ANALYSIS: Just what did the Procurator General's Office say? (02/11/01)

ANALYSIS

Just what did the Procurator General's Office say?

RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report

The Procurator General's Office issued quite an enigmatic statement on the most resonant political scandal in independent Ukraine's history: the alleged complicity of President Leonid Kuchma and high-ranking state officials in the disappearance of independent journalist Heorhii Gongadze.

In December, Procurator General Mykhailo Potebenko told the Parliament that the audiotapes provided by former presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko - allegedly including Mr. Kuchma's words that urge state official to get rid of Mr. Gongadze - were doctored, since it was impossible to eavesdrop on the president's office. The February 2 statement modifies that official stance on the Gongadze case to some extent, although it remains to be seen to what extent exactly.

The Procurator General's Office says the Mr. Gongadze criminal case (which includes both his disappearance and the identification of a corpse that is believed to be his) is being conducted at "an appropriate professional level in accordance with the requirements of national legislation, thoroughly and objectively." The office simultaneously protests the pressure on prosecutors from "interested political forces."

The office says the Melnychenko audio recordings were "compiled from separate words and fragments, which is essentially a falsification." According to experts involved in the investigation, it is impossible to identify whether the taped voices belong to high-ranking state officials.

Now comes the most interesting part of the statement. The office admits that the above-mentioned "words and fragments" were actually taken from "conversations of the president of Ukraine," including those taped in secret when Mr. Kuchma was briefed by law enforcement officials on the crime situation in the country.

Then come a number of obscure suppositions about the ulterior motives behind the tape scandal:

"Individual political forces, including some lawmakers, while pursuing their own interests, are trying to make the public accept illusion instead of the reality. For this goal, they use primarily Tovarysh, the Socialist Party's newspaper, which continues to publish materials that do not conform to reality.

"In order to achieve their goal, those individuals use international organizations, including the Council of Europe. Fearing that Mr. Melnychenko may give true testimony of his and their inadmissible actions, which entail responsibility under the legislation in force, they use all possible and impossible [sic] means to prevent his extradition to Ukraine.

"Cynically taking advantage of the situation, which has been artificially created around Mr. Gongadze's disappearance, they are seeking to make a kind of hero of a man who committed a crime [ed. note: Melnychenko]. They even go as far as to dictate to the investigators how and what investigative actions should be conducted, thus intentionally pushing the Procurator's Office to violate the law."

The statement ends with an appeal to the president to take urgent measures to seek the extradition of Mr. Melnychenko "who should be made accountable on the territory of Ukraine" where he committed his crime.

The Internet newsletter Ukrainska Pravda commented that the statement actually confirms, first, that the president's office was bugged, and second, that the voices on the audiotapes are authentic. "Prior to this [statement], international experts concluded that there was no doctoring within separate episodes [of Melnychenko's tapes]. In fact, the Procurator General's Office, against its own will, put an end to the problem of the authenticity of Mr. Melnychenko tapes," Ukrainska Pravda concluded. Other Ukrainian sources have so far remained silent on this matter.

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