But not the way it was done in Romania or South Korea, says Hryhory Omelchenko
On July 15 Verkhovna Rada witnessed another round of exposes and incriminating
testimonies, this time from people's avenger Hryhory Omelchenko, head of
the parliamentary ad hoc committee of inquiry into the Blasco case. He
sounded particularly convincing, being in possession of copies of condemning
documents.
Summing up the commission's findings, he told his fellow lawmakers that
Oleksandr, son of Ukraine's previous President Leonid Kravchuk had opened
exchange accounts with a number of foreign banks and submitted other evidence
about sizable remittances to these accounts and other cases of what he
said was embezzlement of Ukraine's foreign currency stock. Mr. Omelchenko
stressed that this information should be considered as a due response to
the "offended" Social Democratic faction accusing him of abuse of office
and casting aspersions on "number one Social Democrat" Leonid Kravchuk.
Incidentally, the ex-President and another prime suspect in the Blasco
case, People's Deputy Yukhym Zviahilsky, had left the audience before they
could hear the accusations. And had the current President been in attendance,
he would have followed suit for Hryhory Omelchenko submitted directives
signed Premier Kuchma, ordering his subordinates to carry out illegitimate
financial operations transferring amounts in foreign currency from Ukraine
to foreign companies' bank accounts. When queried by fellow legislators,
Mr. Omelchenko admitted that he had until recently trusted Leonid Kuchma
and personally reported to the President on the progress in his investigation,
and that his findings would then be shelved more often than not. On one
such occasion SBU Colonel Omelchenko found an excuse to stay in the President's
office after an audience. Exactly seven minutes later he saw the ranking
bureaucrats incriminated in his report being summoned to the Chief Executive.
Later, talking to journalists in the lobby, Mr. Omelchenko said that
the sole purpose of his investigation was to make both Ukrainian Presidents
face justice. If they did not, he believed that the Romanian scenario would
be played out in Ukraine. Personally, however, he thought the South Korean
scenario was the most likely, considering the indictment of that country's
two ex-presidents.







