Turning the pages back...

February 25, 2001

One year ago, The Ukrainian Weekly reported that Ukraine's controversial Procurator General Mykhailo Potebenko had easily survived a sustained effort to remove him from office, with five different motions of no confidence failing to receive majority approval from the Parliament. Mr. Potebenko had found himself at the center of the storm surrounding the missing Ukrainian journalist Heorhii Gongadze, whose body was found in a shallow grave near the town of Tarascha two months after he disappeared; many accused the prosecutor of covering up and delaying the investigation surrounding the body.

The badly divided Verkhovna Rada did not come close to the 226 votes needed to carry any of the motions introduced on February 22, 2001, by the Batkivschyna, Left Center, National Rukh of Ukraine, Ukrainian National Rukh and Reforms-Congress. The most votes any motion mustered was 111.

The voting came a day after Mr. Potebenko ignored a request by the Verkhovna Rada that he appear to report on the workings of his government agency. Mr. Potebenko was to have appeared before the national deputies three weeks earlier, but his appearance was postponed after the procurator general took an unexpected two-week vacation. As the new date approached, Mr. Potebenko asserted in public statements that he had no responsibility to report to the Ukrainian Parliament. "The procurator general is appointed and dismissed by the president rather than by the Verkhovna Rada," said Mr. Potebenko in a letter addressed to the Parliament. He further claimed the Constitution makes no mention of the need for him to report.

That view was supported by President Leonid Kuchma, who said that the Rada's invitation to Mr. Potebenko was merely a political move "to unbalance ... the situation."

Source: "Divided Verkhovna Rada fails to remove procurator general" by Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly, February 25, 2001, Vol. LXIX, No. 8.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 24, 2002, No. 8, Vol. LXX

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