08/07/2003 | peter byrne

http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/08/06082003165723.asp

tykavo: po mneniyu krushelnycky, gongadze propal v 1999 i koshyv napisal chudo-knigu pro ehto delo.

SEEKING ASYLUM

By the time the spot was aired on April 29, 2001, Melnychenko had literally become a household figure in the West, thanks to articles published by The Daily Telegraph, RFE/RL, and The New York Times.

The stories portrayed him as a truth-seeking crusader who was spending his waking hours transcribing the recordings in his possession.

Freelance journalist Askold Krushelnytsky, his wife, RFE/RL correspondent Irena Halupa, and New York Times correspondent Patrick Tyler met face-to-face with the hero on Feb. 23.

"I will be able to transcribe the recordings in three months," Krushelnytsky quoted Melnychenko as saying.

The journalists also reported the guard’s desire to ask Britain or the United States to protect his wife and daughter while he completed the work.

In correspondence leading up to the interview, Tyler informed Melnychenko that he had written U.S. officials and his bosses that attention needed to be paid to his legal status.

"SUBJ: Legal Status: 'I asked the American ambassador today whether you will get an asylum offer,'" Tyler wrote Melnychenko on Feb. 13, 2001.

"I have already written in the NYT that attention needs to be paid to your legal status," Tyler wrote again on Feb. 18, 2001.

Shortly after the article, titled "From Under a Couch, an Effort to Stop Corruption in Ukraine," appeared in NYT on Feb. 26, 2001, Tyler told Melnychenko that the U.S. Embassy in Prague had provided a name and number of an official to contact.

“I asked the ambassador in Kiev to look in his directory for Prague and while I was traveling somewhere in Siberia,” Tyler recalled.

“He passed on to one of my colleagues in Moscow a name from the Consular Section of the Prague Embassy and one of my staff sent it along to Melnychenko.”

Diplomats at the British Embassy in Prague were also involved. Irena Halupa passed on telephone number and password (OSTAPENKO) for Melnychenko to safely contact them.

Halupa's husband, Krushelnytsky, who arranged the matter in London, then told Melnychenko that RFE/RL was interested in helping him "finish his work."

Melnychenko replied by providing RFE/RL with some recordings, which were dated incorrectly and transcribed incorrectly and posted to RFE/RL's Website.

The former Bureau Chief of the station’s Ukrainian service, Roman Kupchinsky, now confirms the involvement of station employees in Melnychenko's bid for asylum.

"At first [Melnychenko] wanted to go England, met with a British representative here in Prague and decided against it. Then at my request, my boss [RFE/RL President] Tom Dine intervened through the [acting] U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic.

[Former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic left the post in December 2000. Craig Stapleton presented his ambassadorial credentials in Prague in August 2001.]

On April 11, 2001 Melnychenko met with an official of the Central Intelligence Agency in Prague and the deal was done.

"A friend and I picked up Melnychenko and his family at a gas station," Kupchinsky said. "We drove them to a safe place in Prague."

The U.S. State Department announced April 13, 2001 that it had granted refugee status to Melnychenko and his family.

The guard and his family left for the U.S. on Easter Sunday, April 15, 2001, with a closed packet of documents.

The recordings stayed behind.