Three deputies die in Ukraine (02/11/01)

Three deputies die in Ukraine

by Yarema A. Bachynsky
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - Two national deputies and one oblast council deputy have died suddenly within the past 10 days in Ukraine. The deaths of National Deputies Yurii Kononenko and Oleksander Yemets, and Kharkiv Oblast Council Deputy Valerii Zozulia are all under criminal investigation at this time.

Mr. Kononenko, a prominent Kharkiv businessman-turned-national legislator died on January 22 from a rifle wound in what law enforcement officials have tentatively termed a suicide.

That day, at approximately 10 a.m., Mr. Kononenko entered his office at Losk, the highly successful manufacturer of automobile windshields and auto parts, with his personal semi-automatic hunting rifle, and ordered his employees not to disturb him, said the oblast procurator's office.

Towards evening, concerned that Mr. Kononenko had been cooped up in his office all day, employees entered and found him lying on the floor, the apparent victim of a self-inflicted rifle wound.

Following discovery of the body, a criminal investigation was initiated by the oblast procurator. Law enforcement officials said at a press conference on January 23 that Mr. Kononenko had been under possible psychological and emotional pressure immediately prior to his death.

National Deputy Mykhailo Brodskii of the Yabluko faction said on January 22 that he does not believe Mr. Kononenko committed suicide. Mr. Brodskii cited the fact that Mr. Kononenko had quit the pro-presidential National Democratic Party faction on October 19, 2000, and joined Yabluko, only to reverse himself a week later and return to the NDP fold. "Because of this I am quite doubtful that he committed suicide," said Mr. Brodskii.

Oleksander Karpov, coordinator of the increasingly shaky center-right parliamentary majority in the Verkhovna Rada and NDP fraction member, said following Mr. Kononenko's death that there was no reason to doubt its nature. Observers of the Kharkiv political scene have commented that Mr. Kononenko's business affairs took a turn for the worse following the appointment of former presidential administration head Yevhen Kushnariov as governor of Kharkiv Oblast. Losk, which in addition to its manufacturing activities, runs one of the largest used car markets in Ukraine, was subjected to numerous tax inspections, and Mr. Kononenko became increasingly more troubled.

Following his death, the Internet site expert.org released what it said was a letter written by Mr. Kononenko to former Prime Minister and NDP Chairman Valerii Pustovoitenko in which the businessman asked forgiveness for his display of disloyalty to the PDP. The Kyiv Post wrote on January 25 that it was uncertain whether the letter was ever sent to Mr. Pustovoitenko.

The investigation into the 45 year-old Mr. Kononenko's death continues.

On January 28, the chairman of the Reforms and Order Party (PRP) and National Deputy Oleksander Yemets died after an automobile accident on the Zaporizhia-Kirovohrad highway. At approximately 8:30 p.m. that day, according to PRP parliamentary faction leader Viktor Pynzenyk, the driver of Mr. Yemets' Mercedes lost control of the vehicle, which sped off the rain-soaked road, slid into a ditch and rammed a nearby tree. Mr. Yemets' driver and assistant, Ruslan Zaichenko, was saved by his airbag, but Mr. Yemets, who sustained heavy injuries, including major head trauma and a broken hip, died shortly after being admitted to a hospital in the nearby town of Apostolove.

"Everyone considers it an accident. Nobody here is presently saying that the nature [of the accident] is deliberate," said PRP press secretary Myroslava Gongadze to Ukrainian News, adding that the party and the Reforms-Congress parliamentary faction was calling for a thorough investigation of the mishap's cause. Vice Minister of Internal Affairs Petro Koliada has since been appointed to lead the Yemets inquiry.

Born in 1959 in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Mr. Yemets was an attorney and law enforcement professional. He was elected to the Parliament in 1998 as a member of the NDP party list, but left that party to become vice-chairman of the PRP in June 1999. Prior to his election to the Verkhovna Rada, Mr. Yemets served as minister for nationalities and migration in 1993-1994 and as vice-prime minister for political and legal matters from March to August 1996. In 1997 he served as a legal advisor to President Leonid Kuchma.

Mr. Yemets was buried at Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv on January 31. According to korrespondent.net, some 5,000 persons, including President Kuchma, Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko, Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Kravchenko and other top officials paid their last respects to Mr. Yemets, who leaves behind two sons.

Mr. Yemets' death brought to 10 the number of national deputies who have died in office since the 1998 parliamentary elections. Among the deceased are former political dissident and Rukh leader Vyacheslav Chornovil, who died under questionable circumstances in a car accident near Boryspil in March 1999.

On January 24, Mr. Zozulia, a deputy of the Kharkiv Oblast Council and businessman, was shot and killed as he left his home in the village of Rzhavchyk, reported national and local media. One of Mr. Zozulia's employees discovered his body, as well as the bodies of his wife and mother-in-law, after coming to the house that morning.

Law enforcement officials quickly ruled out the possibility of a political motive behind Mr. Zozulia's death, and on January 27 arrested two locals in the matter. Local media reported that the duo apparently killed the deputy because he had stiffed them on a land deal. Mr. Zozulia headed the Rzhavchyk Agricultural Company, a former collective farm, and had allegedly short-changed the two individuals implicated in the multiple shooting.

Police were able to track down the alleged killers quickly because they had dropped the presumed murder weapon in a nearby well, said the Kharkiv Oblast Procurator's Office following the arrests. The suspects have been charged with aggravated premeditated homicide, and authorities charge they had also stolen gold from the Zozulia household.

| Home Page |