Kuchma responds to Moroz in national television broadcast (12/24/00)

Kuchma responds to Moroz in national television broadcast

Embassy of Ukraine

WASHINGTON - In a nationally televised broadcast President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine made a statement responding to accusations by Socialist party leader Oleksander Moroz, who tried to implicate high-ranking state officials in the disappearance of journalist Heorhii Gongadze.

The president said the statement made by Mr. Moroz in the Verkhovna Rada on November 28 launched a premeditated and well-planned political campaign aimed at presenting Ukraine as an uncivilized state. The president stressed that the purpose of the provocation was to distract public attention from resolving the urgent problems that Ukraine faces.

According to the president, those political forces that continuously foment the slanderous campaign are not interested in strengthening Ukraine's sovereignty, in achieving positive changes in its economy and in improving the political climate.

The president expressed his outrage that Mr. Gongadze's fate and his family's tragedy had been ruthlessly exploited by political profiteers.

President Kuchma emphasized his support for freedom of press and freedom of expression, underlining that even the periodicals that openly claim to be in opposition to the government continue to function freely in Ukraine. However, the president called it unacceptable when some media resort to manipulating the facts, libel and insinuations.

Concluding his televised address, the president of Ukraine said that political blackmail would not succeed in provoking him to institute authoritarian measures or to change the political course of the nation. President Kuchma stressed that, as a chief executive officer, he will continue to act in line with the law and consistently strengthen democracy in Ukraine.

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