Questions remain on third anniversary of Gongadze's disappearance (09/21/03)

Questions remain on third anniversary of Gongadze's disappearance

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - National Deputy Hryhorii Omelchenko, chairman of the parliamentary committee investigating the death of journalists announced on September 16 that it had unanimously approved a resolution calling on the Procurator General's Office to open an official investigation into the complicity of the highest echelons of state leadership, including President Leonid Kuchma, in the death of Heorhii Gongadze.

Mr. Omelchenko reported on the results of the committee's work during a rally held on Independence Square in the center of Kyiv on the third anniversary since the disappearance of the young Ukrainian journalist on September 16, 2000. Mr. Gongadze's beheaded remains were found a month later buried in a shallow grave outside Kyiv.

"I am forced to report on the work of the committee on the investigation into the death of Heorhii Gongadze here before you because Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn has refused to allow it to take place in the session hall," explained Mr. Omelchenko to some 2,000 people and politicians gathered on the square.

Mr. Omelchenko, a member of the Tymoshenko Bloc in the Verkhovna Rada, had publicly accused the president and his cronies of corruption and complicity in the death of Mr. Gongadze for some time, but this was the first time the committee he heads had officially sent documents to the Procurator General's Office requesting that it formally open a criminal case.

The Prosecutor General's Office acknowledged on September 18 that it had received documents from the ad hoc parliamentary committee.

Mr. Omelchenko, once a general in the now-defunct Soviet KGB and later in the Security Service of Ukraine, also implicated Verkhovna Rada Chairman Lytvyn, the president's chief of staff at the time of the disappearance and murder; the chairman of the State Tax Administration, Yurii Kravchenko, then minister of internal affairs; National Deputy Leonid Derkach, in 2000 head of the Security Service of Ukraine; and recently removed minister of internal affairs, Yurii Smirnov, who was then chief of the Kyiv militia; in the disappearance of Mr. Gongadze.

"Mr. Kravchenko and Mr. Smirnov arranged the death of Heorhii Gongadze," charged the national deputy. "The kidnapping was organized by the highest echelons in the land, including Kuchma."

Mr. Omelchenko noted that the Procurator General's office should have all the evidence it needs already on file, as it was obtained during the three years the office has investigated the disappearance and death. He added that still the country's top prosecutor had failed to identify and charge those persons responsible.

The rally, which lasted several hours, included a candlelight vigil and a march to the Journalists' Union of Ukraine, the site of a memorial to the more than one dozen journalists who have died under questionable circumstances in Ukraine since the country gained independence.

Leaders of the political opposition, including National Deputy Yulia Tymoshenko of the eponymous parliamentary faction, Communist leader Petro Symonenko and Socialist leader Oleksander Moroz, took part in the commemoration. National Deputy Viktor Yushchenko of Our Ukraine was not present.

Mr. Moroz eulogized Mr. Gongadze, the founder of one of the first Internet newspapers in Ukraine, as a figure of historical importance.

"I believe he will be remembered by history, and not just Ukrainian history. Already a book has appeared in the United States about him," explained Mr. Moroz. (Presumbably the reference was to J.V. Koshiw's book "Beheaded" published in England.)

The national deputy also noted that, after three arduous years, government officials have yet to provide Mr. Gongadze's mother sufficient proof that the remains held in a Kyiv state mortuary are that of her son, so that she might finally bury him.

"Today we cannot say the words, 'May he rest in peace,' for his remains still have not been laid to rest, as primitive as that is," Mr. Omelchenko stated.

Lesia Gongadze, who had actively taken part in public demonstrations dedicated to determining the details behind the death of her only son, did not attend the rally. In an interview with a local newspaper, The Ukrainian Newspaper, Mrs. Gongadze's attorney, Andrii Fedur, said her pursuit of the truth and her fight with government officials had destroyed her health and left her unable to continue.

"Unfortunately, Mrs. Gongadze's health has worsened quite drastically," explained Mr. Fedur in the interview. "She basically has no means of existence. She lives alone in Lviv with her heartbreak. She receives a miserly pension. She doesn't have the money to travel to Kyiv. She addresses her concerns to the Prosecutor General's Office by mail, to which she receives no replies."

Mr. Fedur said that the Prosecutor General's Office refuses to meet with him and has not allowed him to review the documents in its possession. He underscored once more that the authorities are doing everything possible to muddle the issue and prolong the investigation until it is forgotten.

"It has been a year since Procurator General Sviatoslav Piskun announced that within a half year the Gongadze matter would be resolved. There is no end in sight," explained Mr. Fedur. "Only plenty of tongue-wagging is occurring - announcements and declarations. No one has been identified as responsible for the murder. No head has been found, and no one is searching for a head because most probably with the head lies the key to the reasons for Heorhii's death."

Mr. Fedur confirmed that Mrs. Gongadze was seeking further DNA testing, this time of her son's hair, which authorities had failed to do earlier.

He also noted that, while much had been reported in the press about the possible involvement of law enforcement officials in the death of the young journalist, the Procurator General's Office has not traveled that path. Mr. Fedur explained that a testament written by Ihor Honcharov, who headed a special militia force before he was reassigned - in which he acknowledged responsibility for the death of Mr. Gongadze and the kidnapping and murder of other Ukrainians - would never be fully investigated.

"The letters from Ihor Honcharov, unfortunately, will not have any serious consequences. No one will examine the facts that were revealed in them, which would help to determine the truth in the Gongadze matter" said Mrs. Gongadze's lawyer.

The Institute of Mass Information received the 13 pages of diary-like scribblings after Mr. Honcharov's death. The former special forces leader died while in pre-trial detention awaiting completion of an investigation into corruption charges leveled against him. His family has said that he was beaten repeatedly while in prison. Also in question is why the government cremated his body soon after his death and before an inquiry into the circumstances of his death could be held. The documents received by the institute were marked with the inscription "open after my death."

In them, Mr. Honcharov implicated nearly all the persons named by National Deputy Omelchenko in the disappearance and death of the Ukrainian journalist. The documents have been acknowledged by experts to be authentic.

On the same day as the rally on Kyiv's Independence Square, a much smaller commemoration took place in a wooded area south of Kyiv near the town of Tarascha, where Mr. Gongadze's beheaded body was found in November 2000.

At the site, several lawmakers, including Mr. Yushchenko of the Our Ukraine faction, unveiled a memorial cross, carved in granite, to honor Mr. Gongadze. The following day a requiem service was held at St. Basil the Great Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Kyiv.

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