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Ukrainian Deputy Accuses President Kuchma of Illegal Arms Trading -Ukrainian media reports beginning in 1997 linked unnamed Kuchma associates with sales of Ukrainian weaponry to clients including the al Qaeda terrorist group, Afghanistan's Taliban, Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosovic, and insurgents in Angola and Sierra Leone. KIEV, Mar 7, 2002 -- (dpa) A Ukrainian parliamentarian accused President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in illegal arms sales, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday. Deputy Oleksander Zhyr's claim marked the first time a government official named Kuchma as directly complicit in selling off Ukrainian military stocks for personal gain. Conversations recorded between Kuchma and the former head of Ukraine's weapons export monopoly Valery Malev showed both planned and benefited directly from illegal weapons sales during the late 1990s, Zhyr claimed. Zhyr said he had heard the allegedly incriminating discussions on audio tapes being reviewed by a parliament committee investigating the disappearance of opposition journalist Georgy Gongadze. Zhyr said he would make the recordings public if a criminal proceeding against Kuchma brought to court. Gongadze's headless body was discovered in a forest outside Kiev in November 2000. Though former Kuchma bodyguard Mykola Melnichenko made public audio tapes seemingly showing Kuchma ordering Gongadze's kidnapping, police have yet to arrest any suspects in the case. Malev died Monday in a car crash. Police said he had fallen asleep at the wheel. A December report in Kievsky Telegraf newspaper named Evhen Marchuk, head of Ukraine's National Security Council and a direct Kuchma subordinate, as a key figure in illegal arms shipments from Ukraine to Africa and the Middle East. A Turin court investigating arms smuggling charges against Ukrainian businessman Dmitro Streshevsky on Tuesday named Marchuk as an important Streshevsky associate and "initiator" in eight unsanctioned weapons shipments via Ukraine, France, Austria, and Belgium, the newspaper reported. Marchuk denied the allegations on Wednesday. In earlier statements the former secret police boss claimed he had only met with Streshevsky once, and for less than 10 minutes. Ukrainian media reports beginning in 1997 linked unnamed Kuchma associates with sales of Ukrainian weaponry to clients including the al Qaeda terrorist group, Afghanistan's Taliban, Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosovic, and insurgents in Angola and Sierra Leone. (C)2002. dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Try FREE Yahoo! Mail - the world's greatest free email! http://mail.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
