Book detailing Gongadze murder released in Kyiv in Ukrainian language

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - "Beheaded," the book by Jaroslaw Koshiw detailing the results of his journalistic investigation into the abduction and killing of the Ukrainian journalist Heorhii Gongadze, was released in the Ukrainian language in Kyiv on May 21, on what would have been the young reporter's 35 birthday.

The book chronicles how the Georgian freedom fighter became a Ukrainian journalist and then the founder of one of Ukraine's first Internet newspapers, before he was abducted, tortured and then beheaded in what has been widely considered a politically motivated murder.

The Ukrainian version gives readers an additional chapter, which identifies those individuals Mr. Koshiw believes were responsible for the murder in September 2000 and describes how and why the killers allegedly went about the torture and killing of the Lviv-born journalist.

Mr. Koshiw told The Weekly that he added the chapter after he obtained and verified additional information that had become available since the English-language version of "Beheaded" was published. Much of that information came from the Institute for Mass Media in Ukraine, which had obtained detailed accounts of what transpired from a former leader of a special forces law enforcement group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ihor Honcharov.

Mr. Honcharov had asked that after his death a package be forwarded to the Institute for Mass Media, which turned out to be a diary-like account of Mr. Honcharov's involvement with murder and extortion as the leader of the special force. Mr. Honcharov died under mysterious circumstances last spring, while awaiting trial on unrelated charges.

Mr. Koshiw said he decided to release a Ukrainian translation of his book after people at each stop of the book tour introducing the English-language version kept clamoring for one in Ukrainian as well.

"There was always the thought in the back of my head that I should release a Ukrainian version, but I needed someone to help with the translation. Then I met Iryna Vuytsyk in London," explained Mr. Koshiw.

Ms. Vuytsyk, a graduate of Lviv University, met Mr. Koshiw when the two attended the same meeting of the National Union of Journalists to listen to a presentation by Mykola Melnychenko, the former member of the personal security detail of President Leonid Kuchma who told the world a month after Gongadze's beheaded corpse was unearthed outside Kyiv that he had digital recordings in his possession on which President Kuchma and his cronies are allegedly heard planning the disappearance of the Ukrainian journalist.

Mr. Koshiw said the biggest obstacle he had to surmount to get a Ukrainian version in print was to find a printing house in Ukraine that would do the job. He was rejected 14 times before he found a publisher.

"No one ever said yes, and no one ever said no, they just kept on putting off any decisions," explained Mr. Koshiw.

He finally agreed to an offer from the Sobor Party of Ukraine, even though initially he had wanted an independent publisher for the book in order to avoid accusations that it was written as a political tool. The Sobor Party, headed by Anatolii Matvienko, a former close colleague of President Kuchma, is part of the Tymoshenko parliamentary faction in Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada, which is strongly critical of the Ukrainian president.

Mr. Koshiw was frank in admitting that he released the book on Gongadze's birthday so that it would draw some attention. He explained that he didn't believe it would attain wide distribution in Ukraine as long as the current authorities remain in power.

Mr. Koshiw is an Austrian-born Briton whose parents were driven from their homeland by withdrawing German Nazi forces during World War II. Mr. Koshiw has published several previous works on Ukraine, including, "The Chornobyl Catastrophe," written in 1988, and "Materials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain on Ukraine and Ukrainians, 1917-1948," which was printed in 1997.

In 1998-1999 Mr. Koshiw worked as an assistant editor for the Kyiv Post, the largest English-language newspaper in Ukraine. He has also worked as a television journalist for HTV-Wales and for the BBC in London.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, May 23, 2004, No. 21, Vol. LXXII

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