Alexandr Gorobets: “Powder keg” in Ukrainian city of Zhitomir?

About a month ago, an event took place in Zhitomir. A young man who represented himself as “killer” came to the Socialist Party’s regional committee (as well known, the party opposes the authorities) and said to the party’s second secretary, Mikhail Dimont, that he came to kill him, the committee’s first secretary, and the editor of regional newspaper Zvezda Nedezhdy, Alexandr Baranovski. As if this was the task of some unknown people who threatened him with death. To how serious he was, the young man showed a pistol. However, the event’s main attraction was not the killer himself, but the Security Service and policemen’s reaction: they practically refused to occupy themselves with the killer. After a week, Baranovski and Dimont asked deputies of the Supreme Rada of Ukraine to help them to protect their constitutional rights.

The case received publicity. However, the Ukrainian Security Service still did not react to the situation. The armed man was quietly walking through the city, and he was seen many times before the regional committee’s windows. Therefore, the feelings of the people who were inside could be understood. According to drama, the appearence of a gun at the beginning of a play should fire in its final, and, so it happened. Recently, the city of Zhitomir was shocked by frightful incidents.

First, 10-year-old Anya disappeared. After a day, an unknown person called the girl’s parents and demanded a 20-thousand-dollar ransom. The parents called the police. Further events looked like a crime story. An ash can was chosen as a place to leave money. Policemen, who hid themselves not far from it, filmed the man who came to take the money. Other policemen spied on him up in his flat. The unknown person turned out to be the same killer well known to the whole Ukrainian parliament.

However, the young man was not detained, because the police hoped to find the girl using his contacts, while the young man possessing a rather large sum started to booze.

This continued from Monday to Friday. The police checked up on everybody he had come into contact with. Everything was in vain. However, at the end of the week, a shocking piece of news appeared: at a pond bank, a fishermen found Anya's cold, dead body. Experts discovered that the death had taken place long ago. After this, the police entered by force into the drunken killer’s flat. Only 18 thousand dollars remained, as 2 thousand were spend by the killer to pay his debts and to celebrate the successful operation. Some things of the child were also found in the flat, because the drunkard killed the girl in his own flat and, afterwards, transported the body packed in a sack via a train. The city was shocked with the killer’s brutality, though even more with the “high professionalism” of the police and of the Security Service, which was was reported by Zvezda Nadezhday newspaper. The police possessing full information about the killer did not reacted to his menaces; however the case was well known. They permitted to the armed criminal to quietly walk through the city. As a matter of fact, the police’s inactivity was the reason for the girl’s death. But do the authorities make mistakes? Of course they don't. Last Friday, a press-conference devoted to the case took place in Zhitomir, carried out personally by the regional administration’s head N.Rudchenko and by General of Ukrainian Security Service D.Zakharash and by General of the Internal Affairs Ministry P.Grozinski. Do you know what conclusion was made by the generals? The generals said the suspect was mentally ill. However, the main thing is that the Security Service found information that the suspect had once been a member of the Socialist Party and had even sold the newspaper Zvezda Nadezhdy.

Yesterday, these statements were said on the Ukrainian state TV channel UT-1. For average citizens, this case was presented in the way that Ukrainian socialists are guilty of the girl’s death. First, the secretary of Zhitomir regional committee of the Socialist Party, Alexandr Baranovski commented the case for PRAVDA.Ru readers:

- You see how this has happened. We made a statement about the killer’s menaces and addressed it to the General Zakharash personally. However, no reaction followed. Therefore, the Security Service had nothing against the killer threatening us with death. Some socialist deputies directly addressed directly the Security Service’s head, V.Raqdchenko. Alas! The result was the same. And the story ended with the child’s death. If the killer had been neutralized at the proper time (there was a reason for it), Anya would have been alive. Now, about the statement that the killer once belonged to our party and was distributing our newspaper. This is nonsense. You see, the generals just needed some reason to say they could interfere in the case, because they thought that it was an inter-party affair. I suppose this is stupid. If even my brother threatens me with a weapon and says he will kill me, I would address the police or the Security Service. Will the police think this is a family conflict? Such questions are being solved by the constitution and by the state’s laws. Namely, for these aims law-enforcement bodies were created. The Security Service was in a spot because it handed over our application to the police, while the police also neglected it. They said this was connected with opposition socialists, so let killer kill them. And as a result, an innocent child was the killer’s victim. The Socialist Party’s regional committee demanded the immediate resignation of D.Zakharash, the chief of the Security Service’s regional office, as well as of the city police’s head, A.Petrenko. If these gentlemen do not send in their resignations, we will protest at the offices of the Security Service and of the city police. Everybody should know who are the true culprits.

It looks like the quiet city Zhitomir, which is situated 135 km from Kiev, could become a powder keg.

Alexandr Gorobets PRAVDA.Ru Kiev Ukraine

Translated by Vera Solovieva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2001/12/24/35078.html