President dismisses Kravchenko after all (04/01/01)

President dismisses Kravchenko after all

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - A little more than a week after President Leonid Kuchma declared that he had not signed an order for the dismissal of Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Kravchenko he did just that, firing his longtime chief of the national police on March 26 with the explanation that he was fulfilling a long-held personal request.

"Mr. Kravchenko several times had expressed his desire to resign. I finally agreed to it," explained President Kuchma at a meeting of law enforcement officials from several government agencies, during which the former top cop's successor was named.

The dismissal came nine days after initial reports of Mr. Kravchenko's firing, which were confirmed by presidential representatives at several levels before the president put an end to rampant speculation on March 21 by bluntly stating that "no," he had not signed any such decrees.

Even as Mr. Kuchma maintained that the move was part of a routine rotation of posts, opponents of the president in the Forum for National Salvation declared a victory. Although the official explanation did not jibe with the reason they wanted him gone, they expressed satisfaction with Mr. Kravchenko's removal. National Deputy Volodymyr Filenko of the Reforms and Order Party, a leader of the civic protest organization, said he welcomed the move.

"Our ultimate goal is not Kravchenko or [Procurator General Mykhailo] Potebenko. It is a change in the ruling system," said Mr. Filenko.

Another opposition leader, National Deputy Oleksander Moroz of the Socialist Party, said the removal of the state militia chief is confirmation that leading officials had a role in the murder of Ukrainian journalist Heorhii Gongadze, according to RFE/RL reports.

Political analyst Mykhailo Pohrebynskyi, who last week predicted the eventual ouster of Mr. Kravchenko in comments made to The Weekly, said that no matter how the president spins the reason for Mr. Kravchenko's dismissal, the fact remains that the president removed his minister of internal affairs because he had failed in his job.

"The situation in the country, this crisis, showed the president that law enforcement officials did not know how to work in a crisis situation," Mr. Pohrebynskyi commented.

He added that he believes that Mr. Potebenko, who is next on the Forum for National Salvation's "hit list," will not go soon because President Kuchma fully understands that the Verkhovna Rada would resist approval of most any replacement appointed by the president, which would leave the chief prosecutor's office adrift and Mr. Kuchma without a political partner in that powerful chair during the crisis period.

The Forum for National Salvation has put forth several demands on President Kuchma in response to the disappearance of Mr. Gongadze, who vanished more than six months ago and is deemed to have been murdered, and revelations made on audiotapes that seem to implicate the president and several of his top officials, including Mr. Kravchenko, in the affair. The tape recordings, made by a bodyguard of Mr. Kuchma in the president's chambers and released in November 2000, also contain what appear to be conversations on criminal dealings between the president and several high-ranking officials.

Mr. Kravchenko was the second on the list of law enforcement officials whom the anti-Kuchma movement wanted removed for his alleged complicity in the Gongadze murder and stalling by his ministry in the murder investigation, which has barely moved forward. Earlier Mr. Kuchma had dismissed the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Leonid Derkach. The opposition movement's ultimate goal is removal of the president himself.

Although rumors abounded in the last days that Volodymyr Lytvyn, the president's chief of staff, also was on his way out, the president expressed full support for him on March 28, calling him "an intelligent and capable person" and "a true professional."

Mr. Lytvyn and Mr. Kravchenko are believed to have close business ties, and some political experts have speculated that the two would be released together as the president distanced himself from one set of business oligarchs and moved closer to others.

Yurii Smirnov, the person chosen to replace Mr. Kravchenko, received less than rave reviews from the opposition forces, even as they welcomed Mr. Kravchenko's ouster. Mr. Smirnov, who headed the state militia organization for the city of Kyiv before his appointment, was criticized by all but a few of the leading members of the opposition for his role in controlling demonstrations in Kyiv over the last few months and, specifically, for his role in the violent events of March 9.

"Replacing Kravchenko with Smirnov will change nothing," said National Deputy Filenko, who said that Mr. Smirnov organized the vast police presence at Shevchenko Park that resulted in the first clashes with police on March 9 and is responsible for the illegal arrests, beatings and mass detention of hundreds of students at the Kyiv train station that evening.

But National Deputy Yurii Karmazyn, another leading opposition member who chairs the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Corruption and Organized Crime, said he believed Mr. Smirnov to be "an adequate professional who always weighs the plusses and minuses."

"In his previous post Yurii Smirnov tried to maintain the principles of law. Now he must decide what will be the foundation of the work of the militia," commented Mr. Karmazyn.

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