Ex-minister of internal affairs found dead before questioning

by Valentinas Mite
RFE/RL Belarus and Ukraine Report

Former Ukrainian Internal Affairs Minister Yurii Kravchenko was found dead in his home on March 4, just hours before he was scheduled to be questioned about the 2000 killing of investigative journalist Heorhii Gongadze.

A spokeswoman for the Internal Affairs Ministry, Inna Kisel, said the death appeared to be suicide but that a forensic investigation is under way.

The death comes two days after Procurator General Sviatoslav Piskun said investigators had identified four people involved in the death of Gongadze, who was kidnapped and slain in late 2000.

Two of the suspected killers were employed by the Internal Affairs Ministry, which at the time was headed by Mr. Kravchenko. Mr. Kravchenko served as internal affairs minister from 1995 to 2001.

President Viktor Yushchenko was quoted on March 4 as saying he believed the Gongadze investigation may have played some role in Mr. Kravchenko's death.

Gongadze, whose reports were critical of the government, was abducted in Kyiv in September 2000. His decapitated body was later found buried in a forest outside the capital.

The death sparked months of protests against then President Leonid Kuchma, who the opposition alleged was involved in the killing.

Those allegations were given new life when a former security officer for President Kuchma - Mykola Melnychenko - said he had made secret recordings of conversations in Mr. Kuchma's office that appeared to link the president to Gongadze's death. Some of the tapes involved alleged conversations with Mr. Kravchenko.

In one of the tapes, a voice believed to be Mr. Kuchma's was overheard purportedly ordering Mr. Kravchenko to take measures against the journalist. In response, a man believed to be Mr. Kravchenko said he will do whatever it is that Mr. Kuchma wants.

Mr. Kuchma has denied any connection with Gongadze's killings, and no conclusive link has yet been presented. The authenticity of the tapes has never been completely proven, though investigators in the United States and other countries say they appear to be genuine.

Procurator General Piskun announced recently that he intends to conduct another investigation into the tapes' authenticity. He has asked Mr. Melnychenko to return to Ukraine and be present during this examination.

Mr. Kravchenko's death complicates the investigation and raises many new questions in the rapidly unfolding Gongadze case.

"As concerns the investigation, it will be more difficult to investigate the role of former higher state officials [in the killing]," said Oleksander Sushko, director of the Center for Peace, Conversion and Foreign Policy, a Kyiv-based research center. "Without Mr. Kravchenko it will be more difficult to prove or dismiss the role of [Leonid] Kuchma."

He said Mr. Kravchenko's death also exposes what he calls the "complete incompetence" of Procurator General Piskun. He said it was Mr. Piskun's responsibility to ensure Mr. Kravchenko's safety as the main witness in the Gongadze case.

Mr. Piskun on March 2 said investigators had identified all four people involved in Gongadze's slaying and knew who was the mastermind. He did not name names, but the Interfax news agency reported that the suspects were cooperating in the investigation.

Hryhorii Omelchenko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada's commission investigating the murder of Gongadze, had told the media on March 3 that Mr. Kravchenko was under extreme pressure, adding that he feared Mr. Kravchenko might take his own life.

RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and RFE/RL Regional Analyst Roman Kupchinsky contributed to this report.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 13, 2005, No. 11, Vol. LXXIII

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