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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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11Jan16
Europeans should beware "dehumanization" of part of Ukrainian society
The Europeans should beware the "dehumanization" of part of Ukrainian society, which is fraught with the emergence of more terrorist groups and further outbreaks of genocide in Ukraine, a member of Russia's Civic Chamber, Sergey Markov, has told TASS, when asked for a comment on a controversial YouTube clip showing phoney execution of a Russian air pilot, staged in a Kiev restaurant. On the video a young man wearing an embroidered ethnic Ukrainian shirt puts a knife to the throat of another, kneeling man impersonating the pilot of Russia's Sukhoi-24 bomber, shot over Syria at the end of last year. The scene is accompanied by the signature tune the terrorist Islamic State outlawed in Russia often uses in its promo videos. All those around are invited to have fun.
"True, some might interpret the incident merely as an outrageous escapade by a drunken visitor, who ridiculed the memory of the Russian air pilot, mutilated by Islamic State militants. But such anti-Russian and inhuman demarches in Kiev are too numerous to count. Just recently, in December, Ukrainian bloggers posted on the world web the names and addresses of Russian planes' crew members participating in the air strikes against the Islamic State in Syria. In this way Ukrainian users provided terrorists with crucial information for identifying the air pilots and their families," Markov said.
It looks like part of Ukrainian society has lost the awareness of the tragedy unfolding in the country. Thousands of civilians in Donbas have been killed during the Ukrainian army's crackdown on the area. Memories are still fresh of the Odessa tragedy, where Ukrainian nationalists in May 2014 burned alive tens of their opponents locked inside the Trade Unions building. The Ukrainian nationalists invariably refer to their opponents in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics as 'Colorado beetles.' Just several days ago an aide to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko outrageously called Russians in his blog as "insects," Markov recalled.
"All this is much worse than insults of Russians' ethnic dignity and the fanning of official Russophobia in Ukraine. If this trend is not nipped in the bud, Ukraine may see the emergence of more terrorist Al-Qaeda or Islamic State-type organizations. Their religious basis may be different, but the misanthropic essence is the same. Such organizations may be fraught with major risks not just for Ukraine itself, but for the European countries, as well - the very same countries that are expected to coerce Kiev into compliance with the Minsk Accords on the settlement of the crisis in the southeast of Ukraine, in fact, into putting an end to civil war," Markov said.
Asking the authorities in Kiev to prevent nationalist escapades by Ukrainian citizens would make no sense. Both President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyk set a bad example with their anti-Russian rhetoric, Markov believes. Moreover, the Kiev authorities' silence over the faked Russian pilot execution show or comparisons of Russians to insects in fact encourage the incitement of animosity.
"As far as the Western countries are concerned, many of them prefer to turn a blind eye on preposterous manifestations of nationalism, in fact, Nazism, in Ukraine, which is so eager to become an EU member and to obtain a visaless status. Possibly, it makes some Europeans in the countries that have prolonged the anti-Russian sanctions feel good at the thought that all this is directed against Moscow. But militants often act indiscriminately. They may develop a grudge against Europe, too, for not being in a hurry "to welcome Ukraine into the club."
The Civic Chamber, of which Markov is a member, is conducting systemic analysis of all manifestations indicating dehumanization of part of Ukrainian society. "At an EU-sponsored conference in Lodz, Poland, at the end of January I am going to brief my European counterparts on the conclusions Russia's Civic Chamber has made regarding the risky processes in Ukraine, which may provoke more acts of genocide. These processes are to be countered with the all legal means available," Markov said.
[Source: By Tamara Zamyatina, Itar Tass, Moscow, 11Jan16]
Donate
Radio Nizkor
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