”
Kuchma had better start looking into retirement property in Belarus. He'll be fine until Belarus goes democratic also.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and other members of the outgoing Ukrainian elite may be prosecuted by the new government, President-elect Viktor Yushchenko has revealed.
"The President has to answer under the law like any other citizen," he said of Mr Kuchma.
"Any citizen, any businessman, any politician whose actions do not correspond to national law must be punished, whether . . . they are the president's son-in-law or the cleaner in his office," Mr Yushchenko told The Guardian.
The son-in-law he meant is Viktor Pinchuk, who has been accused by his critics of using his relationship to Mr Kuchma to buy state assets cheaply.
He added: "The respect for the law is one of the main methods of creating respect for human rights. Those who do not observe national law will never find understanding from this government."
He said he could not exclude the possibility of criminal charges against local leaders in the industrial east.
Maybe Kuchma can hide out in Little Rock or Chappaqua.
Ping
To some degree this further convinces me that he is loosing his marbles. I m not saying its not good to go after those who commit crimes. But doing it right now is not exactly a good move maybe 6 months from now when the country is more settled. Adding a bit of oil to the fire might turn over the pot.
Going on a witch hunt to root out the evil south-eastern oligarchs and beuracrats that do not share his ideals where Ukraine should go ergo EU might backfire fairly quickly. I m a firm believer in "speaking softly and carrying a big stick" but here its the other way around it seems.
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