Myroslava Gongadze stresses social ramifications of authorities' conduct
by Andrew Nynka
WASHINGTON - The lies and corruption of high-ranking government officials have continually hampered any legitimate effort to investigate and uncover the truth in the cases of murdered Ukrainian journalists and will most likely have the same effect on the investigation of the brutal killing of journalist Ihor Aleksandrov, according to Myroslava Gongadze, wife of slain Internet journalist Heorhii Gongadze. Her husband's murder and the subsequent tape conspiracy seem to implicate Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma in the killing.
With its leaders running Ukraine as an authoritarian state and shunning the opinions of the populace, Ms. Gongadze said there is a larger problem: the Ukrainian citizens' willingness to accept this state of affairs. For this reason she has decided to continue to push for a proper investigation and not allow the Gongadze case to go unsolved.
Not one of several recent murders has seen a clear, independent and conclusive investigation, Ms. Gongadze noted, and this has left the Ukrainian people with little or no confidence in Ukraine's authorities.
"It's sad, but unfortunately our president says he is Ukraine and, instead of creating a system that truly works - that works democratically - he usurps his authority. He will not allow the separation of power between different institutions. He simply wants to consolidate and usurp all of it."
With the recent formation of Viktor Yuschenko's Nasha Ukraina (Our Ukraine) bloc, Yulia Tymoshenko's Forum for National Salvation and Oleksander Moroz's alliance with the All-Ukrainian Party of Working People, the Social Democratic Party, the Party for the Protection of Farmers' Interests and the Greens of the 21st Century Party - Ukraine's political activity has gathered momentum as the parliamentary elections approach. Although Ms. Gongadze acknowledges her personal dedication to finding the truth behind her husband's murder, she declares that the issue is now one of national importance and, due to the pre-election activity, marks a critical time for the people of Ukraine to realize they do hold power.
"Ukraine has lived under a Communist regime for over 70 years. The people don't understand personal initiative, that you can take your personal future in your own hands, that you can vote. And the people still don't understand that this vote determines their future," Ms. Gongadze stressed.
"If these democratic principles could be implemented in Ukrainian society, then perhaps the people could begin to think on their own, to become more active. This is exactly what Heorhii knew and exactly why he pushed as hard as he did," she said, adding "The system of Ukrainian authority is not interested in politically active people. The Ukrainian leadership is completely against this, they want one single voice."
Ms. Gongadze admitted that she's well informed but stresses that her job is not to find a guilty party or lay blame for her husband's murder. "This investigation has to go through legal channels. This is something that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Procurator General's Office take responsibility for, and it is they who should do their jobs." She stated: "I've been involved in this from the very beginning, and I can tell you that what's come out of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Procurator General's office has been nothing but lies."
According to Ms. Gongadze, Ukraine does not have a sufficient oversight mechanism that can look after such investigations in order to ensure a proper transparent process. The current ad hoc body assembled in the Parliament is chaired by National Deputy Oleksander Lavrynovych, but Ms. Gongadze maintains that this body does not have adequate authority to oversee such investigations.
After hearing the tapes of conversations in the presidential office for the first time and realizing that she was in the middle of a political scandal, Ms. Gongadze understood that her life and the life of her children were in danger. At that point Ms. Gongadze said she asked for political asylum in the United States.
"It's not that I would simply like to see a resolution to this situation - it's like breathing, it's something that needs to be done. This is an extremely important issue for society - for the people to understand that they have the freedom to think - the freedom to speak."
Ms. Gongadze noted that many people in Ukraine will not fight for these things because they don't believe it will accomplish anything. She cites the disappearance of the chairman of Rukh's secretariat, Mykhailo Boychyshyn (1994) and the murder of the board chairman of the Ukrainian Interbank Currency Exchange, Vadym Hetman (1998) as examples of unresolved cases. "I believe that if we, Heorhii's mom, myself and our friends, did not continue to push this process, the investigation itself would not continue."
