Ivan BOKY: “There Is More Discussion about Melnychenko than about Who Killed Gongadze”
The closer the 2006 parliamentary elections, the more actively the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU), a governmental coalition member, is straying from the “party line.” This kind of behavior seems rather strange, as representatives of this very party hold such key offices as ministers of the interior, education, and agriculture. Ivan BOKY, MP — SPU, claims that his political party’s stand is the result of differences with the Our Ukraine National Union, “the party of power,” rather than pre-election considerations.
“You have already told the media that there have been attempts lately to divert the investigators of the Gongadze case from the contents of the Melnychenko tapes to who made the recordings, and how. Is the new government trying to cover the tracks of the old one?”
“This is quite possible. In any case, I am not ruling this out. Some of the people on the Melnychenko tapes are now in power. I can’t say anything bad about Viktor Yushchenko or Yuliya Tymoshenko, but I do have some not so pleasant — not only from the moral angle — questions for some people in the president’s entourage. The current tendency is to discuss Melnychenko more than those who killed Gongadze. I have been questioned twice at the Prosecutor-General’s Office as a witness. Judging by the questions I was asked, they are primarily interested in the tapes’ movement. More often than not, they focus on the fact that the recordings were made without a court decision. They keep racking their brains over whether Melnychenko did the recording on his own. All I know is that reducing the Gongadze case to investigating the technicalities of bugging the president’s study room does not bode well for us, because the outside world has a somewhat different image of the Gongadze affair: they view it as a litmus test of Ukrainian democracy. And we won’t just get off by awarding Gongadze the title of Hero of Ukraine. We must clearly tell the world who masterminded the murder. We know who hired them, all we need is corroboration. I think American law enforcers will help us. In the US the Melnychenko tapes are being extensively used as material evidence at the Pavlo Lazarenko trial. So our allegations that this kind of evidence is not provided for in our legal code does not sound very convincing. This game can only be interesting from the viewpoint of one who wants to defend himself. The Melnychenko tapes contain many points that require a moral, not juridical, judgment. First of all, there should be self-appraisal. So far, they have not repented of their sins as recorded on the tapes. Our president is set to forgive everyone. He says, ‘Let’s go back to square one.’ Well, it’s good to go back to square one, but this can only be done with the people who have at least admitted that they have done something wrong.”
“Melnychenko managed to win a case at the European Human Rights Court against the Ukrainian state after being denied the right to be elected to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The SPU has said it intends to secure a parliamentary seat for him even before the next convocation. In what way?”
“The European Court’s order should be upheld by the Supreme Court of Ukraine (SCU). In other words, the SCU should rescind its previous ruling by sending a letter to the Central Electoral Commission, which will also make a relevant decision. We have a vacancy now: Bulba, the chairman of the Poltava Oblast Administration, has given up his parliamentary seat. But, the SCU is not exactly rushing — perhaps intentionally — to hand down a ruling to this effect. Somebody is clearly interested in this.”
“Is Mykola Melnychenko going to run as a Socialist Party candidate in the coming elections?”
“Yes, I think he will be on our 2006 list because the European Court’s decision has made this possible.”
“Do you trust this man?”
“Mykola Melnychenko is a complex individual. He has lived through and suffered a lot. He has been attacked from all sides. Material problems forced him to cooperate with Boris Berezovsky. But we know only too well that he is a person of sound mind, a patriot. He rejected many foul things that were suggested to him.”
“How do you know this?”
“If he had accepted any of those offers, he wouldn’t have been attacked so much by Berezovsky and the likes of him. We know many details that we do not wish to disclose right now. But we are controlling Melnychenko.”
