For Myroslava Gongadze, the time had come to bury her husband Georgiy – even though justice has not yet been served in his Sept. 16, 2000, murder.
She will keep pressing for a trial of ex-President Leonid Kuchma, suspected of ordering the Georgian native’s murder in retaliation for his muckraking journalism as the founder of Ukrainska Pravda news website, and whoever else may have been involved. Kuchma has always denied the charges.
Allowing the funeral to finally go forward, she said, does not mean the pursuit of justice is over.
“Georgiy deserved a dignified burial,” Myroslava Gongadze, head of the Ukrainian service of Voice of America in Washington, D.C., explained to the Kyiv Post.
The gruesomeness of his murder – he was kidnapped, killed, beheaded and body buried in separate places by his killers – weighed on her.
“The fact that his body and his head, found after General (Oleksiy) Pukach’s arrest (in 2009), were laying separately in a freezer for 15 years, was a big burden for me,” she said.
So the funeral took place on March 22, attended by hundreds of people at Mykola Naberezhny Church in Kyiv’s Podil district. The couple attended the church and baptized their twin daughters, Salome and Nana, who are now 18. there.
“Georgiy was a believer. This was his church. We baptized our kids there and were frequent visitors. I felt it was his choice. And to be buried in the ground of the church is a special honor in Ukrainian and Georgian culture. I needed to do it for the family, kids, friends and society. I felt the time was right to do it. It is a way to closure that we all deserve. The investigation of Georgiy’s murder is still pending and we are expecting some result soon.”
Myroslava Gongadze, when asked who she holds accountable, said: “I blame Kuchma, his cronies and the system he established in Ukraine for Georgiy’s death.”
Myroslava Gongadze, widow of slain journalist Georgiy Gongadze, attends his funeral on March 22 in Kyiv. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Referring to the audiotapes released by former Kuchma bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko, in which Kuchma’s curses Georgiy Gongadze and orders subordinates to get rid of him, she said: “In the end we all heard what he said about Georgiy. Directly or indirectly, he is responsible for Georgiy’s death and my kids growing up without their father.”
But she said the failure of Ukraine’s political and judicial system runs much deeper and continues today.
“For the last 15 years, I heard so many promises from so many people that I do not trust and listen to anyone anymore. In the end, partial justice in this case was done not because of – but despite – promises and (because of the) persistence and tirelessness of my lawyer, Valentyna Telychenko. Will we get to the bottom of it? I do not know. This case does not have a statute of limitations and I do believe that, sooner or later, the truth will prevail. Justice has to be done for Ukraine to move forward.”
Former police general Oleksiy Pukach is serving a life prison sentence for the murder, which he says was ordered by Kuchma and Volodymyr Lytvyn, among others.
