U.S. grants asylum to Melnychenko, Myroslava Gongadze (04/22/01)

U.S. grants asylum to Melnychenko, Myroslava Gongadze

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The wife of Heorhii Gongadze, the missing journalist feared dead who is at the center of a huge political crisis in Kyiv, and a former presidential bodyguard who produced tape recordings that seemingly implicate the president in the disappearance have received political asylum in the United States, revealed the U.S. State Department on April 16.

The decision to extend political asylum, particularly to Maj. Mykola Melnychenko, formerly of the Security Service, of Ukraine, who made hundreds of hours of digital tape recordings while assigned to guard the president and his offices, shocked Ukrainian authorities. Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement in response to the announcement expressing its "deep astonishment" at the development.

"[The U.S. decision] is viewed by Ukraine as failing to correspond to the spirit of the Ukrainian American partnership and as creating obstacles in the way of a criminal investigation," read a statement issued by the ministry.

On August 16, ministry officials requested the appearance of U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual to explain the U.S. action.

Officially the U.S. government has attempted to make clear that the decision by its Immigration and Naturalization Service was an independent act of that particular U.S. agency and not meant to be a political statement on the Gongadze case in Ukraine.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington on April 16 that Mr. Melnychenko's application was received and processed as any other, and that the decision was "based on standard international practice and international procedures and criteria."

Two days later, Ambassador Pascual explained in Kyiv that the granting of political asylum did not mean a change in U.S. policy towards Ukraine.

"The U.S. is still committed to working closely with Ukraine as a partner in Central Europe. We are still committed to a vision of an independent, democratic and market-oriented Ukraine," said Mr. Pascual.

He said the procedure for extension of political asylum is "described in law and is very specific as to how it applies."

National Deputy Oleksander Zinchenko of the Social Democratic Party (United), which has supported President Leonid Kuchma in the political crisis that has consumed Kyiv, said the U.S. could support its words with actions and show good faith by "bringing Mr. Melnychenko to justice for stealing state secrets," and obtaining the original digital recordings and returning them to Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials, who have desperately sought Mr. Melnychenko since he announced through opposition lawmakers in Ukraine's Parliament that he had in his possession tape recordings made with a digital recorder placed under a couch in the president's office, have charged the former bodyguard with "illegal taping" and "revealing state secrets."

At the beginning of April, the new head of the Security Service of Ukraine Volodymyr Radchenko, expressed concern about the extent of the state secrets the former employee had recorded, and suggested a meeting to simply determine what he knew. Mr. Melnychenko has been in hiding somewhere in Europe since the tape scandal broke. It is not known where he is or whether he has accepted the asylum offer.

Myroslava Gongadze, the 28-year-old wife of the missing reporter today thought to be dead, left Ukraine on the eve of the announcement. She turned up in Warsaw on April 17 where she gave a press conference. She said she still has not decided whether to accept the offer of asylum for herself and her two children.

Ms. Gongadze, who is the press spokesman for the Reforms and Order Party, which is the leading supporter of beleaguered Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko, couldn't resist staying out of the political fray in Kyiv and said that if the prime minister is forced to resign she could not envision returning to Ukraine.

Ms. Gongadze also said that, until someone else is convicted, she would hold President Kuchma responsible for the murder of her husband.

"If the people who have been accused - the president and his entourage - had wanted, then I think this investigation would have been more effective," said Ms. Gongadze, according to Reuters.

She has repeatedly expressed her frustration with Ukrainian government officials over the way she maintains they have dragged their feet and covered up the investigation. She also has complained about being manipulated and refused access to evidentiary materials, which she says she has the right to view because a Kyiv court has extended her "victim" status.

Recently, however, some of the extensive fighting spirit she had shown in the seven months since her husband disappeared seems to have been replaced by a desire to go on with her life. In recent comments made to The Weekly, she said she now cares mostly that she and her twin daughters stop being repeatedly traumatized by the events that continue to swirl around her.

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