FBI, Private Sleuths Probe Ukraine Mystery

March 28, 2001 -- The mystery surrounding a headless body found in the woods outside Kiev has created a dark cloud over the Ukrainian head of state.

President Leonid Kuchma has been caught up in the storm around the body, believed to be that of opposition journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, ever since a former presidential security officer now in hiding in Europe announced he had tape recordings of the president talking about getting rid of the reporter.

But more than four months after the body was found, it has not been conclusively identified, and the integrity of the tapes has been questioned — though Kuchma has admitted the voices on them are his and those of some of his top staff members. He contends the tapes have been doctored to make it seem he was ordering Gongadze's murder.

Gongadze, the editor of an opposition news Web site, Ukrainska Pravda (www.pravda.com.ua), disappeared in September. In November, a headless body was found near Kiev. It was so disfigured and decomposed, neither Gongadze's wife or mother could identify him.

DNA tests indicated it could be Gongadze, and an autopsy determined that one of the last things the man ate was watermelon, which Gongadze's mother said she and her son had eaten just before he disappeared.

But Ukrainian coroners have not even been able to determine the cause of death. Their most recent statement, late last week, was that the man was killed but it hadn't been determined whether he was shot, strangled or beaten to death.

A vocal though disorganized opposition movement has formed, "Ukraine Without Kuchma." Though most demonstrations have been small, a protest on March 9 at a public ceremony attended by Kuchma began with a crowd of fewer than 3,000 but swelled to more than 10,000 when the protesters marched across the city from Shevchenko Park to the government building.

That rally ended with a violent clash with police, who finally broke it up with tear gas, but only after dozens of people on both sides were injured.