04/30/2002 | Майдан-Інформ

Прийшло до нас у пошті. Може хтось перекладе?

Dear Maidan,


You may find a review of killing the story in simple English here:

http://www.uanews.co.uk/edit/edit31.htm


Roman Revkniv,
Editor Ukrainian Archives & News

admin@uanews.co.uk

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KillingThe Story
BBC2 TV, United Kingdom,
Sunday April 21 2002, 6.45pm
Reporter: Tom Mangold
Editor: Fiona Murch
Series Producer: Simon Finch

Reviewed by Roman Revkniv
April 28th 2002

Killing The Story is a BBC 45-minute documentary about the killing of Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze and Ukrainian authority's attempts to play the story down. Journalist Tom Mangold attempted to find answers to the questions Who killed Georgy Gongadze, Where, and When? He began with the view that most likely, Gongadze was beaten too severely and that his assailants then had a corpse to deal with.

From the onset, Mr. Mangold was on very delicate terrain. The coroner who first began to examine Gongadze's rotting corpse spoke to the BBC in fear of reprisals. Gongadze's body had been taken away by higher authorities, as had his computer - used to record any sensitive post-mortem information.

Ukraine is a territory full of unforgiving authoritarian powers, and this was clearly emphasised in Tom Mangold's initial approaches. After having reconstructed Gongadze's last known movements, accounts were presented from Ukrainians who had suffered reprisals similar to those of Gongadze. Writer Oleksiy Podolisky was similarly driven close to a forest and very severely beaten. One of his assailants had a can of petrol at the ready - presumably to burn his corpse. Podolisky survived, and viewed his ordeal as deliberate psychological and physical torture. Another of Kuchma's opponents, politician, Alexander Yeliaskevych also survived a similar vicious beating. Cleverly woven into these accounts were testimonies from both of these parties who had later recognized audio tape recordings with instructions and verbal accounts describiing the very same events that so nearly saw them killed. Oleh Yeltsov, a closer colleague of Gongadze's, also gave an account of how the authorities dealt with him.

Having established that events such as these do happen, the journalistic approach shifted to another unfolding development - about a former Presidential guard, Major Melnychenko. Nikolai Melnychenko had made off to the USA with not only one hour - but a massive 1,000 hours - of taped conversations from President Kuchma's office which had been bugged for over one year. Tom Mangold continued to try to find answers again re-iterating the questions 'who killed Gongadze, when and where?' At the very least, it was openly clear that he tried to enquire about the action being taken to resolve Gongadze's murder from the powers that could find the answers.

In a somewhat surprising manner - in Mangold's visits to the Prosecutor General's Office and then to President Kuchma's office - the program began to temporarily and unavoidably dissolve with melodramatic overtones.

The Prosecutor General himself was not present. His assistant - Alexander Bahanets and an unseparable colleague were asked the following questions:

"How did Gngadze die?"

"As the crime remains unsolved it is obvious that we don't know the circumstance of Gongadze's death. But we do think he was murdered."

"Where?"

"We don't know that either. All we do know is that he went missing from the moment he disappeared."

On the subject of Melnychenko's tapes Bahanets added:

"Even if these recordings were made in the President's office - this must have been an illegal act. That means the tapes cannot be used as evidence for charging an individual with a crime."

And so to President Kuchma:

"You have acknowledged it's your voice"

"That is what the experts say, but our media have shown that politicians' voices can be presented so that they are not recognised - so the voice of any politician can be faked..."

When asked about Melnychenko, President Kuchma replied:

"I don't know him. I can't even remember what he looked like".

Both Melnychenko and Kuchma appeared on the same video framed footaged. Viewers were soon to be presented with Major Melnychenko himself.

On the run and in fear of his life Melnychenko was portrayed as having behaved from patriotic reasons. Having turned down $6 million dollars to stay silent at home, he made off to the USA with 1,000 hours of audio tape. He is now being de-briefed by the FBI and for reasons of personal security - he and his family will be housed inside a US Military complex.

Though a small number of persons would like to see Melnychenko dead, many more await to hear all of the tapes...


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Killing the Story top quote:
(Kuchmagate): "...making Nixon's Watergate tapes sound like a parish fracas"