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By Ramzy Baroud
When a ugly six-minute video of Ukrainian troopers capturing and torturing handcuffed and tied up Russian troopers circulated on-line, outraged individuals on social media and elsewhere in contrast this barbaric conduct to that of Daesh.
In a uncommon admission of ethical duty, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian President, shortly reminded Ukrainian fighters of their duty underneath worldwide regulation. “I want to remind all our army, civilian and protection forces, as soon as once more, that the abuse of prisoners is a conflict crime that has no amnesty underneath army regulation and has no statute of limitations,” he mentioned, asserting that “We’re a European military”, as if the latter is synonymous with civilized conduct.
Even that supposed declare of duty conveyed refined racism, as if to counsel that non-westerners, non-Europeans, might perform such grisly and cowardly violence, however actually not the extra rational, humane and intellectually superior Europeans.
The remark, although much less apparent, reminds one of many racist remarks by CBS’ overseas correspondent, Charlie D’Agata, on February 26, when he shamelessly in contrast Center Jap cities with the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, stating that “Not like Iraq or Afghanistan, (…) this can be a comparatively civilized, comparatively European metropolis”.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has been a stage of racist feedback and conduct, some specific and apparent, others implicit and oblique. Removed from being implicit, nonetheless, Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov, didn’t mince phrases when, final February, he addressed the problem of Ukrainian refugees. Europe can profit from Ukrainian refugees, he mentioned, as a result of “these individuals are Europeans. (…) These individuals are clever, they’re educated individuals. This isn’t the refugee wave we now have been used to, individuals we weren’t certain about their identification, individuals with unclear pasts, who may have been even terrorists.”
One among many different telling episodes that spotlight western racism, but additionally continued denial of its grim actuality, was an interview performed by the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, with the Ukrainian Azov Battalion Commander, Dmytro Kuharchuck. The latter’s militia is understood for its far-right politics, outright racism and horrific acts of violence. But, the newspaper described Kuharchuck as “the form of fighter you don’t count on. He reads Kant and he doesn’t solely use his bazooka.” If this isn’t the very definition of denial, what’s?
That mentioned, our proud European pals should be cautious earlier than supplanting the phrase ‘European’ with ‘civilization’ and respect for human rights. They ought to not neglect their previous or rewrite their historical past as a result of, in spite of everything, racially-based slavery is a European and western model. The slave commerce, because of which tens of millions of slaves have been shipped from Africa through the course of 4 centuries, was very a lot European. In accordance with Encyclopedia Virginia, 1.8 million individuals “died on the Center Passage of the transatlantic slave commerce”. Different estimations put the quantity a lot larger.
Colonialism is one other European high quality. Beginning within the fifteenth century, and lasting for hundreds of years afterward, colonialism ravaged your complete World South. Not like the slave commerce, colonialism enslaved total peoples and divided entire continents, like Africa, amongst European spheres of affect.
The nation of Congo was actually owned by one individual, Belgian King Leopold II. India was successfully managed and colonized by the British East India Firm and, later, by the British authorities. The destiny of South America was largely decided by the US-imposed Monroe Doctrines of 1823. For almost 200 years, this continent has paid – and continues to pay – a particularly heavy worth of US colonialism and neocolonialism. No numbers or figures can presumably categorical the destruction and demise toll inflicted by Western-European colonialism on the remainder of the world, just because the victims are nonetheless being counted. However for the sake of illustration, in accordance with American historian, Adam Hochschild, ten million individuals have died in Congo alone from 1885 to 1908.
And the way can we neglect that World Struggle I and II are additionally totally European, abandoning round 40 million and 75 million lifeless, respectively. (Different estimations are considerably larger). The gruesomeness of those European wars can solely be in comparison with the atrocities dedicated, additionally by Europeans, all through the South, for a whole lot of years prior.
Mere months after The North Atlantic Treaty Group (NATO) was shaped in 1949, the keen western companions have been fast to flex their muscle tissues in Korea in 1950, instigating a conflict that lasted for 3 years, ensuing within the demise of almost 5 million individuals. The Korean conflict, like many different NATO-instigated conflicts, stays an unhealed wound to this present day.
The record goes on and on, from the disgraceful Opium Wars on China, beginning in 1839, to the nuclear bombings of Japan in 1945, to the destruction of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, in 1954, 1959 and 1970 respectively, to the political meddling, army interventions and regime change in quite a few nations world wide. They’re all of the work of the West, of the US and its ever-willing ‘European companions’, all finished within the title of spreading democracy, freedom and human rights.
If it weren’t for the Europeans, Palestine would have gained its independence many years in the past, and its individuals, this author included, would haven’t been made refugees, struggling underneath the yoke of Zionist Israel. If it weren’t for the US and the Europeans, Iraq would have remained a sovereign nation and tens of millions of lives would have been spared in one of many world’s oldest civilizations; and Afghanistan would haven’t endured this untold hardship. Even when the US and its European pals lastly relented and left Afghanistan final yr, they proceed to carry the nation hostage, by blocking the discharge of its funds, resulting in precise hunger among the many individuals of that war-torn nation.
So earlier than bragging concerning the virtues of Europe, and the demeaning of everybody else, the likes of Arestovych, D’Agata, and Petkov ought to check out themselves within the mirror and rethink their unsubstantiated ethnocentric view of the world and of historical past. In truth, if anybody deserves bragging rights it’s these colonized nations that resisted colonialism, the slaves that fought for his or her freedom, and the oppressed nations that resisted their European oppressors, regardless of the ache and struggling that such struggles entailed.
Sadly, for Europe, nonetheless, as a substitute of utilizing the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a chance to replicate on the way forward for the European venture, no matter that’s, it’s getting used as a chance to attain low-cost factors towards the very victims of Europe all over the place. As soon as extra, precious classes stay unlearned.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He’s the creator of six books. His newest ebook, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Imaginative and prescient for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Converse out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Analysis Fellow on the Heart for Islam and World Affairs (CIGA). His web site is www.ramzybaroud.internet
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