Ukraine marked the 11th anniversary of the disappearance of the noted opposition journalist Heorhii Gongadze once again without identifying those who ordered his murder. One of the participants in a rally in memory of Gongadze that took place in Kyiv on September 16 told The Day: “Even now we don’t have a straight answer to the question of who murdered journalist Gongadze. I’m here because I want the murderers found and punished. As for this rally, people are doing what they can. I don’t know whether this is enough, but I’m glad to see that there are people who keep this issue on the agenda and draw public attention to it. This is actually a criterion of democratic and effective go-vernance. I believe this issue once again becomes a political tool and I’m not sure this government will be able to resolve it.”
Says Yehor Sobolev, head of the Svidomo journalist investigation bureau: “Such rallies are important because people who take part in them are close to the realization that it is necessary to build a different state. This isn’t a matter to be decided by politicians or human rights activists; this is a matter that concerns all journalists, students, and cultural figures. We all suffer because our state is just a means of using the people for the benefit of several clans. There are many journalists present and I can see that people are beginning to see the light. For me, this isn’t a memorial soiree but an event meant to mobilize people and help well-to-do and well-known individuals realize that newspaper articles and television programs are not enough to improve the situation. This event is a way to meet each other and agree on combining efforts to build a different state.”
The criminal proceeding started against ex-President Leonid Kuchma last year (on charges of unlawful activities and complicity in the murder of Gongadze, as well as unlawful acts in regard to journalist Podolsky) took many by surprise and caused a lot of reverberations in Ukraine and abroad. Most importantly, there appeared hopes for the restoration of justice. President Viktor Yanukovych said at the time that “it is necessary to finally give an answer to the question that has been common know-ledge for a number of years.”
Kuchma at first looked a little perplexed. It was obvious from his expression when he was regularly visiting the Prosecutor General’s Office, but then he and his entourage regained composure and used their considerable resources and launched a large-scale campaign to whitewash the former head of state. As in good old Soviet times, there were letters from cultural figures in his support, scenes from Russian producer Andrei Konchalovsky’s documentary The Battle of Ukraine, stage-managed television talk show Freedom of Expression; the campaign to discredit the key witness, Mykola Melnychenko, was stepped up. Kuchma’s defense lawyers even ma-naged to convince the court to override the PGO ruling of March 1, 2005, that closed the criminal case against Melnychenko. They did it in order to remove Melnychenko’s incriminating tapes from the Kuchma case. As a result, one increasingly often hears about this case being soft-pedaled.
All this time, while being on his own recognizance, Kuchma freely traveled across Ukraine and abroad. By way of comparison, Yurii Lutsenko and Yulia Tymoshenko are kept behind bars, although they are not suspected of complicity in the journalist’s murder. Even as a rally was held in front of the Presidential Administration (PA), demanding that those who ordered Gongadze’s murder be held to account, Kuchma, PA and European officials were in Yalta, attending the eighth European strategy summit organized by Viktor Pinchuk. As previously on such occasions, Kuchma addressed the roundtable, dwelling on lofty subjects, including the difference between the Orange Revolution and revolutions in Arab countries. And this considering that President Yanukovych’s press secretary Darka Chepak recently declared that “people must know the truth, no matter how many years have elapsed since the disappearance of Heorhii Gongadze.” It was further made clear that Yanukovych is interested in a complete, unbiased, and transparent investigation into the Gongadze case.
One wonders about the European stand in the matter. While pressuring the Ukrainian government about Yulia Tymoshenko’s arrest, Europeans appear to completely ignore another case that made headlines across the world and which implicates ex-President Kuchma as a perpetrator of one of the major crimes. Why would European politicians attend the Yalta summit? On January 27, 2009 PACE adopted Resolution No. 1645 entitled “Investigation of crimes allegedly committed by high officials during the Kuchma rule in Ukraine: the Gongadze case as an emblematic example.” It reads: “2. Crimes against journalists and political activists must be investigated by the competent authorities as a matter of priority, without political interference. The authorities must strive to identify not only the actual perpetrators of these crimes but also their instigators and organizers, without regard to the rank and position of the suspects… 5. The Assembly remains deeply concerned that no progress has been achieved in holding to account those who instigated and organized the murder of Heorhii Gongadze and reiterates its position that the case cannot be considered as solved until the instigators and organizers, in addition to the actual perpetrators of the crime, are held to account.”
