ANALYSIS: What do the Melnychenko tapes say about the Gongadze case? (03/20/05)

ANALYSIS

What do the Melnychenko tapes say about the Gongadze case?

by Jan Maksymiuk
RFE/RL Belarus and Ukraine Report

Ukrainian Procurator General Sviatoslav Piskun said on March 3 that he wants the secret recordings made by former presidential security officer Mykola Melnychenko in former President Leonid Kuchma's office to be examined by international experts and, if authenticated, to be included as evidence in the case of the abduction and murder of Internet journalist Heorhii Gongadze.

Mr. Piskun announced that he has closed a criminal case against Mr. Melnychenko for illegal eavesdropping on Mr. Kuchma and invited the former presidential security officer, who had obtained refugee status in the United States, to come to Ukraine with his tapes for the proposed examination.

The Melnychenko tapes, some of which were transcribed and published on the Internet, have never been officially recognized as genuine in Ukraine. On the contrary, the government of former President Kuchma has made many attempts to put their authenticity in doubt and suggest that they were doctored to compromise Mr. Kuchma and other top-ranking Ukrainian officials. This is no surprise - the Melnychenko tapes suggest that Mr. Kuchma might at least have inspired former Internal Affairs Minister Yurii Kravchenko to abduct the Georgian-born Gongadze, founder and editor-in-chief of Ukrainska Pravda, muckraking and investigative website in Ukraine, and "drive him out to Georgia" or hand him over to "the Chechens."

In the United States, Mr. Melnychenko hired a private audio-verification laboratory, Bek Tek, to analyze the segments of the recordings dealing with Gongadze. Bek Tek concluded that the recordings were authentic and had not been tampered with, and that the voices were those of Messrs. Kuchma and Kravchenko. The owner of Bek Tek, Bruce Koening, had been an FBI audio-verification expert for many years, and his company has done similar verifications for the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous other organizations.

Irrespective of what will be done with the Melnychenko tapes in the Yushchenko era, "RFE/RL Belarus and Ukraine Report" considers it advisable to present some translated excerpts from the tapes dealing with the Gongadze case. These translations put the currently revived and reportedly successful investigation in the Gongadze case into a proper, even if linguistically shocking, context.

These transcriptions - known as "episodes" - were published on the Internet by the end of 2000. Currently, they can be found at http://www.brama.com/survey/messages/4163.html and http://www.perehid.org.ua/look/25_11_2000.phtml. The translations presented below are abbreviated and somewhat revised versions of the translations made by KPNews.com, which are currently available at http://www.totse.com/en/politics/police/kpnewscomsengl178978.html. The words "blya" and "blyad" are not translated, since they are here used not in their original meaning ("whore") but primarily for adding an emotional tincture to the speech. The persons who are suspected to be on the recording are identified.

Episode 1

Kuchma: Hello.

Unknown: Hello.

Kuchma: Give me this one, about Ukrainska Pravda...[indecipherable]. We will start to decide what to do with him. He has simply gone too far already.

Unknown: I need a case.

Kuchma: What?

Unknown: Send for the case? [indecipherable]

Kuchma: Good.

Unknown: The case ... we are simply making a copy.

Kuchma: No, I don't necessarily need the case? Ukrainska Pravda, well, this is completely already, blya, insolence. Bastard, blya. The Georgian, Georgian.

Unknown: Gongadze?

Kuchma: Gongadze. Who finances him?

Unknown: Well, he actively works with this, with Moroz, with [the website] Grani....

Kuchma: It's just, blya...there is some, son of a bitch, blya. ... Deport him, blyad, to Georgia and throw him out there [expletive] him. Drive him out to Georgia and throw him there. The Chechens should abduct him and throw him.

Episode 2

Kuchma: So that I don't forget, there's this one Gongadze ...

Kravchenko: I think I have [heard] this kind of surname.

Kuchma: Well, bastard, blya, of the last extreme.

Kravchenko: Gongadze. He has already came our way somewhere ...

Kuchma: What?

Kravchenko: He passed by somewhere. We'll look [for him].

Kuchma: That means that he constantly writes to some Ukrainska, some kind of Pravda, pushes it in the Internet, understand? Who finances him?

Kravchenko: [indecipherable] I have people ...

Kuchma: But the main thing he needs to be pushed back. Volodya says the Chechens should steal him and drive him to Chechnya to [expletive] for himself and ask for a ransom ...

Episode 4

Kuchma: This Gongadze.

Kravchenko: I, we're working on him. It means ...

Kuchma: I'm telling you, drive him out, throw him out. Give him to the Chechens. [indecipherable] ... and then a ransom.

Kravchenko: We'll think it over. We'll do it in such a way so that ...

Kuchma: I mean, drive him out, undress him, blya, leave him without his pants, let him sit there.

Kravchenko: I'd do it simply, blya, they reported to me about it today. We're learning the situation: where he's walking, how he walks. We've got someone sitting there connected up. We have to study it a little bit, we'll do it. The team I have is a fighting one, such eagles, they'll do everything you want.

Jan Maksymiuk is the Belarus and Ukraine specialist on the staff of RFE/RL Newsline.

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