on sept. 16 ukraine will commemorate the ninth anniversary of the journalist’s brutal murder. the case is still unsolved.

ukrainians holding candles will likely appear on independence square the night of sept. 16 to mark the 9th anniversary of the murder of journalist georgiy gongadze. it also appears likely that at least one presidential hopeful will attend, while others may simply use the occasion to denigrate their rivals in the upcoming election campaign.

but, despite the arrest in july of a key suspect in the case, ex-interior ministry general oleksiy pukach, indifference about the case is growing. “who ordered gongadze’s murder comes in around number 30 on the list of issues voters are interested in,” said ilko kucheriv, director of the democratic initiatives foundation, a kyiv-based non-governmental organization. “people are a lot more concerned about making ends meet daily,” said iryna bekeshkina, the organization’s research director. “only a narrow segment of the population, the intelligentsia and a few journalists, think new twists in the gongadze case are important.”

if the gongadze case is a litmus test for ukraine’s democracy, then both the public indifference and the authorities’ inability – or unwillingness – to solve the case are disturbing signs.

polls show the jan. 17 presidential election is shaping up as a two-horse race between prime minister yulia tymoshenko and former prime minister victor yanukovych.

“the gongadze case is unlikely to influence which of the two will win the presidential election in the first or make it through to the second round [of voting],” yuriy yakymenko, director of political and legal programs for the razumkov centre for economic and political studies, said. “neither was involved in gongadze’s disappearance, so the outcome of the investigation will not hurt or help them.”

the disappearance of the 31-year-old gongadze in 2000 and the release of recordings two months later by former presidential guard mykola melnychenko thrust ukraine into the international limelight. the botched investigation sparked the grassroots opposition movement, ukraine without kuchma. ex-president leonid kuchma was implicated in gongadze’s disappearance. the opposition intensified through the 2004 orange revolution, the mass protest that succeeded in overturning the rigged presidential election in which kuchma’s chosen successor, yanukovych, was named victor.

three police officers – valeriy kostenko, mykola protasov and oleksander popovych – are serving prison sentences for the gongadze murder. their boss, pukach, was arrested in july. his boss, ex-interior minister yuriy kravchenko, died from two gunshot wounds to the head the day he was scheduled to give testimony in the investigation.

prosecutors say pukach is now cooperating with investigators, who have reported the recent discovery of fragments of gongadze’s skull, teeth and a pair of rubber yellow gloves worn by someone who touched the journalist’s remains.

several of the country’s leading investigative journalists told the kyiv post that they do no plan to attend the independence square commemoration this year. gongadze’s mother, lesya gongadze, on sept. 6 expressed disgust with those who have used her son’s murder for personal and political gain.

president victor yushchenko appeared as a case in point the next day.

“there are people in the entourage of the prime minister [yulia tymoshenko] who are not interested in seeing the [gongadze] inquiry make progress because they worked under former president kuchma, who was in power when [gongadze’s] murder took place,” yushchenko was quoted as telling the german magazine der spiegel.

a week earlier, the pro-yushchenko ukraina moloda newspaper quoted the president as saying the outcome of the gongadze investigation would influence the presidential poll. “this much is obvious,” yushchenko said. “[it] will be one of the most impressive illustrations of democracy ever.”

one man who did more than anyone else to ignite furor over the gongadze murder now wants to be president. melnychenko, kuchma’s former security guard, released the 2000 recordings that purported to implicate kuchma in the crime. melnychenko’s flashy new website ( http://melnychenko.com.ua ) advertises his crusade to hold kuchma and kuchma’s chief of staff, verkhovna rada speaker volodymyr lytvyn, accountable for gongadze’s disappearance.

after years of talking about the tapes, melnychenko now says he is "not allowed to discuss the recordings i provided” to the general prosecutor’s office. he said he might attend the sept. 16 candle-lighting ceremony if it doesn’t conflict with his campaign schedule.