How Fitting That the Orange Revolution Ends on Gongadze’s Anniversary
September 17, 2008 – 6:36 pmHow Fitting That the Orange Revolution Ends on Gongadze’s Anniversary
How fitting that the democratic (that is orange) coalition ceased to exist on 16 September, the annual anniversary of Georgi Gongadze’s disappearance eight years ago. Gongadze’s beheaded body was found near Kyiv two months after his abduction by policemen and it remains unburied.
Gongadze’s brutal murder has gone unpunished. Three lower ranking policemen convicted earlier this year are merely scapegoats and their trial was a parody of justice. The organisers remain free, have committed “suicide” or have been permitted to flee abroad. President Yushchenko has not fulfilled his pledge to Ukrainian voters during the 2004 elections or to the Council of Europe after he was elected that he was honour bound to investigate the organisers of Gongadze’s murder.
The ending of the democratic coalition ends the period of Ukraine’s history associated with the Orange Revolution. Two political leaders who supported the Orange Revolution defected to the Party of Regions in 2006 and 2007 (O.Moroz and A.Kinakh). This months crisis has irrevocably split the last remaining two orange leaders, Tymoshenko and Yushchenko.
Without Gongadze’s sacrifice and the ensuing popular mobilisation in the Kuchmagate crisis we would have never seen either Yushchenko’s election four years ago or the Orange Revolution that so changed Ukraine’s international image and gave hope to millions of Ukrainians that there would be real change after a decade of L.Kuchma’s presidency. Without the Kuchmagate crisis Tymoshenko would not have been radicalised by her imprisonment and Yushchenko would have never been pushed into opposition when his government was removed.
How therefore very fitting that we therefore say “Goodbye” to the Orange Revolution on Gongadze’s anniversary. The last four years of orange in-fighting and Yushchenko’s undermining of two Tymoshenko governments in 2005 and 2008 (as well as preventing one from taking office in 2006) will remain a sad passage in Ukraine’s history of wasted opportunities.