Halya Coynash
It is hard to find the words to express the sense of
betrayal. Are the deaths on Maidan, the persecution, and courage to have no
meaning because of a pseudo referendum with questionable motives, arguments
taken straight out of the propaganda Russia used to justify its aggression
against Ukraine and highly dubious funding?
The Dutch government has promised to respect the
result of the referendum on whether to ratify the EU-Ukraine Association
Agreement. As of Wednesday evening, it appears that around 32% voted, of
whom 64% said ‘no’ to ratification. At least 68% of the population did
not take part at all, and even the organizers have recently admitted that
Ukraine was simply a pretext to deal a blow to the EU which they want the
Netherlands to leave.
A victory for democracy?
A victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin,
certainly, and a foretaste of what is to come since the Kremlin has scarcely
concealed its support for political parties and movements seeking to destroy
the EU.
It was Putin who in November 2013 bought the agreement
of Ukraine’s then President Viktor Yankovych to renege on his election
commitment to go ahead with the Association Agreement. Yanukovych came
back to Kyiv with a publicly announced amount of money and doubtless guarantees
of assistance in ensuring that Yanukovych ‘won’ the next presidential
elections.
With Prime Minister Mark Rutte stating that this
allegedly democratic result means that they cannot ratify the Agreement, it is
Putin who has won.
Together with the far-right and other euro-sceptic
parties in Holland who are tonight celebrating their victory.
A terrible betrayal
It is hard to find the words to express the sense of
betrayal. In November 2013, Ukrainians responded to the country’s leaders
treachery by coming out in peaceful protest.
Worth recalling the reasons given by the Ukrainian
Catholic University, one of a number of universities who actively supported
their students.
Its statement said that the future of all 46 million
Ukrainians was at stake but especially that of young people who were being
deprived of a proper future within a Europe where there is rule of law, respect
for human dignity and human rights.
It was after young students on Maidan were savagely
attacked by Berkut riot police on Nov 30 that hundreds of thousands of
Ukrainians began in one way or another supporting that affirmation of Ukraine’s
European future.
Day after day we reported arrests, detentions,
abductions and beatings. Later killings.
There were also the terrible yet moving occasions like
the night into Dec 11 as Berkut was getting ready to storm the totally peaceful
protest continuing in sub-zero conditions. Throughout social networks,
and via the bells of St Michael’s Monastery Kyiv residents were enjoined to
come and defend Maidan. By morning, thousands had arrived and the regime
backed off.
And the days of horror, when unarmed activists were
gunned down.
Over 100 people lost their lives.
Are those deaths, the persecution, and the individual
acts of courage needed for each person to come out onto Maidan to have no
meaning because of a pseudo referendum with questionable motives and highly dubious funding?
According to strategic
analyst Sibren de Jong,
GeenPeil, one of the main organisers of the referendum claimed in a campaign
flyer that “Ukraine is a country suffering from a civil war where fascist
militias roam the streets”.
The author rightly notes that this narrative is that
to be found on the Kremlin-funded RT, Sputnik News and all pro-Kremlin Russian
media.
It was the narrative that Putin used to try to justify
Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea and its military aggression in
Donbas. It was that military aggression that led to the downing of MH17
with the loss of 298 lives, with many of the victims from Holland.
They were lies used to justify killing and
destruction. They have now been used, it would seem, to make a mockery of
all that suffering.
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