Suicide doubt casts fear in Ukraine
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Ukraine ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Posted on 03/07/2005 12:40:23 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
THE man who published recordings that he claimed linked former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma to the murder of an opposition journalist says he fears for his life after a key witness in the slaying was found dead in what police said was a suicide.
Mykola Melnichenko also said the tapes he made when he worked as Mr Kuchma's bodyguard indicated the murder of investigative reporter Georgy Gongadze in 2000 was only one of many crimes and legal infractions committed by top officials in the Kuchma regime.
Mr Kuchma has always vigorously denied any link to the killing and authorities in his government have always called Mr Melnichenko's tapes fakes.
But Mr Kuchma cut short a holiday in the Czech Republic on Saturday to return to Kiev. Though prosecutors have yet to say whether they will summon him for questioning, many observers expect that to happen.
"There was always a danger to my life and right now it has increased," Mr Melnichenko said by telephone from Poland, where he said he was due to meet top Ukrainian officials.
He spoke two days after Mr Kuchma's former interior minister, Yury Kravchenko, was found dead at his luxury country home outside Kiev, only hours before he had been due to appear before prosecutors to answer questions over his alleged involvement in Gongadze's killing.
Police said Kravchenko had killed himself with two shots to the head and had left a suicide note. But Mr Melnichenko said he did not rule out the possibility that Kravchenko – interior minister from 1995 to 2001 – was killed because he knew too much about the underside of Mr Kuchma's regime. "I knew Yury Kravchenko personally. He was a strong person," Mr Melnichenko said. "I don't believe that he could wilfully take his life.
"The death of Yury Kravchenko will reflect negatively both on the investigation of notorious cases like Gongadze's as well as the image of the new authorities."
Gongadze, who had been critical of Mr Kuchma in articles in his internet newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, disappeared in September 2000. His headless body was found two months later.
Shortly after Gongadze's body was found, Mr Melnichenko published fragments from about 700 hours of private conversations that he said he had secretly recorded in Mr Kuchma's office and private quarters.
The released fragments feature a man alleged to be Mr Kuchma ordering Kravchenko, in between epithets, to take care of the persistent investigative reporter.
Mr Melnichenko cautioned Ukraine's new authorities against concentrating on the Gongadze case at the expense of other investigations from Mr Kuchma's era.
"The Gongadze affair is a very small part of those crimes that Kravchenko committed on the orders of Kuchma," he said.
"It was a cruel and cynical murder that had a wide resonance, but you can't examine the Gongadze case by itself. It's a road to nowhere ... because, sooner or later, the chain in the Gongadze affair will break. There aren't that many people left in the Gongadze affair who can lead to Kuchma."
AFP
You do realize that this hammer's Yushchenko's credibility, since it is his government that has flat out stated: suicide. Or maybe you didn't read the article or comprehend what you read.
Considering that it's Yushchenko's government that is stating flat out: suicide, you judge. Me thinks this guy had info on everyone, to include the former PM Yushchenko and the former gas sector head (and thanks to it $11 billion billionaris) Tymoshenko.
Or maybe I'm just not a dishonest spin artist like you?
Yes obviously the evil Yushinko bumped off this guy because he is trying to cover up Kuchma's crimes! He and Kuchma are in cahoots! Kuchma endorsing Yanukovych and having the oligarch Medvedchuk send skinheads to scare away voter from the polls and steal the election was all just a trick to make the saintly Yanukovich look bad! Kuchma arranged it all to make sure the evil Yushinko came to power!
Ukraine Ping
Sounds like the RASPUTIN story all over again..........
Wouldn't it be Ukraine-acide?....
Suicide doubt casts fear in Ukraine
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Ukraine ping list!. . .don't be shy.
Jb, my friend, your arguments are getting weaker by the day. You are beginning to sound a little desperate.
Hardly desperate, just pointing out some inconsistencies and alternatives to the sheeple follow the leader views. Take a look at what is happening in Georgia, with their "great" new "democratic" leader. New boss, same as the old boss.
Besides, if the government had held out and said, well it looks like suicide but it might be murder, he was after all a key witness. Well then there is some sense that he might have been murdered to protect Kuchma (after all the man was in position to have dirt on everyone, to include Yushchenko's regime). But when the Yushchenko regime is the first to run out and declare suicide, beyond doubt, then that lends one to believe they need it to be accepted as suicide and are themselves covering something up.
Hardly, it's Yushchenko who's declared flat out suicide. Kuchma is saying murder. Interesting twist, now isn't it? The man was in position to have dirt on everyone, to include the former PM Yushchenko and the former head of the gas sector (where she made $11 billion in 5 years) Tymoshenko. What if he threatened to expose everything? Hmmm, the possibilities are endless.
Jb, you have a very active imagination. The simplest answer is that the President of the Ukraine was told the guy was dead and there was a suicide note.
So, he says "suicide" because that is what he was told.
Why would Yuschenko lie? I know you are probably going to say it has something to do with the prime minister, since she is your current boogeyman. So far, you've tried to blame everything on her.
Granted, she sounds "questionable", but I have seen no proof.Just stuff you and Gary have said.
But your boy Kuchma is the one that was caught on tape telling someone to kill the reporter. It seems like HIS interest in this "suicide" is much greater than Yuschenko.
Don't forget, the investigation was started by Yuschenko's government.
LOL! Good conspiracy theory. Jb likes conspiracy theories!
How's that one for you jb?
Whenever I hear breaking news from jb6 I haven't read anywhere else, I just assume it is a blatant lie, as in this case. Kuchma never said it was murder. jb6 just had to make up this lie to support his contrived conspiracy theory.
Yep. Jb is really coming up with some doozies lately. He can't even get the others to back him up anymore.
He's a bright guy, but why in the world he is willing to make himself look so publically silly (not to mention the outright lies) is beyond me.
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