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Olga Kryzhanovska-Valchyshen: Kyiv Post still calling for justice in Georgiy Gongadze's murder

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May 1, 2015, 12:05 a.m. | Op-ed — by Olga Kryzhanovska-Valchyshyn

A girl holds a candle infront of her father wearing a tee-shirt reading "We remember!" during a memorial rally to mark the 13th anniversary of Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze's murder at the Independence square in Kiev on September 16, 2013. A rally was held for Georgy Gongadze, an editor of the online daily Ukrainska Pravda, who disappeared after leaving a friend's apartment in Kiev on September 16, 2000. What is believed to be his decapitated body was found two months later in a forest near Kiev. Gongadze was a campaigning journalist who was frequently critical of Ukraine's former President Leonid Kuchma. AFP PHOTO / SERGEI SPUNKY
© AFP

Olga Kryzhanovska-Valchyshyn

Editor's Note: The latest in the series of Kyiv Post 20th Anniversary remembrances comes from one of Ukraine's leading journalists, Olga Kryzhanovska-Valchyshyn, who worked at the Kyiv Post for several years starting in 1999.

In 2000, freedom of speech was still a dream for most Ukrainian publications. Direct and indirect harassment of journalists was commonplace, which meant even some of the most tenacious journalists were afraid to report corruption and criticize the policies of newly re-elected President Leonid Kuchma.

At the Kyiv Post, things were different. Whether that was because it was American-owned or because it was published in English and authorities didn’t pay it much attention, the Post enjoyed a kind of immunity and thus became one of the few sources for reliable information at the time.

In the summer of 2000, we published an interview with Georgiy Gongadze, a vocal Kuchma critic and local journalist who operated the Ukrainian website Ukrayinska Pravda. During the interview, Gongadze claimed he was being followed and that he was afraid for his life. A few months later, he disappeared. At the Kyiv Post, we felt we had a moral obligation to report this story and find out what happened.

Shocking discovery

It was a crisp November morning when Kyiv Post photographer Viktor Suvorov, editor Diana Elliott and I, a Kyiv Post reporter, set out for the village of Tarascha, about 100 kilometers from Kyiv. A few days earlier local residents had found a headless corpse in the woods, and many speculated that it belonged to Gongadze.

When we first arrived, the villagers looked scared and intimidated. Nobody wanted to talk to us about what had happened. So we headed off to meet the doctor at a local clinic where the corpse had been taken after it was found by villagers. We also went through the village, knocking on doors and stopping people on the street in search of the men who found the body.

At one point, our driver realized that we were being followed by a Lada with shaded windows. It gave me shivers; none of us wanted to confront the secret police, who many already believed were involved in Gongadze’s disappearance.

After a few hours in the village, we finally found our witness, an extremely amiable old man who gave us a blow-by-blow account of the discovery. He eagerly showed us the place in the forest where he saw a human hand sticking from the ground. Then he handed us a jar of marinated mushrooms and left us to explore on our own. (We were guests of the town, after all, and even though he lived simply in a small hut, he wasn’t going to let us go empty-handed.)

It was an eerie, ghastly scene. The deep hole where the body was recovered remained seemingly untouched. There was no crime scene tape or evidence that a major investigation was in progress. It was then that we began to comprehend the magnitude of the crime. A popular young journalist was beheaded and his corpse sprinkled with acid in a hastily dug grave. We knew this kind of crime could not be left unsolved and should never be forgotten.

Constant coverage

Back at the Kyiv Post we made it our mission not to let anyone forget. We reserved a spot on the front page each week for coverage of the Gongadze case, reporting on the fruitless attempts of police to conceal the crime. We reported on Maj. Mykola Melnychenko, who secretly taped Kuchma giving the order to “take Gongadze to the forest.”

No matter how hard Ukrainain authorities tried to hide their involvement in Gongadze’s murder, it seemed that the headless corpse in the Tarascha forest was calling for justice. More and more evidence was pointing to Kuchma, Interior Minister Yury Kravchenko and other high-ranking officials. It became clear that the Ukrainian authorities regarded abduction and murder as legitimate means for silencing their critics.

For ordinary Ukrainians who remembered the horrors of the Soviet repression machine, the twas too much. People took to the streets in December 2000, demanding that Kuchma step down. The protests went on until spring when a violent clash between police and protesters led to mass arrests.

But it was not a wasted effort. During those few months of 2000-01, the people of Ukraine realized their power and their unity. That was fresh in their minds a few years later when Kuchma named Viktor Yanukovych his successor and they tried to steal the election. Ukrainians knew what they had to do. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets and forced Yanukovych out in an uprising that becameknown as the Orange Revolution.

Ten years later, Ukrainians defended their dignity and freedom on once again on Maidan. The amazing demonstration of people power and the struggle for civil liberties last year probably wouldn’t have happened without the horrifying murder of a journalist that opened people’s eyes back in 2000 to the country they lived in.

Today, 15 years after Gongadze disappeared, Ukrainians live in a country where journalists aren’t killed for criticizing the authorities. Still, remnants from the past remain. While the law enforcement officers who murdered Gongadze have been punished, those who ordered that horrible crime remain free. The corpse from Tarascha is still calling for justice.

Olga Kryzhanovska-Valchyshen is editor-in-chief of National Geographic Ukraine and previously served as an editor for Focus, Korrespondent and Novynar magazines. She worked at the Kyiv Post for several years starting in 1999.