Odesa editor is gunned down (08/17/97)

Odesa editor is gunned down

by Khristina Lew
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The founding editor of Odesa's leading independent newspaper was gunned down one block from his office on August 11. Borys Derevianko, editor-in-chief of Vechernaya Odesa, died after being shot four times during his morning walk to work. Police had a suspect in custody on August 12.

Colleagues and co-workers maintain that Mr. Derevianko's killing was politically motivated. He also held a seat on the Odesa City Council.

Mr. Derevianko founded Vechernaya Odesa 23 years ago; on its pages he frequently accused local officials of corruption. At the time of his death, the newspaper had over 75,000 subscribers.

Acting Procurator General Oleh Lytvak said on August 12 that Mr. Derevianko's "critical statements in the paper about the situation in Odesa and Odesa Oblast" may have prompted the killing.

"The killing of Derevianko has shaken Ukrainian society, and we will do all we can to solve this case," he said. There are eight witnesses to Mr. Derevianko's killing, and police have circulated sketches of two men who had inquired about the editor's personal habits several days before he was killed.

The 57-year-old Mr. Derevianko had been beaten twice since 1995. Ivan Hryhorenko, chief of the Internal Affairs Ministry for the Odesa Oblast, told a press conference on August 12 that investigators had evidence Mr. Derevianko had been tailed by unidentified persons for some time prior to his death. In an interview with the newspaper Kyiv Post in April, Mr. Derevianko admitted that he had been threatened on numerous occasions, which he attributed to Vechernaya Odesa's "commitment to constant opposition to all those in positions of power in the city."

Alla Koresiuk, a reporter for Vechernaya Odesa who also has received death threats, said her mentor's credo was "always challenge authority, always seek the truth." She told the Kyiv Post that the killing of Mr. Derevianko "could only have been in the interest of the city authorities, who are worried about our newspaper's strong opposition to them in the [March 1998] mayoral elections."

Mr. Derevianko's killing is the latest in a series of crimes against journalists in Ukraine. In March a Kievskiye Viedomosti correspondent was found dead in Kyiv. Police ruled his death a suicide, but colleagues said they believed it was murder. The culture editor of the newspaper Den (Day) died after suffering from burns he claimed were inflicted by assailants who poured gasoline on him and set it afire. Police said he electrocuted himself while walking along a railway.

Acting Procurator General Lytvak said 42 crimes had been committed against journalists in 1996 and the first half of 1997. One-fourth of those crimes took place in the Odesa Oblast.

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