6,000 protest in Kiev at president's role

Between 5,000 and 6,000 protesters reached the the central Independence Square by midday after having spent the night camped 12 kilometres outside Kiev in below-zero temperatures and snow. Some had walked hundreds of kilometres to get there. The march was organised by an unprecedented alliance of extreme- right nationalists, Communists and Socialists in protest against Kuchma´s alleged complicity in the disappearance of a leading independent journalist, Grigory Gongadze, in September.

Kuchma has repeatedly denied the allegations, even after a former bodyguard made public audio tapes last November indicating that the president had engineered a campaign to repress and murder opposition politicians and journalists. On Tuesday, the marchers entered Kiev carrying banners saying "Down with Kuchma´s murdering administration" and "Ukraine free of Kuchma". More demonstrators joined in as the parade passed Kiev State University. The police presence was light. No incidents were reported.

Prosecutor General Mykola Potabenko went on extended vacation Monday in a move widely seen as resulting from domestic and pressure on Kuchma to sack him for his conduct of the investigation into the killing. Parliamentary deputies once loyal to the Kuchma administration have been abandoning the government in recent months and destroying its comfortable parliamentary majority.

(la/dpa)