NEWS AND VIEWS: International commission needed to investigate Gongadze case (01/06/02)

NEWS AND VIEWS

International commission needed to investigate Gongadze case

by Myroslava Gongadze
RFE/RL Media Matters

For some time, there have been discussions about the need to organize an international commission to investigate the murder of my husband, Heorhii Gongadze, on September 16, 2000. The first public efforts - spearheaded by the Paris-based NGO Reporters Without Borders - to involve international organizations in investigations of Heorhii's murder date to the summer of 2001. In the face of unrelenting pressure from the Gongadze family and colleagues - and after mass street protests - Ukrainian law enforcement agencies finally asked for foreign assistance. First, the Ukrainian government turned to the Russian Federation and then the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Such assistance, in all probability, has provided the only concrete facts in the investigation. For example, the DNA tests conducted by the FBI in May finally identified the headless corpse as being that of Heorhii.

Such successful cooperation with international experts should have prompted Ukrainian authorities to seek additional assistance. But the Ukrainian procurator general apparently feared unexpected results from such investigations. Ukrainian authorities did not want to open up the Gongadze case files to international experts - especially since Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma was suspected of complicity in Heorhii's murder. As a result, in late spring, Ukrainian cooperation with international experts ended, and Ukrainian law enforcement agencies continue to ignore the requests of his family, who also have legal claims. The Ukrainian authorities ignore - or conveniently forget - their own laws, namely that a victim's family has the right to have detailed information on case materials, to write appeals and to present evidence relevant to the case.

The failure of the Ukrainian government to counter serious charges of high-level crime and corruption has also resulted in more lethal attacks on Ukrainian journalists. In Donetsk, Ihor Aleksandrov, director of the local television station TOR, was savagely attacked and died on July 7, 2001. This time, the police attempted to show how efficient they were and proclaimed that the crime had been solved by announcing that Aleksandrov had been "killed by mistake." In an open letter, Aleksandrov's son Oleksii rejected this claim. A commission of investigative journalists working with Reporters Without Borders has supported Oleksii's views. And, later in July, the publisher of the Luhansk newspaper 21st Century, Oleh Breus, was killed. (For updates on the situation of Ukrainian journalists, see http://www.imi.com.ua.)

The systematic violation of human rights and freedom of the press - along with the Ukrainian government - has impelled the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to examine the situation in Ukraine. In the spring of this year, PACE threatened to expel Ukraine, which has been a PACE member since 1995. On September 27, 2001, the Council of Europe adopted a resolution drafted by PACE deputy Hanne Severinsen:

"The assembly condemns the aggression against, intimidation and even murder of journalists, members of Parliament and opposition politicians in Ukraine. It calls on the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the rule of law, to conduct their media policy in a way which will convincingly demonstrate respect of the freedom of expression in the country, and to improve the legal framework of the media and the safety and working conditions of journalists."

"In particular, the assembly urges the authorities concerned to: 1) accelerate and complete the investigations of the disappearance and murder of Mr. Heorhii Gongadze, or initiate - if necessary - a new independent investigation in this matter, with the help of international experts; 2) to conduct a full, transparent, and impartial investigation of the murder of Mr. Ihor Aleksandrov and in other cases of journalists who have died in dubious circumstances."

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Representative on the Freedom of the Media Freimut Duve in September 2001 wrote to Walter Schwimmer, the Council of Europe secretary-general, to express his support for an independent international commission on the Gongadze case - as has the U.S. OSCE delegation. In this way, international organizations are trying to find new ways of cooperating to solve major criminal cases.

On November 30, 2001, the Rapporteur Group for Democratic Stability - which reports to the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers on issues of democracy - heard a report from the Ukrainian delegation on the Ukrainian police investigation into the Gongadze case. Thanks largely to the Belgian PACE delegation, the Rapporteur Group has decided to keep under review the issue of establishing an independent investigative commission. But, according to Reporters Without Borders, new objections have been raised to this commission on the grounds that member-states are unlikely to offer the necessary assistance to investigators.

On December 11, 2001, the PACE monitoring committee was to discuss Ukrainian compliance with its Council of Europe obligations. An important meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe will take place in January to vote on whether or not to form an international commission to investigate the Gongadze case. The consensus of all Council of Europe members is required. It remains an open question whether Ukraine will provide real assistance to the commission's investigations.

Myroslava Gongadze is a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the International Forum for Democratic Studies.

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