From 16. to 23. August 2015, was Hans
Christian Andersen Festival in Odense Denmark.
http://www.hcafestivals.dk/en/
http://www.hcafestivals.dk/en/
13 Funen authors wrote fan fiction about
the famous Danish author.
One of the authors Bjarne Kim Pedersen has written The
Steadfast Tin Soldier, about Nadiya Savchenko.
Bjarne Kim Pedersen sent
to the Ukrainian Law Blog his fairytale, dedicated Ukrainian woman-pilot.
Thank you very much Bjarne for your non-indifference to the people of Ukraine.
Thank you very much Bjarne for your non-indifference to the people of Ukraine.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
”’Tin
soldier!” A small boy shouted and clapped his hands; they were given to him
because it was his birthday and he immediately set them up on the table. All
the soldiers looked exactly alike except one who seemed a little different…”
H.C.
Andersen
Many years
later there was a girl far from Denmark whose name signified ‘hope’. She was
born as the daughter of a mechanical engineer and a seamstress. She grew up
with old motor cycles. At the workshop they were split into spare pieces and
then pieced back together before they once again could carry her away on full
speed.
The mother
would like her to design beautiful dresses at a design school.
But she
wanted to fly. She wanted to join the air force.
They said
njet
and njet
and njet.
However, in
the end she got in the uniform. At first as radio operator at the railroad
forces, later on she became a paratrooper and the only woman in the
peacekeeping operation of Ukraine in Iraq.
Back again
she once more applied to the air force. This time she directly contacted the
minister who was responsible for all of the soldiers.
And this
forth time she was accepted. Four years later she graduated and was allowed to
fly high in the sky. She came back and flew with a helicopter unit.
When the students
gathered up at the Maidan, she was there too, at first as practical assistance
together with her sister. There were a lot of things to do when several hundred
thousand people were gathered to remove a corrupt president from office. The
atmosphere was a lot like Olga Perekhrest describes it in:
MAMA, I’M
NOW AN EXTREMIST
By Olga
Perekhrest
Hi, mom,
I’m – an extremist.
Wearing
flags that are yellow and blue,
wrapping
bridges with chains to lock too
with drives
on Mezhyhirya for house trips.
You know,
mom, I’m – an extremist.
Singing:
“…glory’s not perished yet”,
I believe
in all heroes’ éclat,
wracked in
nighttime regrets
of
ultra-rightists and lefts.
Mom, I’m
now an extremist
our slogans
– harsh and tough
our
helmets, masks and scarves
all these could
be the reason
I will
spend 10 years in prison,
away from
home, on hold,
and will
not come in from the cold.
The system
has special skills –
to break
our spines and ribs
so today
our main duty is
to save
friends from the pressure that kills.
What sense
is there now to stay silent?
I have
nothing to lose now, at least.
So, mama –
I’m now an extremist.
Later on
the little soldier joined the forces of self-defense, who was in the front rank
when Berkut attacked. In the worst days it looked like a battle scene from The
Lord of The Rings. She also had to use her first aid education when every
fallen activist needed help. Those days the independence square was desecrated
with blood of the indignant people.
Many fell
and to this very day there burn lights for the killed, back when she and others
recreated the dignity of the country.
A new
president was elected; unfortunately the country also came under attack by the
little green men from the neighbouring country.
She wanted
to fight for her county but instead she was put in a department far from the
frontline.
The little
soldier resigned her own unit and signed up at the voluntary battalion, which
she knew from Maidan.
She started
training other voluntaries in the art of being a soldier and war medicine.
In an
attempt to free some wounded soldiers she was taken hostage by little green men
on the 18th of June 2014.
The
following day she was shown on a video where she is handcuffed in a place
looking like a gymnasium.
On the 20th
of June a stinking bag was thrown over her head and she was transported by six
different cars. She could look out under the bag and recognize both the model
and colours of the cars. She asked her kidnappers questions, which led to her
being blindfolded.
The
president’s prosecution claims that she crossed the border without permission
and was arrested. At the same time they are charging her for being responsible
for two Russian war correspondents being killed while they were at a roadblock
with the Russian forces.
The little
soldier was transported to a prison in Moscow. Even though she served as a
soldier in the war, the president says that it – in fact – is not a real war. His soldiers are not
soldiers, and if they are, then they are suddenly on vacation with all of their
military equipment from the departments they are a part of.
In this
modern time it is possible to clarify that the little soldier’s telephone was
not at all close to the place, where the two dead journalists’ phones were.
There is no
law, not even for soldiers, which gives the president the right to kidnap
prisoners to another country.
That is the
Geneva Conventions.
“-Trials of
war captives must maintain the fundamental guidelines for fair legal
proceedings.”
She has not
received a fair trial. The defence cannot get permission to present evidence of
her innocence in the case of the responsibility of the two journalists. At a
time there were even demands of her being sent to a psychiatric hospital.
While she
is being held in her cell in Moscow she has been elected to the Ukrainian
parliament and therefore left the army.
In the
newspapers in Moscow she is described as a killing machine in a dress. In a
protest against the bad treatment she has received and the illegal restraining
she decides to go on a hunger strike.
The little
soldier holds a speech from the cell she is being held in:
‘Over the
last year I have learned to speak Russian. I do not have any hatred towards
Russians, even though that is what the prosecutions are charging me for.
I did not
kill those Russian journalists.
I have
discovered that I have many friends here in Russia. This is my first visit to
Russia and so far I have spent all of my time here in jail. I have not talked
with many Russians before. I receive your letters, and I know that you are able
to think for yourself.
You have
your own opinions. You have broad minds and you can tell right from wrong in
your head and in your hearts. You do not think of us Ukrainians as your enemies
as I do not think of you as my enemies, either.
I will
never say that Russians are bad. That does not include the lying and corrupt
investigators and judges. But you have to understand – there are no bad
nations, only bad individuals. I will not say that there individuals, whom I
despise and will never respect, are good people. But I respect, appreciate and
truly love many Russians. Thank you for your support.
I will not
move from this spot, because I believe that the convoy escorting me presents a
danger to my life.
They have
repeatedly insulted my national and personal dignity and the Ukrainian
language. And they have behaved in a vulgar manner towards me.
The convoy
and marshals also manhandled my mother, who is a 77-year-old woman. They have
used brute force against her.
I will also
like to add – I want to be friends with any Russian who will refuse to go armed
to my country, Ukraine, and kill my people.
Thank you.’
The little
soldier is still prisoned in Moscow.
She is
getting thinner and thinner because of her hunger strike.
She no
longer believes that she will leave the prison alive.
I have,
myself, seen her picture on a wall at the museum of the Great War. A picture of
her is placed in the hall together with pictures of all of the Ukrainian
soldiers, who have been killed action. Everyone surrounded by the remembrance
poppies as a symbol of peace.
She is
still alive, but how long before her name will join the board of heroes?
I carry a
poppy near my heart, little soldier. As a memory of the peace march in Kyiv the
9th of May and of her birthday two days later.
There are heroes
who sacrifice themselves
and fight for everything we hold dear
Bjarne Kim Pedersen
English: Astrid Bjerregaard
English: Astrid Bjerregaard
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