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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Awkward Questions in Onopriyenko Case

2 March, 1999 - 00:00

By Inna ZOLOTUKHINA, Nina SOTNYK, The Day

As the ancients used to say: "Cui prodest" - "See whom it benefits."

Why is a murderer being shown so much on state-run television, interviewed,
and listened to when he says horrible things, why are conclusions being
leapt to (including by the President) about his lot?

We want very much to look good, but this is impossible to do. In June
the Council of Europe will again turn its eyes to Ukraine and ask: do you
have an independent judiciary, is everything all right with local government,
and what about the freedom of expression? And none of these questions can
be answered positively. The courts are under pressure, local government
a myth, and media freedom (especially the electronic media) is altogether
out of the question: which state-run channel could show an opposition politician?

But all these problems do not exist in mass consciousness. What Europe
is dissatisfied with seems to come down to the problem of capital punishment.
It seems impossible to abolish it: public opinion seems to have been shaped
on purpose.

On June 4, 1997, a decision of the forensic psychiatric commission was
made public to the effect that Anatoly Onopriyenko "does not suffer from
mental illness, nor does he require any medical treatment." But I saw with
my own eyes Onoprienko's case history stored in a specialized clinic. If
Onopriyenko is well, then it is not clear why in 1994 he was diagnosed
in Kyiv's Pavlov Hospital as having schizophrenia and subjected to a four-month
course of treatment. And who stood to gain from the expert decision about
Onopriyenko's mental soundness remaining final?

One more question arises here: who are the judges, sorry, the experts?
Departmental forensic expert examination in the former Soviet Union is
shrouded in terrible legends, disfigured destinies being sound proof to
this. There is no departmental forensic expert examination in Ukraine,
but all information about psychiatrists with relevant status is available
at the Ministry of Public Health. Hence the experts' independence is another
questionable point. We are not doctors or judges, so we cannot make any
categorical statements. But it is a journalist's duty to draw attention
to awkward questions. Even if they are being asked as harshly as by Serhiy
Holovaty. "Today it is in the interests of the executive not only to show
it honors its promises but also to distract public attention from the resolution
passed by the Council of Europe Assembly. The resolution identifies the
main cause of all Ukrainian problems: attempts of the current government
to hold power at any, even illegal, cost," Mr. Holovaty told The Day,
"It is completely possible that Onopriyenko is mentally ill, but the executive
needs to make him out as healthy, for if Onopriyenko is ill and subject
to medical treatment rather than shot, the scenario worked out will go
awry."

Anatoly Onopriyenko was treated at Kyiv's Pavlov Mental Hospital from
May 31 to September 16, 1994. He had been rushed to the clinic by a militia
detail. The case history says Onopriyenko attracted the militiamen's attention
at the railway station, where he had been standing motionless over an hour
in front of the ticket office, trying to hypnotize the cashier.

Having analyzed the results of observations by doctors and nurses as
well as the patient's condition, doctor Halyna Shurenok made a tentative
diagnosis of schizophrenia.

The Day's correspondent has met Ms. Shurenok, now chief medical
officer of Kyiv's Mental Hospital No. 3:

"I only examined Onopriyenko once, so I cannot now confirm the preliminary
diagnosis I made then. But looking back today on my brief encounter with
him, on his mimicry, behavior, the pose in which the patient sat in bed,
I may suggest that the diagnosis was correct at that time. Moreover, Onopriyenko
then did not have any reason to feign illness. He was behaving quite naturally
and reacted adequately to being treated with neuroleptic medications. The
organism of a healthy person reacts to such injections altogether differently.
If I were an expert, I would not say so categorically that the patient
does not suffer even from temporary mental disorders.

"Watching TV programs on Onopriyenko, I, as a psychiatrist, cannot understand
why the forensic expert commission ignores what he says about voices, flying
saucers, and aliens. For such statements have always been interpreted in
world psychiatric experience as symptoms of schizophrenia. Nor do experts
pay attention to his own motivation for crimes: 'I killed the children
so they wouldn't be orphans.' I am surprised that expert examination was
carried out on an out-patient, rather than in-patient, basis, and that
it only took 28 hours to actually watch the patient. Under law, a patient
should be kept under constant medical supervision for a month. What also
raises questions is the fact that the experts did not invite for consultation
any of those doctors who treated Onopriyenko in 1994. The commission even
failed to analyze our examination."

Such strange a behavior by the forensic psychiatric commission may become
clear if we take into account the fact that in today's Ukraine all mental
clinics, their staff as well as forensic experts, are subordinated to one
body - the Ministry of Public Health. In practice, it is this ministry,
and not the judicial and investigative bodies, as is laid down in the Criminal
Procedural Code, that appoints members of a forensic psychiatric commission.

Unfortunately, Ukraine has today not so many forensic psychiatrists,
and the very system of training forensic specialists leaves much to be
desired. All too often doctors undergo tests and are examined as a pure
formality. This is why the Ukrainian Association of Psychiatrists, with
the consent of the Ministry of Public Health, is looking for independent
sources of funds to establish in this country an alternative system of
training forensic psychiatrists. It is a project so far, but perhaps in
a few years' time Ukraine will have new forensic psychiatrists. The authorities
will find it more difficult to manipulate human destinies and cash in on
human misfortunes.

 

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