aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] U.S. AUTHENTICATES KUCHMA TAPE OF INTENT TO SELL KOLCHUGA TO IRAQ

[Taras Kuzio <t.kuzio@utoronto.ca>]

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL Crime and Corruption Watch
Vol. 2, No. 34, 26 September 2002


END NOTE

U.S. AUTHENTICATES KUCHMA TAPE OF INTENT TO SELL KOLCHUGA TO IRAQ

By Roman Kupchinsky

U.S. administration officials have authenticated a tape made by Major
Mykola Melnychenko of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma telling the
head of a Ukrainian state arms-sales company to proceed with the sale
of advanced radar technology to Iraq.
    The United States is withholding millions of dollars in grant
aid as it probes further into the issue of whether Ukraine violated
UN sanctions on Iraq as a result.
    The taped conversation, which reportedly took place on 10
July 2000 (see "RFE/RL Crime and Corruption Watch," 19 April 2002),
has consistently been denied by the Ukrainian president despite
numerous demands on the part of the West for an explanation of what
was said.
    The tape, including the passage on the sale of the Kolchuga
radar system via the UkrSpetzExport company, was authenticated
earlier this year by BEK TEK, a Virginia-based group that provides
authentication services to the FBI, the U.S. Supreme Court, and other
organizations.
    A high-level U.S. administration official was then quoted by
Reuters on 23 September as saying the Justice Department has
authenticated the tape as well. The U.S. official told Reuters, "We
have not physically observed the Kolchuga [radar system] in Iraq,
although we have some information which I cannot get into that
suggests it may be there." Experts say it would be difficult to be
certain that Iraq had the Kolchuga for a number of reasons: It does
not emit signals of its own; it is mobile; and it is easy to hide,
involving an antenna attached to an ordinary-looking truck. The
official went on to say: "We have informed the Ukrainian government
and NATO allies that we have reached this assessment, that there has
been a pause in certain types of assistance and that a policy review
is under way."
    Patricia Guy, the press attache at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv,
told RFE/RL that extensive examination of the recordings has
convinced the American government that they are authentic: "What is
new is that we've recently concluded an analysis of a July 2000
recording that was provided by former Ukrainian presidential
bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko. And on one of the tapes, Ukrainian
President Leonid Kuchma is heard approving the clandestine sale of
Kolchuga early warning systems to Iraq, and we believe this recording
is authentic."
    Guy said the United States is withholding some of the money
that it gives annually to Ukraine under the Freedom Support Act which
is meant to help solidify democracy in countries: "The
recording's authentication has led us to re-examine our policy
toward Ukraine, and in particular toward President Kuchma. As a
result we've initiated a temporary pause in new obligations of
Freedom Support Act assistance that goes to the central government of
Ukraine while we carry out this review."
    Asked on 26 September whether he believes the timing of the
American announcement was designed to influence the current political
situation in Ukraine or aid the anti-Kuchma opposition, Yuriy
Serheyev, state secretary at the Foreign Ministry, told RFE/RL: "We
would not like to think that it is linked to the present domestic
political situation. What we are really worried about in the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs are the outright errors made in the accusations.
We are especially worried by this because it is serious -- it not
only reflects badly on our image, but these accusations of
impropriety cast a shadow on the long-standing relations between two
serious partners."
    Reuters reported that the official said the $55 million that
was set aside for the central Ukrainian government as part of the
"Freedom Support Act" in fiscal year 2002, which ends this month, has
been put on hold. He added that further measures are being considered
in a review that should last a week or two, according to the news
agency.
    "The New York Times" on 24 September wrote that: "The finding
follows a judgment by experts at the Justice Department and elsewhere
in the government that a clandestine tape recording -- in which a
voice that the United States has concluded is Kuchma's is heard
discussing smuggling the radar system to Iraq -- is authentic and
unaltered." In the recording, the head of UkrSpetzExport is seemingly
heard telling Kuchma that the operation to smuggle the Kolchuga into
Iraq will be handled by Leonid Derkach, the head of the Ukrainian
Secret Service. Derkach was eventually relieved of his post and is
presently a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
    When asked about other parts of the Melnychenko recordings,
in particular those where Kuchma is heard ordering the disappearance
of Heorhiy Gongadze, an independent journalist who was found murdered
in September 2000, the official told Reuters that the United States
has not authenticated that section of the recordings "Certainly our
assessment that this Kolchuga recording is authentic colors the way
that we look at the other recordings," he said, according to Reuters.
    Ukraine's foreign minister, Anatoliy Zlenko, told AP on
25 September that his country's president may have authorized
selling an advanced radar system to Iraq but insisted the sale --
which would have contravened UN sanctions -- never took place.
Speaking to reporters in the Dominican Republic the day after the
State Department announcement, Zlenko said the tape could have been
made during one of the president's discussions, but that it is
"impossible to sell arms in this manner."
    The deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv,
Marie Yovanovitch, told a press conference in Kyiv on 25 September
that the "tapes are reason enough to review our policy toward
Ukraine. They show that the president personally approved the illegal
sale of arms to Iraq."