Ukraine's officials claim murder of Heorhii Gongadze is solved (05/20/01)

Ukraine's officials claim murder of Heorhii Gongadze is solved

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - In explanations that do not necessarily jibe with one another, two high-ranking Ukrainian law enforcement officials said on May 15 and 16 that investigators have solved the mysterious disappearance and murder of Heorhii Gongadze. Unfortunately, as they explained, the murderers are dead as well.

Recently appointed Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Smirnov and his first assistant Mykola Dzhyha made the pronouncement on concurrent days in different cities. Their statements, which vary in many key aspects, have only further added to the confusion that surrounds the case and caused more consternation regarding the seemingly unprofessional manner in which law enforcement officials have proceeded in the investigation of the disappearance and murder of the young journalist.

Adding to the confusion, the Procurator General's Office, which handles all such investigations, quickly denounced the conclusions as being premature and outside the competency of the officials.

In their remarks the two officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs agreed that the persons who slew the journalist had themselves been murdered and that the motive was exclusively criminal and not political.

Since the discovery of digital recordings seemingly implicating President Leonid Kuchma in the disappearance of Mr. Gongadze, who had often criticized the president and his political cronies, a strident if not necessarily united oppositionist force has actively demonstrated, at times violently, for the president's resignation. They have called the murder of Mr. Gongadze a political killing ordered by high government officials who wanted to rid themselves of an irritating journalist fighting the corruption of which they are part and parcel.

Minister of Internal Affairs Smirnov was the first to state that the Gongadze case had been solved when he told Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on May 15 that two bodies discovered in a common grave were those of the murderers of the young journalist. While explaining that he could not reveal details because the investigation was the responsibility of the Procurator General's Office, he said investigators made the connection between the two corpses and the Gongadze case when they discovered a map of the burial site of the body of the slain journalist in the common grave.

He said the investigation of the two discovered bodies, whom he refused to identify, led to the arrest of at least one individual and the investigation of others, including a leader of a mafia clan who goes by the nickname Cyclops. The information gathered has led law enforcement officials to believe that the murder of Mr. Gongadze was a simple case of banditry with no political underpinnings, explained the minister of internal affairs.

"The executors are dead, and there are no organizers because the series of events was spontaneous and impulsive," said Mr. Smirnov.

He added that he considers the case closed.

A day later his assistant, Mykola Dzhyha, who was attending an Interpol conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, repeated his boss's assertions to a Russian press service that the murder of Mr. Gongadze was a simple case of banditry. However, in Mr. Dzhyha's recounting of the facts, Mr. Gongadze, who had hitchhiked a ride home after leaving the apartment of a colleague the evening of his disappearance, had the bad luck to climb in with a bunch of drug addicts in need of a fix. When Mr. Gongadze could not come up with the cash they were demanding and instead tussled with them, they murdered him.

Mr. Dzhyha went on to explain that the journalist's body was first buried in the Kyiv area, and then moved to Tarascha. A body believed to be the remains of Mr. Gongadze was discovered in a shallow grave outside of the town of Tarascha, about 75 miles outside of Kyiv, on November 2.

Comments by representatives of the Procurator General's Office and various individuals close to the case have been critical of the manner in which the information has been disclosed and of the content itself. Only President Kuchma has indicated that he may be satisfied with the disclosures. On May 14 he told the Russian government-controlled television station ORT: "As far as I am informed [investigators] practically have tracked down the killers of journalist Heorhii Gongadze." He added however, that the case is "delicate and needs careful handling."

The next day, however, the Procurator General's Office expressed its displeasure with the statement by Minister of Internal Affairs Smirnov, which it called premature. It also questioned his competency to comment on the case.

"A person should only speak on the things he knows about," said Assistant Procurator General Mykola Obikhod. He added that the Procurator General's Office would not comment further on the matter until the person heading the investigation, Assistant Procurator General Oleksii Bahanets, returns from vacation at the end of May.

The attorney representing the mother of the slain journalist, while more direct in his criticism of the revelations, also said he was confused by them. Andrii Fedur told Studio 1+1 Television, which has followed the case closely, that the Internal Affairs Ministry's lead investigator in the case, Oleh Vasylenko, had told him on May 15, the day Minister Smirnov made his comments, that the case is still very much open, and there are no concrete leads.

In an on-air interview on May 16, Mr. Fedur asked sardonically when it was that the two murdered individuals had told Mr. Smirnov that they had killed Mr. Gongadze and why they had done so.

He explained that not a single court procedure had taken place to ascertain the facts in the Gongadze case, and therefore no law enforcement official had the right to say the case was closed.

National Deputy Oleksander Lavrynovych, the head of the ad hoc parliamentary committee investigating the Gongadze case, said in a separate interview that he fully supported Mr. Fedur's opinion. Mr. Lavrynovych said that in Ukrainian law a case is considered closed when all investigative procedures are completed and the matter has been turned over to the courts. He noted that the Procurator General's Office is the only law enforcement agency mandated to do so, and that the statements by the Ministry of Internal Affairs officials were not proper.

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