IN THE PRESS: Eastern Economist comments on the Gongadze case (12/31/00)

IN THE PRESS: Eastern Economist comments on the Gongadze case

Following is the text of the editorial by L.A. Wolanskyj published on December 4 by the Kyiv-based Eastern Economist on the topic of the Gongadze case. The editorial was headlined: "From the publisher: On the headless horseman."

A headless corpse and a hot cassette have conspired to appear at the absolutely right time to cause Leonid Kuchma a great deal of discomfort. For two weeks, a decree that would have replaced Viktor Yuschenko as premier by Mykola Azarov, the tax tsar whose nasty administration operates as a law onto itself, sat on Mr. Kuchma's desk, unsigned. It was the last stone in a bumpy road that Mr. Kuchma and his entourage have tried to steer in the hopes of unseating both Mr. Yuschenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, who appear to have what little forward-looking leadership qualities Ukraine's government can muster - and, worse yet, appear to be succeeding at inching the country forward despite his best (worst) efforts to hobble them.

Out of the shadows stepped a man who may prove to be a hero, and neatly removed that stone: Oleksander Moroz.

Suddenly, the time-worn cheap tricks that this regime has loved to use, starting with accusations of self-aggrandizement and ending with cheesy libel cases, are looking like they won't do the trick. It was bad enough last fall, during the presidential campaigns, that within five minutes of a bombing that apparently wounded her abdomen, radical socialist leader Natalia Vitrenko loudly accused Mr. Moroz of being behind the dastardly deed and was officially supported in her accusations.

This was the same officialdom that in 10 years has routinely and unbelievably failed to come up with a single suspect in a slew of high-profile murders, including Donetsk businessman Yevhen Scherban and his wife in 1996, vice president and one-time governor of the National Bank Vadym Hetman in 1998, and, most recently maverick journalist Heorhii Gongadze.

Perhaps someone should remind the president's point man, Volodymyr Lytvyn, who has launched a slander case against Mr. Moroz, that publishing a tape that has not been established as a fake - indeed, one foreign government has already stated unofficially that it is not a fake - does not qualify as slander. Mr. Moroz was not involved in any of the discussions that were taped, he was not sworn to secrecy about those discussions or their recordings, nor do these tapes reveal anything that qualifies as a state secret in defense terms.

In fact, if anyone can be accused of defamation of character, it is Mr. Kuchma himself, who degrades both himself and his office throughout these recorded conversations.

Now, Ukrainians may long have believed that their president is an incompetent, incoherent, inarticulate bumbler who is busy conspiring to protect his own and his friends' interests rather than guiding their sinking economy to safer ground; who appears to be preoccupied with helping his cronies salt away billions from the sale of the nation's resources while the countryside lacks even the most basic emergency road crews to mop up after a two-day ice storm; who may even be prepared to accuse an innocent man of murder to get rid of a political rival. But none of this has risen above the level of rumor and innuendo.

The question is, what are Ukrainians prepared to do, now that there is some concrete evidence that may shed light on important questions - including, ultimately, Mr. Moroz's motivations? What institutions will allow Ukrainians to examine this evidence and come to a conclusion about its meaning?

Mr. Moroz, who was himself head of the Verkhovna Rada for several years under Mr. Kuchma, is doing his duty as a citizen in offering for public examination of critical evidence that has come his way. But his duty ends there. It is up to the Verkhovna Rada and the judiciary to behave professionally, in the interests of the nation, to take this evidence seriously and to begin some kind of due process. This, in turn, could be the first step towards a Ukraine that is a democratic, law-based society.

If Serbians stood up to Slobodan Milosevic, who caused the deaths of thousands, and Peruvians stood up to Alberto Fujimori, who rigged an unconstitutional third term in office, surely Ukrainians can stand up for their future as well.

Dr. Zerkalo Tyzhnia's Yulia Mostova and Serhii Rakhmanin quoted from R. Eberhard in their latest editorial on this same subject: "Don't fear enemies - at worst, they may kill you. Don't fear friends - at worst, they may betray you. Fear the indifferent - they neither kill nor betray, but thanks only to their silent acquiescence do murder and betrayal exist in this world."

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