"The people need to know that they can demand an honest answer from our leaders. Not the lies we've been getting," she stresses, alluding to the recent explanation of her husband's murder and the subsequent murder of her husband's alleged assailants who purportedly were found with a map showing were Mr. Gongadze's body was located.
As for the tapes made by presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko that apparently implicate President Kuchma, Ms. Gongadze says that the first time she heard of these tapes was when Mr. Moroz made them public in the Verkhovna Rada. Of Mr. Melnychenko's motives she states: "I believe Mr. Melnychenko is a very idealistic person who could no longer listen to what he was hearing every day. I believe that in principle he truly does care about Ukraine and its future. I cannot comment further on his motivations. But again, for him to do this for any other motive would be beyond my comprehension."
"If Mr. Moroz made public falsified tapes he would have been committing political suicide. And I don't believe that an individual would commit that type of suicide by making falsified tapes public. Given his position in society, without knowing that they were in fact undoctored and real, I would be very surprised if he released them," she added.
According to Ms. Gongadze, the Minister of Internal affairs (MIA), Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Procurator General and the president are all responsible for the outcome of the investigation into her husband's death, because they all have responsibilities tied to the investigation.
"Throughout this process one group has investigated my husband's murder and yet another group has simply stepped in with different stories to tell. The leadership of this country and the leadership of the internal security services has thought up these different versions completely aware of what they were doing," she related.
"It has been a chronology of lies and unprofessionalism from those who have steered this process," she said, referring to the MIA, SBU, Procurator General and President Kuchma. As a result, "The people's trust in government has grown smaller and smaller."
"I've always believed that the question of who is guilty for the murder of Heorhii Gongadze should be left to the courts to decide. But, in order for this case to proceed to court, we must have a normal, transparent and honest criminal investigation," she continued. "This is the opposite of what's happened. This investigation has not moved in the direction of uncovering the reality of what happened but has moved to cover up the truth. If the president says that he is truly innocent of these crimes, then he can call for an independent investigation of specialists, he can create an international committee and he can investigate this issue and we can then find an answer to this question." However, she underscored, "Without an independent investigative body the Ukrainian authorities cannot, in good conscience, consider this case closed."
With the latest twist in the case focusing on the burial of the body found in Tarascha, Ms. Gongadze stated: "Over the course of the last eight months the investigators have not talked about the details of the investigation. They've spent all of their time talking about burying the body. Tell me why that is exactly? Although I believe it is a sin not to bury this body, I also firmly believe that this body has many answers left to give and we cannot have a burial until all of our questions are answered."
Ms. Gongadze acknowledged that her lowest point came as she had to identify the body and confirm that the corpse located in a wooded area in the southern part of Kyiv Oblast was that of her husband, Heorhii. Besides the various independent organizations that have matched the DNA of the body, Ms. Gongadze contends that there can be no question about the body's proper identity as medical experts have matched the scars of broken bones and shrapnel fragments that Mr. Gongadze received while covering conflicts in Georgia with those found on the Tarascha body.
Ms. Gongadze's prognosis for the upcoming parliamentary elections involves three major blocs: those of Moroz, Yuschenko and Tymoshenko. "I believe that if they can come together and form a coalition they have a serious chance of making a real parliamentary majority capable of meaningful change for the benefit of Ukraine. Naturally, the Parliament will still contain the Communist Party and oligarchs, but at least there is hope that the new bloc would be capable of creating necessary, moral reform. This is a long and difficult process, but we see the benefits of democratization already in Poland," Ms. Gongadze explained.
Ms. Gongadze said she sees the American government as interested in Ukraine's current situation and believes that the current administration wants to help and wants to listen. "I am grateful that in this situation I can help to spur change. Until I no longer become necessary I will stay here and do what I can to help make meaningful change for Ukraine by working in the United States and with my own party, Reform and Order," back home.
Ms. Gongadze plans to follow her husband's murder case to court and stay with the investigation until she sees that a thorough, independent investigation is carried out. "This, in principle, has become my life and I will stay with it until we have an open and clear resolution," she underlined.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 29, 2001, No. 30, Vol. LXIX
| Home Page |