Rumors of conspiracy inflamed by lack of criminal investigation into fatal collision (04/04/99)

Rumors of conspiracy inflamed by lack of criminal investigation into fatal collision

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Even before the world and much of Ukraine had heard that Vyacheslav Chornovil had died in a car accident shortly before midnight on March 25, rumors were spreading like wildfire through the capital city that the fatal collision was not an accident, but a planned execution of the political leader by political opponents who had decided that the timing was right.

With the political party that Mr. Chornovil led in the throes of a deeply emotional split and with presidential elections approaching in October, the conspiracy theorists that quickly came out of the Kyivan woodwork surmised that those who wanted to be rid of Mr. Chornovil, a person despised by as many as adored him, could be safely removed before he played a defining role in the elections.

The rumors were flamed further by the government's quick announcement that the investigation into the Chornovil death would be limited to that accorded a fatal auto accident.

The day after Mr. Chornovil's tragic death, Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Kravchenko, in an appearance on Ukrainian Television, explained that the possibility of a murder conspiracy "is not and will not be investigated under the circumstances." He explained that the incident was an unfortunate accident, and that the driver of the diesel truck and trailer was a stable family man with a wife, a 10-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter, who had lived in the same Dnipropetrovsk village of Oleksandropil for 12 years; a person who was not a hired assassin.

Although Mr. Kravchenko's ministry, which The Weekly contacted to get details of the collision, refused to comment until after its investigation is complete, much of what happened that night can be pieced together from various press accounts and interviews with people who were on the scene after the collision.

On the night of March 25, Mr. Chornovil was returning to Kyiv after a day spent politicking in Kirovohrad with National Deputy Hennadii Udovenko, Rukh's presidential candidate. The two politicians were returning together, but traveling in separate vehicles. The car in which Mr. Chornovil was a passenger, along with his press secretary, Dmytro Ponomarchuk, in all likelihood was traveling at between 140 and150 kilometers per hour as it approached a KamAZ diesel truck hauling two trailers filled with a total of 11 tons of grain seed headed for the Volyn Oblast.

The KamAZ driver had missed his turnoff on the two-lane Boryspil-Zolotonosha highway near the village of Horodysche in Boryspil county, just outside of Kyiv, and the truck was perpendicular to the road as it made a slow U-turn on the dimly lit road.

The driver of Mr. Chornovil's Toyota, Yevhen Pavliv, hit his brakes about 39 meters from the truck, as evidenced by the skid marks. The car's anti-skid system did not allow the car to turn sideways, as could have been expected, and the vehicle hit the truck between the truck hitch and the front trailer wheels. As the car slid under the truck its top was sheared off, instantly killing Messrs. Pavliv and Chornovil.

Why Mr. Pavliv, a professional driver who had raced automobiles competitively, did not risk an attempt to swerve off the road, even though a ravine adjoined it, rather than hit the truck will probably never be known.

At the time of impact the Toyota had probably slowed to some 50 kilometers per hour, according to an official of the Security Service of Ukraine who wished to remain unidentified. He said that, had the car swerved into the truck or had it hit one of the truck's wheels, the chance that anyone would have died would have been greatly reduced as the Toyota's airbags would have absorbed much of the impact.

And that, said the official, is the main problem with the murder conspiracy theory: the certainty of death, given all the variables, would not be high in this type of a situation.

But those close to Mr. Chornovil and others at the scene of the collision soon after it occurred are questioning details that have led them to demand that an investigation into a possible murder conspiracy must take place.

At a public meeting held at Baikove Cemetery before Mr. Chornovil's body was interred, several members of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada stated outrightly that the late Rukh leader was murdered.

National Deputy Les Taniuk, a leader of the Rukh Party who remained with Mr. Chornovil after the split, called the incident "a killing."

National Deputy Vitalii Zhuravskyi, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, was even more explicit. "I do not believe the death of Vyacheslav Chornovil was an accident. It was a fair warning to those who have not made their choice on the eve of the election season."

Ilko Kucheriv, head of the sociological polling organization Democratic Initiative and a close friend of Mr. Ponomarchuk, told The Weekly that too many questions remain unanswered to limit the scope of the investigation. "It looks very suspicious, and the investigation should include the possibility of an organized murder," he said.

He explained that he was present at the scene of the crime not long after the collision, where he talked with Mr. Udovenko's body guard, who told him that he never saw any headlights or running lights shining from the KamAZ. According to Mr. Kucheriv, the body guard also stated that two other men seem to have been with the driver, but soon afterwards they disappeared.

Time will tell whether such questions will be answered, but some believe a criminal investigation is unlikely.

"If the government refuses to consider the possibility of murder, then nothing will come of it," Serhii Naboka, a journalist and political commentator, told The Weekly. "And, if the driver was in fact involved, then he was paid off in such a way that he will never talk."

Mr. Naboka said that in his opinion most of the evidence is merely circumstantial or downright conjecture, but he agreed that certain inconsistencies in the facts as they have been reported leave room for questions.

Mr. Naboka also explained that sufficient precedent exists to believe the "wild speculation" that to an extent surrounds the Chornovil death and that it can be found in the way the Soviet KGB operated historically. The KGB was the secret service arm of the Soviet government that was well-known for its creative and ruthless suppression of political critics and opponents of the Soviet regime.

Mr. Naboka said the manner in which Mr. Chornovil died was similar to one method that Soviet leaders used to rid themselves of political opponents and potential adversaries. Trucks were used in the murder deaths of at least one early Soviet revolutionary, who was known as Kamo. He died after he fell into disfavor with Stalin, when a truck ran into the bicycle on which he was riding.

Then, in 1980, the head of the Belarusian Communist Party, Petro Masherov, who had become popular among the Belarusian people for advocating an early form of glasnost, died under questionable circumstances when his Chaika automobile ran into a truck carrying tons of potatoes.

Mr. Naboka emphasized, however, that those incidents and others are not proof that what happened to Mr. Chornovil was no accident. "All that can be built is a chain of similarity," said the political commentator.

Mr. Naboka said the field of those who could be responsible is wide open because there were many who might find political expedience in the death of the vocal and uncompromising Mr. Chornovil.

Although many have woven a complicated web of conspiracy, few, if any are ready to publicly come forward and say who they suspect might be responsible for Mr. Chornovil's death. Mr. Naboka said he has heard accusations aimed at everybody - from the Communist Party leadership and the current Ukrainian state leadership to those on the far right who often had been at odds with the late Rukh Party leader and the splinter Rukh Party tjat broke with Mr. Chornovil weeks before his death.

But, as Mr. Naboka underscored, "there is no evidence," only the theories, rumors and wild speculations of people trying to find the answer to why the political force that was Mr. Chornovil died so suddenly and so tragically.

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