ANALYSIS: Kuchma returns to Ukraine, and possible arrest (03/27/05)

ANALYSIS

Kuchma returns to Ukraine, and possible arrest

by Roman Kupchinsky
RFE/RL Organized Crime and Terrorism Watch

Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma returned to Kyiv on March 5 after cutting short his vacation in the spa resort of Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. He arrived the same day that some members of Parliament were calling for his arrest in the investigation of journalist Heorhii Gongadze's abduction and killing in 2000, and a suicide note by former Internal Affairs Minister Yurii Kravchenko was revealed in which he blamed his suicide on "political intrigues" by "Kuchma and his supporters."

In a brief interview for Czech Television on March 4, Mr. Kuchma once again insisted that he was innocent of any wrongdoing in the Gongadze case and that he did not order Mr. Kravchenko to kill Gongadze. Mr. Kravchenko was found dead on the morning of March 4, the day he was to be interrogated, in what has been described as a suicide by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Internal Affairs Ministry.

On March 5, Interfax reported that Internal Affairs Minister Yurii Lutsenko announced that Mr. Kravchenko died of two self-inflicted bullet wounds to the head; the first non-fatal shot was immediately followed by another shot that killed him. Mr. Lutsenko added that Mr. Kravchenko had left a suicide note that "named some concrete people who are under suspicion in this case." the Ukrainska Pravda website (http://www2.pravda.com.ua) posted the alleged text of the note on March 5, in which Mr. Kravchenko repeated his innocence of any wrongdoing but wrote a cryptic sentence saying that he was a victim of the "political intrigues of President Leonid Kuchma and his supporters."

Soon after Mr. Kravchenko's death, a number of national deputies called for Mr. Kuchma's immediate arrest. Hryhorii Omelchenko, the head of the parliamentary commission investigating the Gongadze killing, repeated his earlier call that Mr. Kuchma, former SBU head Leonid Derkach, and others be arrested in order to protect them from possibly killing themselves or being killed.

Mr. Omelchenko also accused President Viktor Yushchenko of having "made a deal" with Mr. Kuchma prior to the election by allegedly granting him immunity from prosecution. Mr. Yushchenko has denied this in the past and Mr. Kuchma has often said that he does not need immunity since he did not engage in any illegal activities.

Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko also issued a statement demanding Mr. Kuchma's arrest. Members of the pro-Viktor Yanukovych opposition placed the blame for Mr. Kravchenko's death on the government. Mr. Yanukovych said that the unprofessional behavior of the procurator general led to Mr. Kravchenko's suicide while former Procurator General Hennadii Vasiliev called for the removal of Procurator General Svyatoslav Piskun, who replaced him in December. Mr. Vasiliev, a close political ally of Mr. Yanukovych, was blamed by Mr. Yushchenko for stonewalling the Gongadze investigation on March 1.

If Mr. Kuchma challenges possible charges against him, this might create a dilemma for Mr. Yanukovych supporters. After the Ukrainian Supreme Court ruled in December that the second round of the presidential election was to be repeated, the Yanukovych team abandoned its earlier slogan of "continuity of the past" and adopted an anti-Kuchma stance, claiming to be reformers and against the corruption of Mr. Kuchma's old regime.

This would now make it difficult for them to intervene on Mr. Kuchma's behalf and, at best, they can criticize the government on points of procedure and not on substance. At the same time, if the recordings made by former presidential security officer Mykola Melnychenko are admitted as evidence in the case, a precedent will be created that could easily be used against Mr. Yanukovych. The recordings contain conversations from 2000 with a voice resembling Mr. Yanukovych's, who was appointed by Mr. Kuchma as chairman of the Donetsk Oblast in 1999, in which he is heard discussing with President Kuchma a number of allegedly illegal activities.

Roman Kupchinsky, a Prague-based analyst, is a contributor to RFE/RL.

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