Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko recently gave a small group interview to Russian and Ukrainian journalists. Included in the group was Andriy Chernikov of Kommersant. abdymok has translated some of Chernikov's notes here. What stuck out for me was when the Gongadze case came up, Yushchenko says, "I don't know, should I talk about it or not? Is it worth it?" To which he gets a resounding "yes!"
In this excerpt, Chernikov challenges Yushchenko on the case:
“okay. [Yushchenko said] i think that we can call the gongadze case closed, because the murderers have been found.”
“tell us,” i said, “can we call it closed if those who ordered the murder haven’t been found?”
and then i asked a second question:
“and how closed can the case be without first studying - and calling in as evidence - the melnychenko recordings?”
... it is important to search for those who ordered and arranged gongadze’s murder ... this represented the second step in the investigation ...
yushchenko listed the "certain olive branches" he had sent out to melnychenko: a guarantee of safety and a request to turn over his evidence either to the prosecutor general, the state security service, or the law-enforcement bodies of any country.
“let him bring all the tapes and the tape recorder. do we have to summon the tapes? how? how can we do that if there’s not one document attesting to the fact that the recordings were made in [former president leonid] kuchma’s office. … melnychenko is the only witness who still has not been deposed. you can buy his tapes in any doorway, but he’s yet to testify.”
i won’t even comment on these words. i will observe only that another colleague of mine has been writing for years that melnychenko is no hero.
yushchenko knows this too.
The following are from two articles in Kommersant on the interview:
- You speak on the Gongadze case with great certainty. You say that it is solved, that a load has been taken off your mind. But still you must admit that there is an assumption of innocence. Can one say before the trial that a load has been taken off one’s mind?
- You’re right, but…
(After these words Yushchenko turned off my dictaphone and spoke for a few minutes about the Gongadze case. His point of view that every step taken in this case must be public sounds convincing. He thinks that if one doesn’t talk about it, the case won’t progress, as it was before. All the traces that emerge will disappear like the ones washed away by the tide on the sand. It implies that Ukrainian president admits that for the time being he doesn’t have the means of influencing at least the Prosecutor General’s Office. – A. K.)
And this:
The President of Ukraine said [adding that he was advised him not to do this] it was time to put an end to the murder of Georgi Gongadze.
“It's a load off my mind,” Yushchenko said, adding that the investigation had determined who had committed the crime and that the next step was to go after the ones who ordered it. In his words, all the prerequisites were there.
He was rather guarded about Kuchma's future. His position on the notorious Melnichenko tapes is interesting in connection with this. Yushchenko believes they are worthless without testimony from Melnichenko himself. Yushchenko hopes to obtain this testimony in any form and at any place, while observing the necessary formalities. Therefore, Melnichenko is not obliged to leave the United States to give it.
It seems at times as if Yushchenko can't shake himself from bad habits he may - may - have picked up in past governments. When crimes are pronounced solved before a trial is even commenced, it smacks of the old regime.
As for those tapes; from a Freedom House report written by Adrian Karatnycky we get this:
In 2000, [Kuchma's] former bodyguard leaked hundreds of hours of transcripts of the president's conversations.On the tapes, Kuchma is heard dispensing favors, paying massive kickbacks, and conspiring to suppress his opponents--making it clear that the president sat at the head of a vast criminal system.
Just a very small portion of the 700 hours of recordings have been made public and/or transcribed. As Peter Byrne has pointed out, there are many issues discussed on the tapes other than Gongadze.
Daniel, what am I missing here? Ukraine (Russian dominated) sends troops to Iraq; now Ukraine (under Yushchenko) is making plans to pull them out....?
Posted by: Maggie | March 22, 2005 at 07:30 PM
This was a campaign promise that Yshchenk made. Ukraine was actually dead set against the war but Kuchma joined the coaliton to smooth over criticism from Washington that he sold radar to Saddam.
This is just another odd twist in the new Ukraine.
Posted by: Daniel | March 23, 2005 at 06:35 AM