Leaders of leftist opposition in Rada targets of criminal investigations (02/20/00)

Leaders of leftist opposition in Rada targets of criminal investigations

by Stefan Korshak
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - The day after a physical confrontation for control of the chairman's rostrum in the Verkhovna Rada, leaders of the leftist opposition were facing criminal investigations in Kyiv.

Oleksander Tkachenko, the man considered by most observers to be at the center of leftist national deputies' resistance to the pro-Kuchma majority's rule, was the first to fall under the government's cross hairs.

The bad news came to the former chairman of the Parliament on February 9 from two high officers of the law.

First, Mykola Zamovenko, chairman of the Pechersk City District Court, ordered government prosecutors to investigate whether Mr. Tkachenko could be charged with violating his obligations as an elected official by "derailing" the Ukrainian legislative process.

Other possible violations of the law by Mr. Tkachenko, according to wire service reports, include "preventing access of the majority of Parliament into the session hall," "refusing to yield his seat to newly elected government leadership" and "refusing to yield government seals."

All the alleged violations come under Article 187-5 of Ukraine's Criminal Code, "hindrance in operation of a state establishment," Interfax reported Judge Zamovenko as saying.

Majority members Yaroslav Kendzior, Yulian Yoffe and Bohdan Kosteniuk, considered by most political analysts to be close allies of President Leonid Kuchma, filed the complaint against Mr. Tkachenko and his first vice-chairman, Adam Martyniuk, in the Pechersk court on February 8.

Mr. Tkachenko claimed the majority's vote removing him as Verkhovna Rada chairman was illegal, and initially refused to surrender the post. He said the present parliamentary obstruction charges are trumped-up and illegal.

But, probably more troublesome for Mr. Tkachenko is a second legal assault stemming from unresolved corruption allegations leveled against him three years ago. Simultaneously with Judge Zamovenko's declaration that parliamentary obstruction charges against Mr. Tkachenko merit investigation, Ukraine's Procurator General Mykhailo Potebenko announced to reporters on February 9 that his office would reopen an investigation into the Zemlia i Liudy (Land and People) scandal.

A company run in 1995 by Mr. Tkachenko, the Zemlia i Liudy Agro-Industrial Association obtained, and then lost, some $70 million of foreign agricultural credits. The Procurator General's Office had begun an investigation into allegations of graft by Zemlia i Liudy management, but dropped it in June 1998.

Most political observers saw that decision as stemming from Mr. Tkachenko's insistence that a halt to the investigation be the main condition of his becoming chairman of the Verkhovna Rada. Observers believe that a deal was made with the Kuchma administration to end the then two-month-long stalemate in the Verkhovna Rada that prevented the election of a parliamentary leadership. Mr. Tkachenko has repeatedly denied that his association with Zemlia i Liudy provided him with any financial gain.

On January 31 UT-1 Ukrainian National Television - editorially highly supportive of whoever is running the country - reported that Messrs. Tkachenko and Martyniuk had used parliamentary funds to purchase 14 limousines, some bullet-proof, worth $3.5 million - most of which they reportedly used for personal purposes.

Mr. Tkachenko denied that he misused government funds or vehicles, saying that most of the cars were needed for parliamentary visitors or bodyguards.

At press time it was unclear how the investigations against Messrs. Tkachenko and Martyniuk were proceeding.

By February 11 the pro-Kuchma majority had taken full control of parliamentary proceedings, and by February 14 Messrs. Tkachenko and Martyniuk had handed over their chairs and seals, and had been reduced to observing the legislative proceedings from beneath the Parliament's visitor's gallery. As national deputies, under current Ukrainian law both are immune from criminal prosecution.

A spokesman from the Procurator General's Office declined comment on the status of the investigations against both men.

Kuchma opponents are getting police attention not just in the capital, but in the regions as well.

On February 11 police searched the apartment of Cherkasy Mayor Volodymyr Oliinyk, a former presidential candidate and member of the Kaniv Four, a group of candidates whose main campaign plank last October was removal of Mr. Kuchma from office. Investigators found "nothing incriminating," the newspaper Den (Day) reported.

Speaking at a press conference later that day, Gen. Oleh Kochegarov, chairman of the Cherkasy region police, flatly denied the raid was politically motivated, saying his officers simply had responded to a possible terrorist threat against Mr. Oliinyk and his family. Mr. Oliinyk subsequently told local reporters he believed his life was in danger, but added that Cherkasy law enforcers ignored his initial efforts to come under police protection. When cops finally got around to checking his apartment for bombs and/or assassins, they confiscated Mayor Oliinyk's personal video and audiotape archives, as well as political documents, Den reported Mr. Oliinyk as saying.

Den reported that Gen. Kochegarov declined to provide further details, saying an investigation was in progress.

And, it's not just individuals who've come out against President Kuchma who are having problems with government officials these days.

Late in January the Lviv Oblast Council banned the Communist Party. Though leftist supporters demonstrated, the local ruling - the constitutionality of which is questionable - has been unopposed in Ukraine's Constitutional Court.

On February 11 Mr. Kendzior, leading a group of 16 parliamentary majority members, introduced legislation proposing a nationwide ban of the Communist Party for "anti-state activities."

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