(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: 16 September 2001: One year of impunity for Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze’s killers Reporters sans frontières (RSF) calls for the creation of an international commission of inquiry 16 September 2001 is the first anniversary of Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze’s disappearance. Gongadze’s decapitated body was found several […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release:
16 September 2001: One year of impunity for Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze’s killers
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) calls for the creation of an international commission of inquiry
16 September 2001 is the first anniversary of Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze’s disappearance. Gongadze’s decapitated body was found several weeks later near Kiev.
Though thirteen journalists have been assassinated in Ukraine in the last five years, the Georgy Gongadze case marked a crucial turn. The murder of this young journalist, who denounced the regime’s offences, served as a wake-up call to civil society in the country and led to the awareness abroad of the seriousness of the threats to individual liberties in Ukraine. The disclosure of senior state officials’ likely involvement in the journalist’s disappearance has shaken President Leonid Kuchma’s rule for months. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian state apparatus, the courts and police, have aggressively impeded the search for the truth. The Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of the Interior have raised their opposition to any serious investigation into the events surrounding the journalist’s disappearance and murder. Georgy Gongadze had personally denounced the threats from these institutions in the weeks prior to his disappearance. The commission of inquiry created by the Ukrainian parliament was not given the means to lead a proper investigation.
Considering the situation, Reporters sans frontières (RSF), in association with Mrs. Alexandra Gongadze, Georgy Gongadze’s mother, and Miroslava Gongadze, his widow, calls for the creation of an international commission of inquiry into journalist Georgy Gongadze’s disappearance and murder. Only an independent commission of inquiry will be able to identify the responsible parties in Georgy Gongadze’s disappearance and murder. The independent commission of inquiry should include Ukrainian judicial and police authorities, international and Ukrainian experts, representatives from organisations responsible for monitoring Ukraine’s efforts to respect its international commitments (Council of Europe, OSCE, United Nations Commission on Human Rights), representatives from Ukrainian and international human rights organisations, representatives of the Gongadze family, and the members of the Ukrainian parliament’s commission of inquiry.
RSF asks:
– the Ukrainian authorities to accept the principle of the creation of an international commission of inquiry into the disappearance and murder of Georgy Gongadze;
– the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to express support for the creation of such a commission, and to participate actively in its creation;
– the Council of Europe’s member states and the United States to support the creation of this commission, and to make experts available to assist the commission;
– non-governmental organisations and personalities committed to the defence of individual liberties to support this appeal.
