COMMENTARY By E. Morgan Williams, Coordinator
Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC)
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Monday, March 24, 2003 was one of the darkest days in the history of Ukraine since Independence on August 24, 1991. On March 24, 2003, Leonid Kozachenko, a truly outstanding, progressive, pro-reform agricultural leader, private agribusinessman and former Deputy Prime Minister of the Agro-Industrial Complex, was suddenly arrested, thrown in jail and a far reaching criminal case was opened against him by the Prosecutor-General's office.

I remember, as if it was just yesterday, opening my computer that Monday morning in Washington, D.C. to check on the news from Ukraine, and suddenly finding the horrifying, shocking and totally unbelievable news story about Leonid Kozachenko being arrested and thrown in jail in Kyiv. My heart sank and my faith in Ukraine to ever become a strong, independent, market driven, democratic, wealthy country was severely shaken.

Kozachenko was charged with accepting bribes, allowing grain to be exported from Ukraine at less than market value which causing a grain shortage in Ukraine during 2003, abusing the office of deputy prime minister and evading taxes.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004, one year later, turned out to be one of the brighter days in the history of independent Ukraine. The same news agencies who reported that Leonid was thrown in jail are now reporting the prosecutor-general's office in Kyiv has totally closed the criminal case against Mr. Kozachenko after prosecutors failed, despite their repeated attempts during the past year, to uncover any facts constituting or proving a crime.

The hammer of justice has finally struck true in Ukraine for once. The bell of freedom is ringing out across the land, at least in the case of Leonid Kozachenko.

For those of us who have known and worked with Leonid for the past twelve years and understand the workings of private grain markets the criminal charges brought against him were outrageous and unbelievable in their content. Many top leaders in the parliament and elsewhere in Ukraine knew the legal charges were wrong and stood up publicly and strongly in support of Mr. Kozachenko. They are to be complimented for their willingness to take a stand for truth and justice.

Leonid was one of the first agribusinessmen in the early 90's to fight to set up a private agricultural distribution business. The government tried to stop him but he finally won. Leonid continued to fight all through the 1990's for the private development of Ukraine's enormous agricultural sector.

He maintained his pro-reform efforts to bring prosperity to rural people as best he could though some very difficult times, including former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko's Soviet style programs which literally crushed the progress that had been made in Ukraine's agricultural sector. Agriculture was not the only sector of Ukraine's economy that Lazarenko crushed and robbed in the very short time he was in office. The major path of destruction caused by PM Lazarenko set back Ukraine's progress for several years.

Kozachenko is one who completely understands why so many millions of poor people in Ukraine live on some of the best farmland in the world and how to correct this problem. He understands how to bring wealth and prosperity to a major sector of Ukraine's economy that has for many decades been exploited and robbed by distorted policies, local authorities and the central government.

Kozachenko and the others in Ukraine who believe in a private market-driven agriculture know how to bring prosperity to millions of poor Ukrainians, not to just the privileged few, and how to bring prosperity to the thousands of poor, run down rural villages found all across Ukraine.

There are many friends of Ukraine around the world who hope these and other leaders never stop their work to build a society that will benefit all 48 million Ukrainians who live in Ukraine and a society that millions more of Ukraine's citizens, who now live and work outside Ukraine, will want to come home to soon.

There are other reformers who have been wrongly accused of crimes in Ukraine. Some are still facing criminal charges and some are actually sitting in jail. We hope the hammer of justice will strike and the bell of freedom will soon ring out for them as it did yesterday for Mr. Kozachenko and the Ukraine he believes in and fights for. Today is a brighter day in Ukraine.

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukraine's former deputy prime minister has been jailed on charges of corruption and tax evasion as part of a government probe of grain market abuses, the prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

Leonid Kozachenko, who headed Ukraine's agriculture policy until a Cabinet reshuffle in November, was arrested Monday night and is in pretrial detention, accused of large-scale theft of state assets, taking bribes and evading taxes, said Polyna Bashkina, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General.

If convicted, he could face prison sentences of up to eight years in prison for abuse of power and 10 years for tax evasion.

Kozachenko now heads a confederation of agro-business organizations.

The criminal case against Kozachenko is among 90 opened after President Leonid Kuchma ordered prosecutors to investigate abuses in the grain market. Despite official statistics that showed the country had sufficient grain supplies, Ukraine is enduring a severe shortage.

A senior prosecutor last week accused collective farms, traders and regional officials of reporting inflated grain harvests and reserves. Those incorrect figures allegedly allowed grain to be sold secretly.

One of the world's largest grain exporters faces a crisis this year after severe weather destroyed up to 90 percent of the winter crop in some regions. (tv/jh)

Kiev, 25 March: Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has said that "no-one has a right" to blame former Deputy Prime Minister Leonid Kozachenko until his guilt is proven.

"While the investigation is still in progress, no-one has a right to accuse anyone of anything," the prime minister told journalists on Tuesday [25 March], commenting on the decision by the Prosecutor-General's Office to institute criminal proceedings against Kozachenko [on suspicion of abuse of power and tax evasion].

Yanukovych recalled that Leonid Kozachenko had held the post of prime ministerial aide "for an interim period" [after leaving his post as deputy prime minister for agriculture together with the whole Kinakh government]. "We involved him in handling some issues until Ivan Kyrylenko (current deputy prime minister for agriculture - Interfax) caught up on things," the prime minister said, remarking that Kozachenko was his adviser on a voluntary, non-paid basis.

[Passage omitted: charges against Kozachenko detailed]

A business union chaired by former Prime Minister Anatoliy Kinakh has said the arrest of the former agriculture minister who served in the Kinakh cabinet is politically motivated. The following is the text of report by Ukrainian news agency UNIAN:

Kiev, 25 March: The Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs [UUIE] has described the criminal case against Leonid Kozachenko, the Ukrainian Agricultural Confederation's president [and agriculture minister in the previous cabinet], as a "trumped-up case launched as part of the heated political struggle in the country".

The union said that [Ukraine's] grain market is in a "difficult situation". [There have been reports of grain shortages and expectations of a rise in grain prices.]

Instead of working professionally and systematically on forming a contemporary infrastructure of the grain market, establishing effective approaches to state control of grain storage and improving export policy, attempts are being made "to discredit grain traders, mills and bread producers. A search for an immediate professional solution to a real economic problem has been substituted with a search for a scapegoat. This significantly diminishes the effectiveness of land reform, which has been gaining momentum recently, and discredits our country on the world markets", the UUIE said.

The Ukrainian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Ukrainian Federation of Employers and the Ukrainian Agricultural Confederation will be closely monitoring Kozachenko's case to ensure adherence to the law and impartiality of information [released to the public].

[Kozachenko was arrested on suspicion of abuse of office and tax-evasion on 24 March in the wake of an investigation into the causes of volatility on the grain market launched by the Prosecutor-General's Office, see Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 0904 gmt 25 Mar 03.]

Ukrainian media cited Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych who said Tuesday "nobody has the right" to accuse Kozachenko unless his guilt is proved. Yanukovych mentioned that Kozachenko had run the office of Advisor to the Prime Minister on a voluntary basis in a "transition period". Kozachenko was detained Monday evening.

He worked as Deputy Prime Minister of Agrarian Policy from June 9 to Nov. 26, 2002. Late in November of last year Yanukovych appointed Kozachenko his advisor.