Parliament Watches Video
On the morning of December 11 Verkhovna Rada included in its daily agenda the issue of showing the video cassette with testimonial evidence of an individual who identified himself as SBU officer Mykola Melnychenko. 281 deputies voted for including this issue on the agenda and one against out of 391 deputies that were registered as present in the hall.
Prosecutor General Mykhailo Potebenko addressed parliament that morning, proposing the deputies that brought the tape from abroad give it to the Office of Prosecutor General, for “it has direct relevance to the investigation of the case...” “I personally guarantee its safety.” Mr. Potebenko also assured lawmakers that he would take all possible precautions to ensure the security of the person who had produced the audio cassette.
Incidentally, it became known the previous day that President Leonid Kuchma assigned the prosecutor general the task of thoroughly investigating the facts of the incident that had taken place the previous Friday evening in Boryspil Airport and involved three people’s deputies. Presidential Press Secretary Oleksandr Martynenko informed Interfax-Ukraine.
Deputies Viktor Shyshkin, Serhiy Holovaty, and Oleksandr Zhyr earlier traveled abroad on instruction of the ad hoc commission on investigating the circumstances of journalist Heorhy Gongadze’s disappearance. Abroad they allegedly met with the SBU officer who had passed to Oleksandr Moroz an audio cassette allegedly with the voices of highest state officials. Upon returning to Boryspil Airport, the deputies’ personal belongings were examined. According to Mr. Holovaty, the video tape with the materials of the meeting was “damaged” while temporarily confiscated at the airport.
Then on Tuesday the people’s deputies of Ukraine began viewing the videotape with the alleged testimony of SBU officer Mykola Melnychenko. The testimony in the form of questions and answers were videotaped by the three lawmakers in one of the countries of Schengen zone.
After a break in the Verkhovna Rada session and watching the video tape with the testimonial evidence, the people’s deputies heard four heads of law enforcement agencies individually — Director of the State Customs Service Solovkov, Prosecutor General Potebenko, SBU Director Derkach, and Minister of Internal Affairs Kravchenko.
Prosecutor General Potebenko, having spoken in parliament during the discussion of the tape the deputies had seen, stated the recording in question does not provide grounds for opening a criminal case. He stated he needed to interrogate this individual personally and to carry out his own examination of the tape.
Asked by Solidarnist (Solidarity) group representative Yuri Karmazin whether he had been instructed about to launch criminal cases against the president’s opponents, Mr. Potebenko said, “The President gave me no such instructions.”
Answering the query of the Social Party leader Oleksandr Moroz whether Internal Affairs Minister Yuri Kravchenko would be punished if he had committed a crime, the nation’s top prosecuting attorney replied, “If it is proved that the minister has committed a crime, he will be made to answer for it.”
Potebenko once more requested that Moroz testify concerning the audio recording, allegedly having done by Mr. Melnychenko, and expressed his readiness to meet with the SPU leader and his investigator.
In his turn, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) chief Leonid Derkach, answering in parliament questions from deputies after the viewing of the videotape, stated that his department has not been bugging the offices of top state officials.
Responding to questions about whether he knew the SBU officer in question, Mr. Derkach said he could not know him since this man from 1992 had been serving in the State Guards Administration.
Internal Affairs Minister Yuri Kravchenko also addressed parliament on Tuesday and officially stated that, in connection with his official duties, he has reported to the president about the situation in the country but he had not received any orders from Kuchma concerning Gongadze, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
Answering numerous questions whether the voice on the audio cassette produced by Moroz belonged to him, Kravchenko did not give a direct answer, pointing out that “only an official court can find anybody guilty” on the basis of an investigation and examination of the evidence
Deputies urged the minister to step down during the course of the investigation to the Gongadze case, but the minister again remained evasive.
Meanwhile the people’s deputies voted unanimously to approve a resolution concerning the results of their viewing the videotaped testimony in the immediate future, with 303 ayes (the quorum is 226 voices) and no abstentions. 79 of the 382 registered did not vote.
However, Speaker Ivan Pliushch reminded the deputies that Tuesday, according to the agenda, is not a day for approving decisions, and proposed to complete two drafts of the resolution in order to put them to the vote on Thursday.
People’s Deputy Serhiy Teriokhin (Reforms-Congress) suggested his colleagues examine and approve the draft of a resolution submitted by Deputies Oleksandr Yeliashkevych, Anatoly Matviyenko, Vasyl Chervony, and Anatoly Yermak. This document includes recommendations to the president to consider the matter of dismissing the heads of the State Customs Service Yuri Solovkov and SBU Leonid Derkach, along with proposals urging the prosecutor general to launch a criminal case for abuse of office against employees of the State Customs Service and SBU based on the searching in Boryspil of the three deputies who were bringing the tape with the officer’s testimony, reports Interfax-Ukraine).
