Kyiv Post: Ukraine Without Democracy
02/08/2001 | Broker
Ukraine Without Democracy
Editorial
The first sentence of a recent entry on the forum of a Web site popular with Ukrainian diaspora went something like this: "Dear Leonid Kuchma: Thank your for showing us what a fool you really are. ... The harder you try to extricate yourself [from the scandal] the deeper you bury yourself."
Kuchma's shovel was indeed hard at work last week. In the Kuchma machine's latest stumble, Prosecutor General Mykola Potebenko's office stated that tests showed that the infamous Melnychenko tapes contain the president's voice. But they were fabricated by splicing together fragments of the president's conversations.
Our advice to the prosecutor general: If you're going to lie, at least be consistent. Potebenko's claim is essentially a blanket admission that the president's office was bugged. This goes directly against what the General Prosecutor's Office has been saying all along - that wiretapping the president's office is impossible.
Beyond that, the claim contradicts tests already done on the tapes by an organization that - unlike the General Prosecutor's Office - is competent and capable. Way back in November, Dutch group TNO found that copies of the original tapes contain unedited, continuous conversation. If the General Prosecutor's Office admits that it's Kuchma's voice on the tape, we can conclude that, based on the TNO findings, Kuchma is guilty as charged of plotting Georgy Gongadze's disappearance, among other grave crimes.
The United States and the European Union might chew on that as they continue to dole out platitudes about their concerns over Kuchma's handling of the Gongadze affair. While they're at it, they might look at how perfectly peaceful protests have been suppressed in several oblasts. And at how students and factory workers were earlier forced to march in "pro-presidential" rallies. They might look at why local media is burying the biggest scandal of the decade and at why the general prosecutor is on a 40-day vacation instead of investigating the murder of Gongadze.
They might wonder if they really want to go on being friends with and giving money to such a country. The EU issued a stern warning on Feb. 5 that it is concerned about freedom of press and said it is not convinced that the Gongadze's disappearance has been investigated with "sufficient transparency and thoroughness." Tough language is a promising start, but it will mean little until it is backed up by tough actions. An appropriate follow up would be an aid cut.
Some nationalists argue against the foreign community meddling too much in Ukraine's affairs, as it could lead to the end of Ukrainian independence if Kuchma and company respond by deciding they don't need the West after all. That is a dangerous argument. If a little Western discipline is all it takes for Ukraine to turn its back on the West, the country is already on a slippery slope to nowhere. The West should discipline Ukraine and take its chances that the people will demand that the government respond positively to that discipline. The alternative is sitting back and doing nothing while Ukraine drifts east anyway.
The people of Ukraine might also do some soul-searching as they sit back and watch Kuchma's spies and police beating up protesters on TV. The 8,000 protesters on the streets in Kyiv this week represent a whopping .02 percent of the population. While some Ukrainians undoubtedly accept the news that the country is being "destabilized" by "provocateurs," the majority of Ukrainians grasp the abuses committed by their president. But they cynically reason that Kuchma's grave crimes are the norm for politicians and that nothing can be done about it.
World experience tells us otherwise. In the last couple months alone, the leaders of Peru and the Philippines were linked to corruption by leaked tapes and subsequently brought down by popular uprisings. The charges against Kuchma are no less grave and no less substantiated than the charges that those leaders faced.
Our favorite forum writer's entry concluded with a rhetorical question for the president: "Do you really think a fence will stop the criticism?"
The fence he was alluding to is behemoth that has sealed off both sides of Maidan Nezalezhnosti in downtown Kyiv. Whether the Kuchma apparatus indeed ordered the fence put up to seal off protesters is open to debate. But there's no question the authorities have erected several metaphorical fences around society in their attempt to bottle up the truth behind the scandal.
The sad truth is that Kuchma's "fences" can and most likely will stop the criticism. Unless, that is, both the people of Ukraine and the world community take dramatic action to put an end to the authorities' continued abuse of the law.
Editorial
The first sentence of a recent entry on the forum of a Web site popular with Ukrainian diaspora went something like this: "Dear Leonid Kuchma: Thank your for showing us what a fool you really are. ... The harder you try to extricate yourself [from the scandal] the deeper you bury yourself."
Kuchma's shovel was indeed hard at work last week. In the Kuchma machine's latest stumble, Prosecutor General Mykola Potebenko's office stated that tests showed that the infamous Melnychenko tapes contain the president's voice. But they were fabricated by splicing together fragments of the president's conversations.
Our advice to the prosecutor general: If you're going to lie, at least be consistent. Potebenko's claim is essentially a blanket admission that the president's office was bugged. This goes directly against what the General Prosecutor's Office has been saying all along - that wiretapping the president's office is impossible.
Beyond that, the claim contradicts tests already done on the tapes by an organization that - unlike the General Prosecutor's Office - is competent and capable. Way back in November, Dutch group TNO found that copies of the original tapes contain unedited, continuous conversation. If the General Prosecutor's Office admits that it's Kuchma's voice on the tape, we can conclude that, based on the TNO findings, Kuchma is guilty as charged of plotting Georgy Gongadze's disappearance, among other grave crimes.
The United States and the European Union might chew on that as they continue to dole out platitudes about their concerns over Kuchma's handling of the Gongadze affair. While they're at it, they might look at how perfectly peaceful protests have been suppressed in several oblasts. And at how students and factory workers were earlier forced to march in "pro-presidential" rallies. They might look at why local media is burying the biggest scandal of the decade and at why the general prosecutor is on a 40-day vacation instead of investigating the murder of Gongadze.
They might wonder if they really want to go on being friends with and giving money to such a country. The EU issued a stern warning on Feb. 5 that it is concerned about freedom of press and said it is not convinced that the Gongadze's disappearance has been investigated with "sufficient transparency and thoroughness." Tough language is a promising start, but it will mean little until it is backed up by tough actions. An appropriate follow up would be an aid cut.
Some nationalists argue against the foreign community meddling too much in Ukraine's affairs, as it could lead to the end of Ukrainian independence if Kuchma and company respond by deciding they don't need the West after all. That is a dangerous argument. If a little Western discipline is all it takes for Ukraine to turn its back on the West, the country is already on a slippery slope to nowhere. The West should discipline Ukraine and take its chances that the people will demand that the government respond positively to that discipline. The alternative is sitting back and doing nothing while Ukraine drifts east anyway.
The people of Ukraine might also do some soul-searching as they sit back and watch Kuchma's spies and police beating up protesters on TV. The 8,000 protesters on the streets in Kyiv this week represent a whopping .02 percent of the population. While some Ukrainians undoubtedly accept the news that the country is being "destabilized" by "provocateurs," the majority of Ukrainians grasp the abuses committed by their president. But they cynically reason that Kuchma's grave crimes are the norm for politicians and that nothing can be done about it.
World experience tells us otherwise. In the last couple months alone, the leaders of Peru and the Philippines were linked to corruption by leaked tapes and subsequently brought down by popular uprisings. The charges against Kuchma are no less grave and no less substantiated than the charges that those leaders faced.
Our favorite forum writer's entry concluded with a rhetorical question for the president: "Do you really think a fence will stop the criticism?"
The fence he was alluding to is behemoth that has sealed off both sides of Maidan Nezalezhnosti in downtown Kyiv. Whether the Kuchma apparatus indeed ordered the fence put up to seal off protesters is open to debate. But there's no question the authorities have erected several metaphorical fences around society in their attempt to bottle up the truth behind the scandal.
The sad truth is that Kuchma's "fences" can and most likely will stop the criticism. Unless, that is, both the people of Ukraine and the world community take dramatic action to put an end to the authorities' continued abuse of the law.