Witnessing the unfolding of Russian-Ukrainian conflict is particularly difficult for me. The constant stream of images forces me back to the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990’s. Some old scars inevitably get ripped up in the process. I must actively avoid news and social media contaminating my peace of mind. I can stand against it for some time, but the constant grinding, like marketing, counts on my psyche’s moments of weakness, i.e. me putting my guard down and giving into the product the corporations’ witch doctors planted in my brain. I (and Santa Claus) end up having a Coke and a smile. I shut the f* up and get sucked down the rabbit hole of my mind. This is the struggle that unfolds there…
Back in 1999 it was NATO that was responsible for the delivery of missiles and air attacks, for training and providing air and land support to the Albanian separatists, for being the aggressor acting without the mandate of the UN Security Council and blatantly disregarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a UN-recognised country, carving out a piece of its territory and most of its member states declaring a piece of Serbian territory, Kosovo, independent.
Fast-forward to 2022. The combined message of the news anchors, politicians, correspondents and various experts goes along these lines: “Russia is responsible for the delivery of missiles and air attacks, for training and providing air and land support to the Russian separatists, for being the aggressor acting without the mandate of the UN Security Council and blatantly disregarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a UN-recognised country, carving out a piece of Ukrainian territory, Donets and Lugansk, and declaring them independent.”
Then a magical thing happens in a Western mind – these two situations bear no similarity whatsoever. Countless are the times I had an argument of this sort that would eventually lead to a particularly ballsy and/or rude interlocutor into the punchline: “The Serbs deserved to be bombed since they terrorised the Albanians. But don’t take it personally.”
Well, f* you too, and don’t take it personally. Tell that now to a 16-year-old Volodymyr sitting with his mom and baby sister in a shelter in Charkiv, hoping that the boasting Russian generals are right when they ascertain they don’t target civilians and that they have “very precise laser guided missiles that can hit a coin on the ground from 10 km up in the air”, and that they target the military and military installations only. Now switch “Volodymyr” with me and “Russian” with NATO. Still nothing? The big bad Serbs had it coming, right?
Questioning whether the Ukrainians “deserved” the Russian onslaught for “terrorising” the Russians in the eastern part of their country since 2014, as Putin put it, would be a completely asshole thing to do. But that doesn’t stop some people from drawing “they had it coming” argument towards the Serbs. The work of magic.
When some people argued back in 1999 that the way of dealing with Kosovo was a violation of international law that would open a Pandoras box of separatist movements and proclamations of independence, that would come back to hunt the world, those who defended NATO’s intervention said that the case of Kosovo is unique case, or in legal terms – a “sui generis”. I guess the separatist movements are cemented in Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Catalonia and elsewhere. But separatist movements alone don’t add up to the equation. Something more is needed, and that is an active support of an external power. Just imagine what would happen if there was a strong external power backing up the Catalonian bid for independence from Spain couple of years ago? We’d all probably learn Spanish for Pandora’s box.
I’ve spent many years as a student of political science and international relations. For all those years I read countless books and articles justifying NATO intervention in Serbia. Rare are the ones who have tried to leave their biases behind, to problematise and bring about balanced account of what has happened and why it happened. Now I see the same situation unfolding. I guess it is just easier for the great majority not to enter the rabbit hole in the first place.
As a person coming from a country that went through a situation that bears many similarities with what’s currently happening in Ukraine, I cannot side with anybody else than Ukraine. I cannot support what Russia is doing to Ukraine now. In the same manner as I cannot support what NATO did to Serbia then. I don’t get Russians supporting Russia’s actions now. In the same manner as I don’t get the Westerners that support NATO’s actions then. And, ultimately, I am completely lost when some Serbs are supporting what Russia is doing to Ukraine currently. It takes a particular kind of hypocrite to support Russia’s action in Ukraine as a Serb, regardless of the imagined “ties” with Russia that many in Serbia feel. If anybody could claim they had even stronger “ties” to Russia, it’s Ukraine!
Meanwhile in Sweden, the Swedish PM Magdalena Andersson, the Minister for Integration Anders Ygeman and others are saying: “This is the worst thing that has happened in Europe since the World War 2” (!). That is THE moment when I lose my mind. Saying ahistorical bull’s hit like that is just being actively ignorant and is insulting to all the victims of the conflict in the Balkans in the 1990’s and those 200 000 plus well-integrated ex-Yugoslavs working, paying their taxes, and contributing to the development of the Swedish society.
The sound of sirens every first Monday a month in Sweden is just a drill, but it still gets me by surprise. On Monday, 7 March, my thoughts will go to all those civilians sitting in the shelters, trying to get by and survive this fratricidal madness with a potential of blowing up into a full-blown nuclear war. I am wishing them strength, courage, resilience and power to forgive and let go once it is over.
*** Out of the Rabbit Hole ***
Borders are human invented invisible lines on the ground upheld by the idea of nationalism. Nationalism hasn’t existed forever, it’s only 200+ years old. And like other isms it has brought about a lot of bad stuff as well. Hopefully, something new and improved will arrive in its places bringing more good than evil to humanity. Maybe that something goes along the line of greater integration and interdependence, free travelling, exchange of ideas… We cannot afford the opposite as it spells disintegration, self-sufficiency, no travelling, no exchange of ideas… That is not the world I want for me, my close ones, the humanity.
Daily WoW (Words of Wisdom) arrives from Kenya.