FBI to join investigation in Gongadze case (09/23/01)

FBI to join investigation in Gongadze case

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Procurator General's Office announced on September 17 that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation would join the investigation into the death of Ukrainian journalist Heorhii Gongadze, whose disappearance a year ago, while bringing worldwide attention, has remained unsolved.

Assistant Procurator General Oleksii Bahanets made the announcement during a public hearing on the Gonzadze case held in conjunction with the first anniversary of the journalist's disappearance on September 16. The meeting included leaders of the Verkhovna Rada and national deputies in opposition to the presidential administration, as well as social activists and journalists.

"FBI investigators might already have been here today if it weren't for the terrorist act in the U.S.," explained Mr. Bahanets.

Mr. Bahanets also said there is renewed reason to believe Mr. Gongadze's murder will be solved, but then said he could not comment further on the specifics of new developments surrounding the case because of the new criminal procedure law that prohibits discussing an ongoing investigation.

U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual confirmed the same day during an interview on the Internet chat site of Ukrainska Pravda, the Internet newspaper founded by Mr. Gongadze, that the FBI is ready to provide more support to the investigation.

"We proposed FBI assistance for consultations with the procurator general in regard to the investigation. The procurator general accepted the proposal, and we hope the consultations will soon take place," said Mr. Pascual.

The FBI help comes exactly a year since the disappearance of Mr. Gongadze on a Saturday evening after he left his editor-in-chief's residence in the heart of Kyiv. A body that was believed to be that of the journalist, who would have been 33 years old in 2001, was found in mid-November near the village of Tarascha, about 75 miles outside of Kyiv.

The case received international attention after National Deputy Oleksander Moroz disclosed that he had received an audiotape from a member of President Leonid Kuchma's personal security detachment that contained discussions between Mr. Kuchma and high government officials that implicated them in the disappearance.

The events led to demonstrations in Kyiv, which culminated on March 9 when protesters clashed with militia twice on one day, resulting in dozens of injuries.

On the first anniversary of the journalist's disappearance more than 3,000 people - some of them the same people who had taken part in earlier demonstrations and most of them supporters of the political parties that have declared their opposition to the administration of President Kuchma - gathered on the newly renovated Independence Square for a requiem service and a rally.

While billed as a tribute to the memory of the dead journalist and a candlelight vigil, it was more an anti-Kuchma rally calling for the president's resignation.

Carrying placards scrawled with oppositionist proclamations such as "Impeach Kuchma" and "The battle for freedom continues," the demonstrators listened to stalwart opponents of the president representing diverse ideological underpinnings - such as National Deputy Moroz of the leftist Socialist Party, National Deputy Anatolii Matvienko of the centrist Sobor Party and Levko Lukianenko, leader of the rightist Conservative Republican Party - call for him to step down.

The speakers indicated that Mr. Kuchma is responsible for Mr. Gongadze's death and disappearance and called on the nation to mobilize to produce a more open society and a free press.

"Heorhii Gongadze died because he wanted the truth," said Mr. Lukianenko. "And this regime is scared of the truth."

Mr. Moroz said that while the world's attention is focused on the terrorist acts that recently took place in New York and Washington, it must be noted that Ukrainian authorities have wielded their own brand of terrorism.

"It is much worse when the state, the authorities sanction terrorism," said Mr. Moroz.

Mr. Gongadze's mother, Lesia, who has been very visible and forceful in the last year in criticizing the pace and content of the investigation, made another plea to the Procurator General's Office to authorize an additional set of tests to conclusively identify a mostly decomposed body that still lies in the Kyiv city morgue, which she doubts is her son's body. The murdered journalist's mother believes that the body was switched as part of a government cover-up.

Meanwhile, in a poll of 710 Kyivans conducted on September 13 by the respected Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Research, fully one-third of the respondents said they believe the body found in Tarascha in mid-November does not belong to Mr. Gongadze. More than 27 percent said they believe he is dead, while 16 percent said he is alive.

In addition, 58.5 percent said they believe the murder investigation into the case of the missing journalist would never be solved, while 30 percent responded that it would be solved.

The city of Lviv, where Mr. Gongadze lived with his mother for many years, also held commemorations on the anniversary of his disappearance, including a tree-planting ceremony in the city center on September 16 organized by the For the Truth civic organization, an anti-Kuchma organization.

That same day the Lviv organization of the National Journalists' Union of Ukraine presented a posthumous prize "For Journalistic Courage," to the late journalist's mother along with an award worth 10,000 hrv.

Meanwhile in Tarascha, the For the Truth organization built a commemorative burial mound on the site where the partially buried remains thought to belong to Mr. Gongadze were found in mid-November. A birch cross and a portrait were place atop the memorial.

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