Kiev, Ukraine
Thousands of protesters defied a ban on demonstrations in the city center this week to call for the resignation of President Leonid Kuchma. Meeting on the second anniversary of the disappearance of journalist Grigory Gongadze, three opposition leaders and 20,000 of their followers accused Kuchma of having had Gongadze killed. Last year, Gongadze’s headless body was found in a forest, and one of Kuchma’s former bodyguards fled to the West with a tape that implicates the president. Protesters also said that Kuchma’s administration is corrupt and censors the media. Kuchma, a former Soviet official who has been prime minister or president since Ukraine became independent in 1991, has consistently denied all wrongdoing. But during the rally, all of Ukraine’s television stations went black for several hours.
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