[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2644]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         EVENTS IN THE UKRAINE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, Ukraine is a country that was at one time 
a satellite of the Soviet Union, and 10 years ago it moved towards its 
own independence. Our President, Ronald Reagan, stood before the world 
and said, ``Tear down that wall.'' And when the wall fell there were so 
many nations across the Soviet Union who became free, and Ukraine was 
one of those nations.
  Ukraine, in declaring its independence, established the rights of its 
citizens, the same rights that are the bedrock of our democracy here in 
America. Freedom of speech, the right to assemble, freedom of press, 
are rights that have been granted to the people of Ukraine, and they 
are rights that have been fundamental to the unfolding of democracy in 
that country.
  A few months ago, a Ukrainian journalist by the name of Heorhiy 
Gongadze, remember that name, it is an unusual name, but remember it, 
Heorhiy Gongadze, a Ukrainian journalist who challenged the government 
of his country, as journalists do here every day, Georgiy Gongadze was 
found dead. His head was cut off. His hands had their fingerprints 
removed, obviously with acid, and his hand was protruding from the 
shallow grave that his body had been put in.
  After that, tapes were discovered, tapes that had been recorded by a 
member of the Presidential security staff in Ukraine, tapes were 
discovered that had the voice of the President of Ukraine on those 
tapes, although the government denies it is his voice, and the 
President of the Ukraine was calling upon someone to get rid of this 
journalist; very clear implications here, very clear implications that 
the President of a free nation was involved in calling for the demise 
of a reporter who later on turned up dead with his head cut off and his 
fingerprints obliterated.
  As a result of this despicable crime, freedom-loving people in 
Ukraine began to protest: protest the government, protest what happened 
in the attack on the free press. They set up, as a symbol of their 
protest, a series of tents that went for a couple hundred yards down 
the main street of Kiev, the capital city. It was very impressive to 
see, and it was a protest that came from all levels of Ukrainian 
culture and society, from young and old, from the political left and 
the political right, from the political center, from nongovernment 
organizations, members of the media, and from members of the Ukrainian 
Rada, all involved in this protest.
  The protests had been going on in this tent city for 2 months. A U.S. 
congressional delegation led by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Weldon), a delegation that I was proud to be a member of, visited 
Ukraine last week, and we met with members of the press who expressed 
their concern about freedom of the press, about the chilling effect 
which the murder of this reporter had on free press in Ukraine.
  We met with members of the nongovernment organizations who expressed 
concern about this tendency to drift away from democracy that the 
government had shown. We went, and some of us visited this tent city 
and actually talked to the people.
  We had the opportunity to meet with the President of Ukraine in a 2-
hour-and-15 minute meeting. During that meeting, the President assured 
us that he stood for freedom of press, that he stood for freedom of 
speech, that he stood for the right of assembly, those same rights that 
we know so well, those same rights that were accorded to the people of 
Ukraine.
  We were asked by the media before we left, what would happen if, 
after we left, these tents came down? Because it was thought that our 
presence there discouraged any effort to remove the tents.
  We found out the answer today, because once the congressional 
delegation left, the government ordered the police to remove the tents, 
protesters arrested, tents thrown in the truck. An area known as 
Independence Square is boarded off in Ukraine, boarded off, a statue of 
St. Michael sitting in the middle of that square that is boarded off, 
and people cannot even gather together.
  There will be consequences, I say to President Kuchma, for his denial 
of the right of assembly and freedom of speech in his country. The 
international community is watching. The whole world is watching.

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