SBU officer offers what could be most striking evidence to date of Kuchma's alleged involvement in Gongadze's disappearance
idnapping, the international scandal took a volatile twist Dec. 12.
In videotaped testimony before parliament, a former high-ranking state security officer delivered what could be the most striking evidence so far that allegedly implicates President Leonid Kuchma in the disappearance of oppositionist journalist Georgy Gongadze.
Mykola Melnychenko, a former SBU officer, allegedly recorded conversations between Kuchma, Interior Affairs Minister Yury Kravchenko and Presidential Administration head Volodymyr Lytvyn.
Melnychenko, who was a senior officer of the Presidential Guard Department until he resigned in early November, had unrestricted access to the president’s personal office. It was in that room that Melnychenko said he recorded the president’s conversations using an ordinary digital Dictaphone that he had hidden under a sofa.
“I started the moment when, while fulfilling my official duties, I became witness to a criminal order given by Leonid Kuchma; and only after I learned that this order had been fulfilled, I began to document further affairs,” Melnychenko testified.
Melnychenko said he duplicated fragments of the conversations and gave a copy to Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz in mid-October on the condition that Moroz make the tape public. He denied having offered the tape to anyone else.
Melnychenko said he has additional proof that Kuchma ordered the head of the State Tax Administration Mykola Azarov, head of the Security Service Leonid Derkach and Kravchenko to abolish opposition mass media outlets, such as newspapers Silski Visti, Tovarysh, Hrani, Vechirni Visti, Zerkalo Nedeli and Svoboda, as well as radio stations BBC and Svoboda.
Melnychenko also claimed that Kuchma ordered his top advisers to reign in certain deputies whom he deemed a threat.
“From the very beginning Kuchma ordered Derkach, Kravchenko and Azarov not to forgive anyone working against us. And there was the command – to choke and destroy,” he said on the videotape.
Melnychenko is hiding in an unidentified European country, but he said he is willing to return to Ukraine to testify.
He refuted claims that he broke his officer’s oath by recording the president.
“I pledged allegiance to Ukraine and Ukraine’s people. And I did not violate my oath. I did not pledge (allegiance) to Kuchma to fulfill his criminal orders,” he said.
The 23-minute testimony sparked heckling among deputies, who demanded a response from Prosecutor General Mykhailo Potebenko.
Speaking at the podium, a defensive and beleaguered Potebenko said the testimony was not enough to start a criminal case against state officials who were mention on the videotape.
“I have to meet [Melnychenko] and question him, and make an analysis. Before that, I can’t start a case. I must act in the framework of the law,” Potebenko said.
He promised protection for Melnychenko, an offer that prompted an outburst of laughter from deputies.
But it was the testimony of Interior Minister Kravchenko that raised the hackles of deputies and the press corps.
Kravchenko was asked four times by four different deputies if it was his voice on the tape. Each time, he failed to answer.
“There must be an analysis and corresponding conclusions,” he repeatedly responded. “Only the people’s court has the right to condemn.”
He did, however, deny that Kuchma ordered him to harm Gongadze.
“I often report to the president about the situation in the country since that’s my job, but I was never ordered to get rid of Gongadze,” Kravchenko said.
At that, he left the podium to deputies chanting, “Killer! Killer!”
Next came the chief of Ukraine’s state security service (SBU), Leonid Derkach who was called up to the podium to respond to the explosive videotape. He denied that the SBU ever put pressure on mass media or listened to the telephone conversations of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko or any of the deputies.
Derkach also denied that the SBU was involved in the detention of three deputies – former Prosecutor General Viktor Shyshkin, former Justice Minister Serhy Holovaty and SBU Col. Oleksandr Zhyr in Boryspil airport after they returned from a meeting with Melnychenko.
Even though the law forbids searches of Rada deputies, customs officers ransacked their luggage, seized a copy of the videocassette with Melnychenko’s testimony and then returned the tape in a damaged condition. They failed to find the original tape or other duplicates.
The three deputies claim they were followed from the airport in Vienna to Boryspil. They said their pursuers crossed the Ukrainian border at the airport without showing any documents.
The chief of Ukraine’s Customs Service, Yury Solovkov, told parliament that his officers mistook the deputies for diamond smugglers. Solovkov promised outraged deputies that the officers would be fired.
Meanwhile, in light of Melnychenko’s claims that Kuchma had threatened several deputies, several parliamentarians called for suspension of law enforcement authorities involved in the scandal.
“Yesterday it became evident that deputies were under pressure from forces outside the Verkhovna Rada,” Yury Karmazin, head of Committee Against Corruption and Organized Crime said in parliament on Dec.13. He said alleged threats from the pro-presidential forces scared deputies from voting for suspension.
Despite a plethora of serious allegations lobbed at the government, deputies so far, have little basis to act on the charges.
Roman Bezsmertny, presidential representative in the Parliament, told journalists on Dec.12 that there was no legal basis to begin impeachment proceedings.
“It’s impossible to talk about impeachment since we have no law on impeachment,” Bezsmertny said, adding that the scandal “could only lead to implementation of a state of emergency.”
Deputy: Impeachment not a legal option
According to Oleksandr Lavrynovych, a member of parliament’s committee on Legal Policy, there is no legal basis to start impeachment proceedings against President Leonid Kuchma.
“Today there is only a constitutional norm that would allow parliament to start impeachment,” he said.
The legal framework that the parliament lacks is a Law on Special Commissions of the Parliament, which outlines the assignment and authority of a special investigator and a special prosecutor.
