Last Wednesday, the parliament listened to the top officials of the nation’s uniformed services reporting on matters concerning the Mukacheve mayoral election, with Prosecutor General Hennady Vasylyev, First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Mykhailo Korniyenko, and Security Service (SBU) Deputy Chairman Ihor Drizhchany reporting the preliminary investigation results. This time around, the atmosphere in the parliament hall differed somewhat from the one that accompanied the previous report by top officials of these services in the wake of the Mukacheve events. Although continuing to press their claims, Our Ukraine representatives made no further attempts to make a stand against the high law enforcement officials and behaved in a more reserved manner. Prosecutor General Vasylyev reported that the investigation into the Mukacheve events has resulted in five criminal cases on charges of disorderly behavior, hooliganism, and alleged ballot stealing. The Prosecutor General said that 685 witnesses were questioned in course of the investigation, including top officials of the Zakarpattia oblast government and law enforcement bodies, 478 of the 499 Election Committee members, and 14 of the 15 Territorial Election Committee members. The Prosecutor General’s Office has confiscated 193 documents and conducted twelve forensic examinations. After reporting this to the lawmakers, Prosecutor Vasylyev asked them to cooperate with his department and be more active in testifying on the Mukacheve events. “We have summoned people’s deputies for testimony but have met with no understanding on their part,” he explained.
Most problems of the Mukacheve mayoral election could have been avoided had the law been more specific on the actions of the uniformed services during meetings, rallies, and demonstrations, said First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Mykhailo Korniyenko. In this connection he asked lawmakers to expedite the passage of a relevant law. Answering the deputies’ questions, Korniyenko stressed that police officers had acted within their competence “without interfering with the election process or politics.” When asked by Communist Party member Anatoly Orzhakhovsky as to why the police had not foreseen the probability of disturbances and made no video footage, Korniyenko said that the police officers tried to record videos but “their video cameras had been seized by people’s deputies, who are yet to return them.”
SBU Deputy Chairman Ihor Drizhchany, in his turn, told the deputies that his department had refused to begin criminal proceedings in connection with the Mukacheve events. According to him, no crimes over which the SBU has jurisdiction (that is, violations threatening national security) have been reported in connection with the Mukacheve events.
Drizhchany added that the SBU received seven pleas from lawmakers demanding criminal proceedings in cases over which the SBU allegedly has jurisdiction. All cases were investigated with the participation of the plaintiffs. “These pleas not always were based on facts, often having political rather than legal grounds,” Drizhchany concluded. However, as he put it, all materials concerning the reported violations have been passed to the Prosecutor General.
The lawmakers also heard the opinion of Anatoly Matviyenko, chairman of the State Building and Local Self Government Committee and Tymoshenko Bloc member, who demanded that those guilty of “abusing free will” of Mukacheve residents be found and punished.
The debate between the lawmakers and top officials of the uniformed services resulted in a resolution passed with 238 votes, in which Verkhovna Rada has recommended that Pres. Kuchma dismiss Zakarpattia Oblast State Administration Chairman Ivan Rizak, that the Minister of Internal affairs dismiss Zakarpattia Oblast Ministry of Internal Affairs Administration Chairman, and that the Prosecutor General officially contest the decision of the Mukacheve Territorial Election Committee on the results of the Mukacheve mayoral election. The resolution also suggests that the president “provide an adequate political and legal evaluation of the more and more frequent attempts by certain officials to destabilize the situation in Ukraine.” The resolution also reads, “Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine insists that in evaluating the events during the Mukacheve mayoral election, making hasty accusations, stirring political confrontation, and organizing various actions would not only prevent the truth from being established but also sully Ukraine’s image abroad.”
The results of the investigation have caused controversial responses from different political forces. Our Ukraine and Tymoshenko Bloc representatives seemed quite happy but made no secret of the fact that they expected a harsher wording. At the same time, Our Ukraine Leader Viktor Yushchenko even announced his intention to meet with President Kuchma and try to convince him to listen to Verkhovna Rada’s recommendations. Simultaneously, the SDPU(O) representatives called the parliament’s stand “a political decision.” In the opinion of Social Democrat Ihor Shurma, “today everything tends to be carried over to politics.” He also stressed the need to wait for the uniformed services to complete the investigation. Another SDPU(O) faction member, Nestir Shufrych, said that in voting for the resolution certain lawmakers tried to get back at the chairman of the Zakarpattia Oblast State Administration. The two Social Democrats believe that the evaluation of the Mukacheve events was “provocative.” Unaligned deputy Oleksandr Volkov, without resorting to extremes, drew the journalists’ attention to the fact that Verkhovna Rada’s proposal to dismiss Zakarpattia Oblast State Administration Chairman Ivan Rizak was only a recommendation. At the same time, he expressed his confidence that the president will not do this since he “never agreed to any ultimatums.” Virtually all opposition deputies interviewed by The Day’s correspondent in the lobby shared Volkov’s opinion. Some of them pointed out that the parliament’s resolution could have received a milder wording. In particular, it could do without the demand to have the Zakarpattia oblast governor dismissed, had the representatives of the uniformed services been more convincing in their speeches.
In any case, it seems that the parliament has let off the steam after Mukacheve. Maybe the new hearings on the results of the Mukacheve investigation scheduled for June 1 will dot all the i’s in this case.
