KYIV, Feb. 11 (AP) - Two lawmakers on Tuesday confirmed that their voices are heard on tapes of conversations with President Leonid Kuchma said to have been made the same day as an alleged recording of Kuchma discussing measures to silence an opposition journalist who later was found beheaded.
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The tapes, allegedly recorded by former presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko, who later fled the country, are at the heart of widespread opposition to Kuchma.
U.S. investigators have declared authentic a section of the tapes in which Kuchma allegedly approves the sale of radar systems to Iraq in violation of United Nations sanctions.
A parliamentary committee is seeking to determine the authenticity of other portions of the tapes, including the section connected to Heorhy Gongadze.
The tapes were allegedly made on July 12, 2000, about two months before Gongadze’s decapitated body was found in a woods.
Lawmaker Borys Oliynyk on Tuesday told the committee that “you can be sure it’s my voice” in a section of the tapes in which he discusses cultural and political issues with Kuchma, the UNIAN news agency reported.
Leonid Drach, an opposition parliamentarian also confirmed his conversation with Kuchma, according to the Interfax news agency.
However, experts downplayed the hearings, saying witnesses’ testimony does not provide unequivocal proof that the tapes are authentic.
