The following is the edited text of a statement on the investigation of the disappearance and murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze signed by Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz, which was published in the newspaper Holos Ukrainy on May 17 and translated by BBC Monitoring Service:
Eight months have passed since the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze. It is probably the first case in the history of mankind where the body of a murdered person was left unburied on purpose. It is probably the first time that criminals who know that their horrible sin is known not only to law enforcers but to the whole population still feel safe, playing innocent in the shadow of their patron. It is the first time that we see such a cynical and dirty investigation of a murder, where the causes and substance of the crime were known to investigators long before the criminal case was even filed.
The murder of the journalist and the dastardly actions of the authorities before and after the murder will go down as a page of disgrace in Ukraine’s modern history. This page can never be erased. People must receive answers to the following questions:
* Who murdered Gongadze and who ordered the killing?
* How and where was Gongadze killed?
* Why was the beheaded body brought to the forest near Tarashcha?
* Why was Gongadze killed?
* Why was forensic expert V. Vorotyntsev, whose findings were proved correct, suspended from the case?
* On what grounds were his office and flat searched?
* Why were the materials of the initial forensic tests removed, and why are they being concealed from the victims in the case?
* What were the reasons for the criminal delay with the forensic tests on the Tarashcha body?
* What were the conclusions of the expert Svitlana Karmelyuk?
* Where and at whose behest is she being held at present?
* Why did law enforcement officers break into her home late at night?
* When, how and by whom were the samples of tissues passed on to German experts for a DNA test forged?
* Why did Deputy Interior Minister Mykola Dzhyha give parliament intentionally misleading information about the Tarashcha body (concerning the time of death, age of the body, presence of shrapnel and the food found in the stomach, etc.)?
* Who gave the orders to place Gongadze under surveillance while he was still alive, who carried out the surveillance, and when and why was it stopped?
* What is the special task force mentioned in the conversation between former Interior Minister Yury Kravchenko and President Leonid Kuchma?
* Who was sponsoring the Ukrainska Pravda Web site when Gongadze was still alive?
* Why and when was this support withdrawn?
* Who was providing Kuchma with information about the activities of Georgy Gongadze that eventually cost the journalist his life?
* Who fabricated and spread the lies about the Czech visa allegedly issued to Gongadze and about Mykola Melnychenko’s Swiss bank accounts?
* Has Prosecutor General Mykhailo Potebenko been questioned during the investigation about his exchange of opinions with Kuchma concerning the fate of Gongadze immediately after the journalist’s murder?
* What did Kuchma have to say about it during questioning?
* What is the reason for the delay in filing a criminal case to investigate the bugging of the president’s office?
* What was the outcome of the investigation of libel against officials involved in the Gongadze case?
* Have Security Service specialists been held liable following their official statements claiming that the president’s office could not have been bugged?
* When will a criminal investigation be launched into the facts of illegal interference by the police, Security Service, prosecutor’s office and tax service officials in the presidential election process, which was reported by observers and has been confirmed by Kuchma’s recorded instructions?
* Has the investigator of the Kyiv regional prosecutor’s office been held liable for his attempt to forge documents during the questioning of Gongadze’s mother?
* If allegations made on the basis of conversations recorded in Kuchma’s office are groundless, why did the president sack Interior Minister Yury Kravchenko, Security Service head Leonid Derkach and State Guard Directorate head Yury Shepel?
* What expert analysis led to the conclusion that the recordings made public by Melnychenko were fabricated, and on what grounds have Potebenko and other officials been spreading information that the recordings were fabricated?
* What was the outcome of the investigation of the illegal detention and search of the members of parliament Serhy Holovaty, Oleksandr Zhyr and Viktor Shyshkin and the damage done to the materials on Melnychenko’s interview they were carrying?
* Why is Melnychenko being groundlessly accused of espionage even though no criminal case on this matter has yet been filed?
* Which portions of the records (apart from those proving bribery, patronage of corrupt officials by Kuchma, persecution of the media, reprisals against political opponents and judges, instructions to rig election and referendum results, etc.) constitute state secrets?
* When will a criminal investigation be launched regarding the above‑listed cases of cynical violations of Ukraine’s laws and Constitution?
These and other questions still demand answers, even though, thanks to the actions of the opposition, we have managed to preserve the Constitution, prevent an illegal dissolution of parliament, destroy the arbitrarily arranged so‑called “majority” in the Rada and break the information blockade. These answers are needed to prevent the disappearance of 30,000 of our compatriots every year and to stop law enforcement bodies from violating the rights of hundreds of thousands of people. They are needed to make the authorities understand that they are there to serve people, not the other way around. The Left Center faction of the Socialist Party and the Peasant Party of Ukraine demand that Prosecutor General Potebenko answer these questions in the session hall of Parliament, and that the ad‑hoc parliamentary commission investigating the Gongadze case report on the progress of the investigation.
