http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1641429,00.html
Minister's death sparks rumours 30/12/2004 12:38 - (SA) Kiev - The mysterious suspected suicide of Ukraine's powerful transport minister has sparked rumours of bloody infighting within the crumbling outgoing regime after weeks of election turmoil. The Kiev press, almost forgetting the historic election win of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, has devoted pages to the death of Heorhiy Kirpa, who was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head on Monday evening at his home. "Has the season of deaths within the devastated elite begun?" asked the oligarch-owned Segodnia daily after the second unexplained death of a government-connected figure in recent weeks. The opposition Vecherniye Vesti's banner headline said: "Suicide, mopping-up, vengeance?" Another pro-Yushchenko daily, the Kiev Gazeta, affirmed that "ministers don't die for love". Opening a criminal inquiry During a funeral service on Wednesday, outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, the unlucky presidential contender, sneaked in through a side-door to dodge journalists' questions. Ukraine's prosecutor general's office said on Tuesday it had opened a criminal inquiry into "forced suicide" although not ruling out "other hypotheses," as some media suggested it was a case of murder. Kirpa, 58, was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head in his residence outside Kiev, a Makarov pistol lying near his body. According to the opposition, his ministry provided money and other support for the campaign of Yanukovich, whose contested victory in the November 21 presidential poll was annulled by the Supreme Court because of huge fraud. He was accused too of blocking rail travel of pro-Yushchenko supporters during the campaign and giving free transport to Yanukovich partisans to allow them to cast multiple votes in different cities in the falsified election. Protests against Yanukovich's win Also minister for communications, Kirpa is seen as likely to have been privy to a break-in to the central election commission server as vote results poured in during the November poll. But the opposition's so-called "orange revolution" in which it mounted 17 days of mass street protests against Yanukovich's win, appeared to have changed the minister's stance, like that of Kuchma himself. He was accused of "betraying" Yanukovich by refusing to work with him during the re-run election, according to the press. Opposition lawmaker Petro Poroshenko said he believed that Kirpa had been "pushed into suicide to make disappear the proof of plans elaborated by those more powerful than him, including the prime minister." Yanukovich on Wednesday angrily denied any secret deals with Kirpa. He said: "I did not have a single conversation with the transport minister, who is unfortunately deceased, about the financing of my electoral campaign." Edited by Andiswa Mesatywa ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $4.98 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/Q7_YsB/neXJAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
