Georgy Gongadze remembered in Ukraine
Meetings took place on 16 September in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities, to mark the eleventh anniversary of the disappearance of journalist, Georgy Gongadze.
In Kyiv near the President’s Administration, 200 people demanded completion of the investigation into the journalist’s murder. The participants gathered on Maidan Nezalezhnosti [Independence Square] , many of them held black silhouettes of Gongadze, as well as photos of former President Kuchma and current Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Volodymyr Lytven, with captions reading: “Those who ordered the murder [should be] behind bars.
A separate group held a banner reading: Georgy, we have not forgotten”.
The participants then moved in an orderly line towards the President’s Administration where they stopped near the iron railing on Bankova St where they put up a larger banner with Gongadze in black silhouette
In Kharkiv the meeting had added immediacy given the events of the last few days. As reported, three independent channels in Kharkiv – A/TVC, For a and ATN have had their broadcasting cut with no explanation. Many of the people who addressed the meeting spoke in defence of freedom of expression and views.
Photo: Andriy Tovstyzhenko, ZN.UA