• Українська
  • Русский
  • English
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

Questions Remain in Boryspil Car Crash

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

By Viktor VORONIUK, The Day
Questions remain about Vyacheslav Chornovil's tragic death in an auto accident.
This is hardly strange since our people are already used to hearing about
the uncooperative being claimed by fate and parallels have been drawn between
the fate of the Ukrainian politician in 1999 and Belarus Communist leader
PСtr Masherov in 1980.

No one knows what really happened, but the fact that the investigation
sticks to the road accident version, without taking a single step either
way, is suspicious enough. Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko told journalists
that the assassination version "has not even been considered and nor can
it be considered for whatever reasons." He further explained that the KamAZ
truck driver, Volodymyr Kudelia, was traveling on business from a state
farm to Kyiv, that he chose the wrong road, realized his mistake, and was
making a U-turn, which caused the tragic crash. (One cannot but remind
oneself that Masherov's Chaika also jammed into a GAZ-536 truck loaded
with potatoes.) The Interior Ministry says it has no evidence that the
truck driver made the U-turn "on purpose."

According to the Center for Journalistic Research, 48-old Kudelia "has
a positive side." He is married and has two children, a 10-year-old son
and an adopted daughter of 15. He has lived in Oleksandropil, a village
in Dnipropetrovsk oblast, for the past fifteen years, and he and other
truck drivers are regularly sent on trips like that one (he was carrying
wheat to trade for automotive parts in Volyn oblast).

An experienced driver, why did he not make a right turn to proceed on
a highway reserved for trucks, bypassing Boryspil? Why did he decide to
make the U-turn after riding 120 meters in the wrong direction and fail
to notice the Toyota rushing head-long? Why did he not take any precautions
riding at such a late hour?

Why did Hennady Udovenko, an eyewitness, say in an interview with STB
Sunday before last that all the time while he and his friends were waiting
for the militia and ambulance, and even after they arrived, he "did not
notice" the KamAZ truck driver?

At an Interior Ministry briefing Oleksandr Shtanko, Deputy Minister,
head of the Chief Investigation Directorate, and Oleksandr Bevz, head of
Kyiv oblast interior directorate, announced that, although the KamAZ's
head- and rear lights were found to have been in order, they could not
be seen in the onrushing Toyota during the U-turn.

Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko says the Toyota was doing 120-130
kph (in the former Soviet Union, incidentally, the secret services strongly
recommended 100-120 kph to make cars a difficult target). The truck and
its trailer blocked the highway completely and the Toyota driver could
spot them only when the Toyota headlights caught them. However, the center
cites reliable sources that the driver, Yevhen Pavliv, was a top-notch
driver who had even done some professional racing in his time. The Toyota's
braking distance is 29 meters, quite enough for a professional to avoid
a head-on collision, the more so that Mr. Shtanko confirmed that that section
of the road had no protective railing on the sides.

It is hard to say what the truck driver was doing at the moment of impact:
making a U-turn or standing still. Just as it is hard to explain why General
Bevz first said that journalists could interview the KamAZ driver and later,
when asked where and when, said he meant he wished they could (by the way,
the truck driver has not returned to his village).

A WAY TO GET PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES OFF THE HUSTINGS?

"It was just an accident," People's Deputy Roman Zvarych (Rukh) told
the center. "If they wanted to get Chornovil, they would have found a more
subtle way." Oleksandr Shtanko, when asked by The Day if the Interior
Ministry had any information pointing to unlawful acts against the Rukh
leader, said there had been no complaints.

Dmytro Panamarchuk, the only surviving Toyota passenger, said in one
of his first interviews after regaining consciousness that the accident
could have something to do with the presidential campaign.

During the previous parliamentary elections Rukh collected almost 2.5
million votes, placing it second among 30 parties and political blocs.
Most of its support came from Lviv, Ternopil, and Rivne oblasts. The local
electorate listened very closely to every word Chornovil said, hence his
importance in the coming presidential elections, the Center for Journalistic
Research stresses.

Whether what happened on the highway near Boryspil was an accident or
not, one thing is clear: Chornovil no longer suited those in power currently
bargaining with the Left. Indeed, he was a thorn in their side, considering
that the current political leadership actually sanctioned Ukraine's accession
to the Interparliamentary Assembly, pouring oil on the Left's fire, capitalizing
on the Red peril, so that the voter would choose the lesser evil and vote
for the current President, even if Ukraine would wind up a smoking ruin.
Destroying the Center Right, even if politically, would play into their
hands.

Many years passed before it was established that Masherov's road accident
was a professional job. We might learn the truth about Vyacheslav Chornovil's
death (Yevhen Shcherban's and Vadym Hetman's assassination, and the attempt
on the then Premier Lazarenko) only after different people come to power
in Ukraine.

 

Rubric: