The Guardian: Ukrainian President Fights for Survival
02/08/2001 | Broker
Ukrainian president fights for survival
Allies desert embattled Kuchma as prosecutor links leader with secret tapes at heart of journalist murder case
Ian Traynor in Moscow
Thursday February 8, 2001
The Guardian
President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine was fighting for his political life yesterday after the general prosecutor's office ended months of stonewalling to confirm that audio tapes indicating presidential complicity in the murder of an opposition journalist were genuine.
The announcement came a day after thousands of anti-Kuchma demonstrators marched in Kiev, denouncing the sump of corruption that is the presidential court, only to be met by masked thugs breaking up the "tent city" established by protesters on the capital's main shopping street.
The threats to Mr Kuchma's political survival grew as leading opposition figures in Ukraine's notoriously fractious political scene announced they were uniting on an anti-Kuchma platform.
But the biggest threat to his hold on power came with the confirmation by the general prosecutor's office that Mr Kuchma's voice was on the tapes at the heart of the so-called Gongadze scandal.
Georgy Gongadze, the editor of a Ukrainian internet newspaper which focused on corruption, disappeared in September and a beheaded corpse, believed to be his, was found in a forest outside Kiev in November.
After denying that the corpse was Gongadze's, then spinning out the investigation to play for time, the authorities now say it is more than 99% certain that the missing journalist was murdered and that the beheaded body was, in fact, his.
A presidential bodyguard covertly recorded conversations in the presidential office, purporting to show Mr Kuchma, the interior minister and senior security officials using profane language while discussing a kidnapping operation to get rid of the "nuisance" journalist.
Mr Kuchma has persistently denied the allegations, but international pressure on him is increasing and a protest movement dubbed "Ukraine Without Kuchma" is gaining ground. Meanwhile, former political allies are jumping ship, joining the opposition pushing for his impeachment.
After weeks of contradictory statements from the general prosecutor's office, widely seen as an attempted cover-up, the deputy general prosecutor, Alexei Bahanets, said yesterday that Mr Kuchma, the interior minister, the secret service chief, and the president's chief of staff had all been questioned about the tapes and had confirmed that their voices could indeed be heard on them.
He also said that while the voices were genuine, the tapes had been doctored, and the president still denied that the incriminating evidence on the Gongadze case was authentic.
On Monday an MP, Serhy Holovaty, said Mr Kuchma had told him the tapes were genuine.
"I admit that Melnychenko's recordings are true. It is true that I have been recorded. I admit it," Mr Holovaty quoted Mr Kuchma as saying.
The recordings were made by the former presidential bodyguard Mykhailo Melnychenko, who placed a digital recorder under a sofa in the president's office.
He fled the country with his family after the general prosecutor's office issued an arrest warrant.
Mr Melnychenko is believed to be in Prague and the Council of Europe has issued a statement demanding that none of its members extradite him to Ukraine.
The general prosecutor, Mykhailo Potebenko, said at first that the tapes were a fabrication. Then he announced that even if they were real, they were illegally obtained and could not therefore be produced in court. Then he ordered Mr Melnychenko's arrest. Last Friday Mr Pote benko was put on six weeks' compulsory leave, finally admitting before he left that the tapes could be real.
The Council of Europe, the European Union, and the US ambassador in Kiev have all voiced their concern about the case, accusing the authorities of dragging their feet in investigating the allegations and condemning the pressure put on the media by the Kiev regime.
But the western pressure is yet to have much effect. Mr Kuchma is preparing to welcome President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Kiev next week and yesterday a state-controlled printer's refused to print the daily edition of the newspaper Kommersant-Ukraina, because it carried a picture on the front page of Tuesday's anti-Kuchma protesters mocking an effigy of the president.
Dutch and Austrian experts have examined the Melnychenko tapes and found them to be genuine.
Ukrainian MPs familiar with the tapes say they comprise 300 hours of recordings, and that the explosive passages on the Gongadze case are made up of 11 "episodes", the recorded excerpts having been spliced on to one tape "without editing or falsification".
