ANALYSIS: U.S. authenticates Kuchma tape of intent to sell Kolchuha to Iraq (10/06/02)

ANALYSIS

U.S. authenticates Kuchma tape of intent to sell Kolchuha to Iraq

by Roman Kupchinsky
RFE/RL Crime and Corrpution Watch

U.S. administration officials have authenticated a tape made by Maj, Mykola Melnychenko of President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine telling the head of a Ukrainian state arms sales company to proceed with the sale of advanced radar technology to Iraq.

The United States is withholding millions of dollars in grant aid as it probes further into the issue of whether Ukraine violated U.N. sanctions on Iraq as a result.

The taped conversation, which reportedly took place on July 10, 2000, has consistently been denied by the Ukrainian president despite numerous demands on the part of the West for an explanation of what was said.

The tape, including the passage on the sale of the Kolchuha radar system via the UkrSpetsExport company, was authenticated earlier this year by BEK TEK, a Virginia-based group that provides authentication services to the FBI, the U.S. Supreme Court and other organizations.

A high-level U.S. administration official was quoted by Reuters on September 23 as saying the Justice Department has authenticated the tape as well. The U.S. official told Reuters, "We have not physically observed the Kolchuha [radar system] in Iraq, although we have some information which I cannot get into that suggests it may be there."

Experts say it would be difficult to be certain that Iraq had the Kolchuha for a number of reasons: it does not emit signals of its own; it is mobile; and it is easy to hide, involving an antenna attached to an ordinary-looking truck.

The official went on to say: "We have informed the Ukrainian government and NATO allies that we have reached this assessment, that there has been a pause in certain types of assistance and that a policy review is under way."

Patricia Guy, the press attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, told RFE/RL that extensive examination of the recordings has convinced the American government that they are authentic. "What is new is that we've recently concluded an analysis of a July 2000 recording that was provided by former Ukrainian presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko. And on one of the tapes, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is heard approving the clandestine sale of Kolchuha early warning systems to Iraq, and we believe this recording is authentic," she said.

Ms. Guy said the United States is withholding some of the money that it gives annually to Ukraine under the Freedom Support Act, which is meant to help solidify democracy in countries. "The recording's authentication has led us to re-examine our policy toward Ukraine, and in particular toward President Kuchma. As a result we've initiated a temporary pause in new obligations of Freedom Support Act assistance that goes to the central government of Ukraine while we carry out this review," she explained.

Asked on September 26 whether he believes the timing of the American announcement was designed to influence the current political situation in Ukraine or aid the anti-Kuchma opposition, Yurii Serhegev, state secretary at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, told RFE/RL: "We would not like to think that it is linked to the present domestic political situation. What we are really worried about in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are the outright errors made in the accusations. We are especially worried by this because it is serious - it not only reflects badly on our image, but these accusations of impropriety cast a shadow on the long-standing relations between two serious partners."

Reuters reported that the official said the $54 million that was set aside for the central Ukrainian government as part of the "Freedom Support Act" in fiscal year 2002, which ended in September, has been put on hold. He added that further measures are being considered in a review that should last a week or two, according to the news agency.

The New York Times on September 24 wrote that: "The finding follows a judgment by experts at the Justice Department and elsewhere in the government that a clandestine tape recording - in which a voice that the United States has concluded is Mr. Kuchma's is heard discussing smuggling the radar system to Iraq - is authentic and unaltered." In the recording, the head of UkrSpetzExport is seemingly heard telling Mr. Kuchma that the operation to smuggle the Kolchuha into Iraq will be handled by Leonid Derkach, the head of the Ukrainian Secret Service. Mr. Derkach was eventually relieved of his post and is presently a member of the Ukrainian Parliament.

When asked about other parts of the Melnychenko recordings, in particular those where President Kuchma is heard ordering the disappearance of Heorhii Gongadze, an independent journalist who was found murdered in September 2000, the official told Reuters that the United States has not authenticated that section of the recordings. "Certainly our assessment that this Kolchuha recording is authentic colors the way that we look at the other recordings," he said, according to Reuters.

Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko told AP on September 25 that his country's president may have authorized selling an advanced radar system to Iraq but insisted the sale - which would have contravened U.N. sanctions - never took place. Speaking to reporters in the Dominican Republic the day after the State Department announcement, Mr. Zlenko said the tape could have been made during one of the president's discussions, but that it is "impossible to sell arms in this manner."

The deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Marie Yovanovitch, told a press conference in Kyiv on September 25 that the "tapes are reason enough to review our policy toward Ukraine. They show that the president personally approved the illegal sale of arms to Iraq."

Roman Kupchinsky is the editor of RFE/RL Crime and Corruption Watch.

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