Teriokhin proposed amending to the draft with a recommendation to remove Kravchenko from his duties until the investigation is completed and expressing distrust in Prosecutor General Potebenko.
The second draft of the resolution, submitted by majority coordinator and People’s Democratic Party leader Oleksandr Koropov, and the following fraction leaders: Oleksandr Volkov (Revival of the Regions), Hennady Udovenko (People’s Rukh of Ukraine), Yuri Kostenko (Ukrainian People’s Rukh), Vitaly Kononov (Greens), Oleksandr Zinchenko (Social Democratic Party of Ukraine {united}), and Petro Poroshenko (Solidarity), also contains recommendations that the president dismiss Messrs. Solovkov and Derkach from their posts and demand the prosecutor general open a criminal case for abuse of office by the customs and SBU officials.
When the issue originally containing this item was going to press, the deputies approved as a basis, after failing to approved it in toto, the draft of a resolution urging the president to dismiss customs service and SBU directors. At press time, about 100 lawmakers remained in the hall — representatives of the Communists, Reforms- Congress, Left Center, Ukrainian People’s Rukh, Progressive Socialists and some representatives of Solidarity. A megaphone was installed on the rostrum, since the Rada system and microphones were disconnected because of the official end of the session. Before this, Permanent Presidential Representative Roman Bezsmertny requested the people’s deputies observe the ethics of political struggle and demonstrate to the society and their constituents steadiness, tolerance, moral fiber and self-control. In his statement, Mr. Bezsmertny pointed to the obviousness of the fact that the information, over which “lances are being broken,” had been obtained “illegally but was still disseminated in the information theater. In his opinion, all the facts must be thoroughly studied by the parliamentary investigative commission headed by Oleksandr Lavrynovych.
On December 13 Verkhovna Rada discussed for two hours the Gongadze case and related scandals. Proposed “special time schedule” for hearings on the scandal affair, proposals to broadcast the session live, invite Leonid Kuchma offer his explanation, and vote by secret ballot have all thus far been ignored. Much emotion was raised among some deputies by the statement by Presidential Representative in Verkhovna Rada Roman Bezsmertny, who said the President would never allow this country to slip into crisis because of the scandal in Verkhovna Rada. Some people interpreted these words as a veiled threat to impose a state of emergency and began to speak out against this treat. In particular, Hryhory Omelchenko called upon officers to act in compliance with their oath of allegiance and not to obey “criminal orders.”
As to the head of state’s stand on this matter, Mr. Bezsmertny explained to journalists during the break, “In a situation when this country has shown its first signs of stability, to allow the wheel of scandal to spin endlessly means to provoke an internal or even general political conflict. I would like all to understand that these things should be put an end to. The majority must understand they are really the majority. And if the president is to be asked about one individual or another, the majority should do this on its own, rather than act like a blind kitten on opposition proposals. I categorically reject that Heorhy Gongadze’s disappearance, the Boryspil scandal, and audiovisual evidence should be heaped together and presented as the links of one chain. All should be considered separately. The deputies pass a law on ad hoc investigative commissions, although they know only too well that this is nonsense unless there is a law on a special investigator and special prosecutor. It is impossible to discuss these issues lawfully without a law on impeachment, without defining the Prosecutor General’s accountability, and without any regulations on civil control over security and defense bodies. We are witnessing carefully orchestrated actions aimed at discrediting the state and the authorities. I do not want to participate in this game or side with those who are trying to do so. I categorically object to the President coming into the session hall at a time when some deputies are in a state of psychosis.”
Last Tuesday evening former President and SDPU(o) faction member Leonid Kravchuk said one must “be guided by facts, not emotions” when voting on the draft resolutions proposed in Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday.
Asked how he would react, as president if he became the object of accusations similar to those leveled against Mr. Kuchma, Mr. Kravchuk answered, “Such things did not occur in my time, under my presidency — now they do.” Simultaneously, the lawmaker stressed that “one breach of the law cannot remedy another... I am on the side of the law.”
On December 13, the President’s spokesman, addressing a briefing and voicing the President’s view of the ongoing events, pointed out that, according to Mr. Kuchma, “this is a wide- ranging provocation.”
Mr. Martynenko said the Presidential press service statement, released on the same day when Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz produced audiocassettes supposedly with the voices of the highest officials, said it was a fake. Mr. Martynenko noted that the President favors an early investigation, including expert examination of the body found in Tarashcha district. “There can be no delays or subjective factors here.”
According to Mr. Martynenko, some experts and politicians have already noticed that many actions of the President’s opponents follow the logic of “a usually launched political campaign.” Mr. Martynenko does not rule out that the first and second film will be followed by “a third, fourth, and fifth.”
Mr. Martynenko believes everything is being done in this situation “to keep the situation tense” rather than to find the truth, and that Mr. Kuchma’s opponents are proceeding from the logic of scandals, not the logic of seeking the truth.