Allies desert embattled Kuchma as prosecutor links leader with secret tapes at heart of journalist murder case
Ian Traynor in Moscow
Thursday February 8, 2001
The Guardian
President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine was fighting for his political life yesterday after the general prosecutor's office ended months of stonewalling to confirm that audio tapes indicating presidential complicity in the murder of an opposition journalist were genuine.
The announcement came a day after thousands of anti-Kuchma demonstrators marched in Kiev, denouncing the sump of corruption that is the presidential court, only to be met by masked thugs breaking up the "tent city" established by protesters on the capital's main shopping street.
The threats to Mr Kuchma's political survival grew as leading opposition figures in Ukraine's notoriously fractious political scene announced they were uniting on an anti-Kuchma platform.
But the biggest threat to his hold on power came with the confirmation by the general prosecutor's office that Mr Kuchma's voice was on the tapes at the heart of the so-called Gongadze scandal.
Georgy Gongadze, the editor of a Ukrainian internet newspaper which focused on corruption, disappeared in September and a beheaded corpse, believed to be his, was found in a forest outside Kiev in November.
After denying that the corpse was Gongadze's, then spinning out the investigation to play for time, the authorities now say it is more than 99% certain that the missing journalist was murdered and that the beheaded body was, in fact, his.
A presidential bodyguard covertly recorded conversations in the presidential office, purporting to show Mr Kuchma, the interior minister and senior security officials using profane language while discussing a kidnapping operation to get rid of the "nuisance" journalist.
Mr Kuchma has persistently denied the allegations, but international pressure on him is increasing and a protest movement dubbed "Ukraine Without Kuchma" is gaining ground. Meanwhile, former political allies are jumping ship, joining the opposition pushing for his impeachment.
After weeks of contradictory statements from the general prosecutor's office, widely seen as an attempted cover-up, the deputy general prosecutor, Alexei Bahanets, said yesterday that Mr Kuchma, the interior minister, the secret service chief, and the president's chief of staff had all been questioned about the tapes and had confirmed that their voices could indeed be heard on them.
He also said that while the voices were genuine, the tapes had been doctored, and the president still denied that the incriminating evidence on the Gongadze case was authentic.
On Monday an MP, Serhy Holovaty, said Mr Kuchma had told him the tapes were genuine.
"I admit that Melnychenko's recordings are true. It is true that I have been recorded. I admit it," Mr Holovaty quoted Mr Kuchma as saying.
The recordings were made by the former presidential bodyguard Mykhailo Melnychenko, who placed a digital recorder under a sofa in the president's office.
He fled the country with his family after the general prosecutor's office issued an arrest warrant.
Mr Melnychenko is believed to be in Prague and the Council of Europe has issued a statement demanding that none of its members extradite him to Ukraine.
The general prosecutor, Mykhailo Potebenko, said at first that the tapes were a fabrication. Then he announced that even if they were real, they were illegally obtained and could not therefore be produced in court. Then he ordered Mr Melnychenko's arrest. Last Friday Mr Pote benko was put on six weeks' compulsory leave, finally admitting before he left that the tapes could be real.
The Council of Europe, the European Union, and the US ambassador in Kiev have all voiced their concern about the case, accusing the authorities of dragging their feet in investigating the allegations and condemning the pressure put on the media by the Kiev regime.
But the western pressure is yet to have much effect. Mr Kuchma is preparing to welcome President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Kiev next week and yesterday a state-controlled printer's refused to print the daily edition of the newspaper Kommersant-Ukraina, because it carried a picture on the front page of Tuesday's anti-Kuchma protesters mocking an effigy of the president.
Dutch and Austrian experts have examined the Melnychenko tapes and found them to be genuine.
Ukrainian MPs familiar with the tapes say they comprise 300 hours of recordings, and that the explosive passages on the Gongadze case are made up of 11 "episodes", the recorded excerpts having been spliced on to one tape "without editing or falsification".