Presidential candidate Natalia Vitrenko among 33 injured in grenade attack (10/10/99)

Presidential candidate Natalia Vitrenko among 33 injured in grenade attack

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Presidential candidate Natalia Vitrenko sustained abdominal wounds and narrowly escaped more serious injury on October 2 when two grenades were hurled into a crowd where she was standing. The attack has caused a political uproar and thrown the presidential race into chaos.

Thirty-three people were injured in the grenade attack in the city of Kryvyi Rih, after two assailants hurled the explosive devices into a group lingering near a public hall where Ms. Vitrenko had just finished speaking.

Known for her outspoken populist and ultra-orthodox Communist views as well as anti-Western rhetoric, the Progressive Socialist Party leader has remained a strong No. 2 in many pre-election polls and increasingly is seen by many as a legitimate threat to win the October 31 election.

Ms. Vitrenko, speaking in Kyiv three days after the incident, said she was saved from more serious injury by her bodyguard, who took the first hit, suffering extensive head damage, and then pushed her back into the building.

"My reaction was to race to the car. If I had done so the second grenade would have hit me," explained Ms. Vitrenko.

As Ms. Vitrenko recounted, she and her entourage, which included National Deputy Volodymyr Marchenko, her closest political associate, had just left a public campaign rally in the Inhuletsk district of Kryvyi Rih, which had been attended by some 1,000 people. About 100 well-wishers waited outside the public hall where she had spoken to greet her as she left the building. As she signed autographs and accepted flowers and advice, the first grenade exploded and she felt a stabbing pain in her abdomen. That is when her bodyguard pushed her back towards the building, ostensibly saving her life.

Ms. Vitrenko was wounded by five pieces of shrapnel that lodged in her lower abdomen and thighs, while Mr. Marchenko suffered three similar injuries. Four other individuals required hospitalization, one of whom had a leg amputated as a result of the injuries sustained.

Two suspects, both Russian citizens from the city of Rostov, were apprehended by militia immediately after the attack. One has been identified as the brother of Serhii Ivanchenko, a campaign organizer for Socialist Party candidate Oleksander Moroz.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has stated that Mr. Ivanchenko is believed to be on the run and perhaps in Russia. Ukrainian Television News, the state-owned TV station, said in a report that neighbors of Mr. Ivanchenko's parents, who also live in Rostov, had seen him after the attack. The two detained men have told Ministry of Internal Affairs investigators that the grenades were handed over to them by Mr. Ivanchenko's wife. Mr. Ivanchenko has a history of arms violations, the most recent one in 1997, according to the report.

Although Mr. Moroz has fiercely denied any involvement in an assassination conspiracy - saying that he did not even know his local campaign organizer, who militia say was a leading member of Mr. Moroz's Kryvyi Rih city campaign team - the presidential administration and the state television channel have made a point of portraying Mr. Ivanchenko as an acquaintance of the Socialist candidate.

During an October 6 evening news report, state television produced a letter signed by Mr. Moroz, by which he apparently appointed Mr. Ivanchenko as one of his official representative in Kryvyi Rih, as well as photos of the two walking together.

A day earlier Mr. Moroz had defended himself against accusations that he was somehow involved in the attack by stating that he could not be responsible for all his campaign workers, and that he had direct contact only with his representatives at the oblast level.

Careful not to implicate Mr. Moroz in the affair, Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Kravchenko nonetheless made it clear that he believed that the state militia had nabbed the right people. "We are not considering any other options or possible suspects," said Mr. Kravchenko.

Ms. Vitrenko, who along with Mr. Marchenko had surgery in Kyiv a day after the incident to remove metal fragments, said at an October 6 press conference that she considered the assault "a politically motivated terrorist act," but was not ready to point fingers.

"Investigations are continuing, and I do not want to accuse anyone or defend anyone," said Ms. Vitrenko.

However, the presidential candidate, who said she would not be deterred by the incident in her effort to win the election, said she did not have much confidence that law enforcement investigations would be honest or forthright. She said she would wait until after she wins the October 31 vote to get her answers.

Ms. Vitrenko implied that the attack was an attempt to derail her campaign, organized by people with access to official power.

"This was not a car bomb attempt or a sniper attack, but a grenade thrown into a crowd," explained Ms. Vitrenko. "Those who threw the grenades wanted to scare people, so that the mafia that controls the country can continue to keep its marionettes in power."

Ms. Vitrenko also severely criticized the Ministry of Internal Affairs for providing only three officers to control the large crowd.

At another press conference, this one called by the Kaniv Four coalition of candidates, to which Mr. Moroz belongs, the talk also centered on a plot hatched by those close to the government.

One of the candidates, Yevhen Marchuk, who served as the first chief of Ukrainian State Security Service and was a KGB official before that, said that a certain expertise was need to be able to throw two grenades into a crowd and not kill anyone.

"A standard terrorist could not put together all the details," explained Mr. Marchuk. "Where will the candidate be emerging? Where to throw the grenade so that no one is killed. How to avoid a gunfight."

The Kaniv Four did not accuse the Kuchma administration or campaign team of outrightly complicity, but they did blame the president for not taking the proper measures to avoid such an incident.

Mr. Moroz alone came close to implicating the president in the attack. "For whom is it convenient that Ms. Vitrenko was the target? It is convenient for the current regime," said Mr. Moroz.

President Kuchma, while declining to give an official theory of what happened in Kryvyi Rih, called it "a political provocation" and an "effort to exacerbate the social and political situation and to derail the elections."

Much of the media has portrayed the attack on Ms. Vitrenko as a poor effort to discredit Mr. Moroz and his candidacy. That has outraged Ms. Vitrenko.

"I am shocked when people say that this was done to stop Moroz and his campaign. This was an attack against Vitrenko's life and her campaign," explained the Progressive Socialist leader.

Although, his ratings barely reach double-digit figures, Mr. Moroz still is considered the candidate with the best chance of beating President Kuchma, especially if a second round of voting is required.

However, many of the candidates believe the incident could well boost Ms. Vitrenko's popularity and even help secure her victory.

"I believe that this terrorist act could have the effect of raising her rating further," said Oleksander Tkachenko, another member of the Kaniv Four and the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada. "In the second round now it could very well be Vitrenko and the candidate from the Kaniv Four."

Among the many conspiracy theories that are being mulled by political pundits, one suggests that Ms. Vitrenko could have organized the incident to bring attention to herself. Her campaign has sustained less and less press attention even as her campaign has remained strong.

The allegations are similar to ones made against Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, a relatively unknown presidential candidate in 1993, whose popularity rose greatly after he survived a bomb attack before the elections, which he went on to win.

Ms. Vitrenko cast such assertions aside during her press conference and said they "sicken" her.

On October 6 the Verkhovna Rada appointed an ad hoc committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident in Kryvyi Rih. Ms. Vitrenko, however, said that she doesn't expect it will be any more fruitful than the investigation being conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"It is the epitome of cynicism to form an investigative committee without contacting us, asking us what happened, or even how I am doing," said Ms. Vitrenko. "What will they do, ask Moroz whether he knew the guy, whether he signed the document appointing Ivanchenko his representative, when he has already denied doing so?"

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