International agency commissioned by pro-presidential party doesn't say who killed opposition journalist
d in the murder of Georgy Gongadze, and there is no way to authenticate scandalous recordings implicating the president in the crime. Those were the findings of Kroll Inc., an international investigation firm hired last spring by a pro-presidential party.
The long-awaited 53-page report was released Sept. 25 by the Labor Ukraine Party, which commissioned the report. The findings were immediately and sharply criticized by oppositionists who last winter and spring had demanded Kuchma’s resignation in the wake of an international scandal that erupted after the murder.
The report focused on attempts to identify a headless body thought to be Gongadze’s and the veracity of presidential guard Mykola Melnychenko, who maintains that digital recordings he made in the president’s office indicate that Kuchma and top officials discussed kidnapping Gongadze, a critical Internet editor.
“The Melnychenko tapes have raised concerns about the manner in which they were made and their authenticity. Melnychenko, however, has refused to meet with us for four months,” said the report, which Labor Ukraine made available on its Web site (www.trug.org.ua) in three languages.
Michael Cherkasky, president of Kroll’s Investigations and Intelligence Group, said that Gongadze could have been a victim of local business barons whom he criticized or he could have been killed for other reasons by someone who then tried to frame Kuchma.
The report drew skepticism from some journalists who questioned the credibility of a report commissioned by a political party and approved in advance by Kuchma.
“Kroll was paid to clear Kuchma,” said Oleksy Stepura, a freelance journalist who has worked for CNN and German television stations. Stepura transcribed each of the 17 excerpts of recorded conversations in which Gongadze was mentioned.
In a satellite press conference Sept. 25, Cherkasky said he was unable to provide details
| Myroslava Gongadze |
of how Gongadze was killed, saying the company had neither the time nor resources to examine all aspects of the case.
There are no known witnesses to the disappearance or the killing, the report said.
Kroll was reportedly paid $250,000 to conduct the six-month investigation.
Kroll researchers, including the head of its New York department, made most of their inquiries from a suite in Kyiv’s Premier Palace Hotel, where they interviewed Gongadze’s friends and co-workers about the case. They also questioned Kuchma, his chief of staff Volodymyr Lytvyn and other top politicians.
Kuchma approved the investigation in advance, according to Labor Ukraine deputy Serhy Tyhypko, who said on March 23 that Ukrainian law enforcement officials had agreed to provide Kroll with any information they requested.
Kroll specializes in investigative, intelligence and security services. Past cases undertaken by the firm in Eastern Europe include a highly publicized and unsuccessful attempt to locate $50 billion worth of gold, silver and platinum that allegedly vanished from the Soviet state treasury in the early 1990s.
Tyhypko, a former economy minister, said at the time that Labor Ukraine hired the
| Serhy Tyhypko, Labor Ukraine deputy |
agency to “seize the initiative” from the opposition leaders and make the investigation of the Gongadze disappearance “constructive.”
Opposition journalists said the report was far from constructive, however.
“What Kroll reported I could have told you in 15 minutes over a couple beers,” Stepura said.
He said much of Kroll’s report was distilled from an investigation carried out in March by the Agency for Investigative Journalism (AZHUR), which is linked to Valery Pustovoitenko, Ukraine’s transportation minister and the leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (NDP).
Olena Prytula, editor of Ukrainska Pravda, the Internet site that Gongadze founded, said she was not surprised by the findings.
“The result of [Kroll’s investigation] is that Kuchma can now smile when he bravely holds out his hand to Western leaders,” she said.
