Recent protests and the resultant bloodshed in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, is yet another example of the war played by international players on other soils where hundreds and thousands of people are bathed in their own blood and the nation is thrown many decades backward. Protests, that broke out in November of last year, witnessed its most violent day on last Thursday when more than hundred protestors were killed or wounded and international media showed the police using live ammunition on the protestors while snipers were also deployed who targeted the protestors. However, the ouster of president Yanukovych brought a hope that it will be resolved permanently but crowd is still present on the Maidan Square in Kiev and problem is yet to be resolved.
It all started in November when government abandoned the EU association agreement which prompted major protest in Kiev, the capital city of country. Protestors accused Russian-backed president Yanukovych of trying to bring the country back under the rule of Russia. It must be made clear here that country is divided into two clear and major ethnic groups; the Kiev area and Western Ukraine are included of Ukrainian speaking population while the Russian-speaking east and south of the country have more affinity with Russia. However, majority of the population is in favor of association with European Union as they see more prosperity and freedom in the countries that are associated with this wealthiest bloc of the world. When government announced the abandonment of association with EU, protests started in Kiev. These protests were fueled when police launched a brutal raid on student protestors and the TV images of this raid spurred the protests and helped it grow gradually in the months to follow. In the beginning, the protests were totally peaceful and no one had expected to worsen to this level but now it may be difficult for both the sides to resolve it easily.
On 17 December, Russian president Vladimir Putin offered an economic lifeline to Ukraine, more like a compensation for the decision of not joining EU and remaining closely associated with Russia. This economic compensation included of $15bn loans and cheaper gas supplies but this announcement only added to the fury of protestors who saw this as the act of Russia to buy the freedom and sovereignty of their country. The economic aid accompanied conditions to strictly deal with the protesters and bring an end to the situation but strict actions by the government only exacerbated the situation. Anti-protest laws passed by the Ukrainian parliament last month were called ‘Draconian’ and most of the laws were later on repealed. Clashes kept increasing and on January 22nd, first deaths were witnessed when two people died from gunshot wounds after clashes with police while body of an activist was found in a forest days after his abduction. In response to these, protests became more violent and protestors seized a number of government buildings in different Ukrainian cities like Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and other western cities while protests also spread to the eastern parts of the country. At the end of January, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his government resigned while President Yanukovych refused to accept the demand of protestors to resign and announce the date for general elections.
Conditions seemed to be getting better when talks were held between government and opposition parties leading the protests and a deal was signed according to which protesters would vacate the occupied buildings while government promised to drop the charges against the arrested protesters and making necessary constitutional changes to decrease the powers and authority of country’s president and holding the general elections by the end of the year. However, Parliament speaker rejected debates on changing constitution while the president made similar announcement which resulted in the violent clashes between protesters and police. On Thursday, independence square and nearby streets of Kiev became a battlefield that left at least 77 people dead and hundreds more wounded.
Though an interim cabinet has been formed that will ensure hold general elections in May but unrest still prevails in Ukraine, and the situation in the country leaves behind many questions unanswered. These questions are related to the internal politics, corruption and violation of basic freedom and public rights while some are related about the role of international powers to bring a specific country under their strong influence. No doubt, Ukrainians are not happy of the democratic setup that they adopted after their freedom from USSR because corrupt politicians never let the true benefits of democracy reach to the public. Country has since then ruled by a group of oligarchs who did their best to keep limited the benefits of democracy to their selves and family members and it was the reason that, people were happy to be associated with EU that could have ensured better conditions. On the other hand, there are also present a number of other factors that point to the brutal and unnecessary intervention of international powers in the issues of a country. There are reports that majority of the protesters were common public but there were also present some elements that used shell bombs, and fired on police and gave these peaceful protests a very deadly shape. The government has called them ‘the internationally-funded terrorists’ who mixed with the protesters and helped give it the present shape. It is true that these protests have the public support but there are definitely present some elements that can be called the agents of external hands that are responsible for taking it to the present and dangerous situation. This intervention of international powers to make the things appear according to their objectives and benefits is one of the shameful acts of international powers and similar game has been played in so many other countries of the world as well where public opinion was changed by some artificial agents seemingly appearing to be the supporters of public. Its latest example was in Egypt when the protests against the elected president of the country, Muhammad Morsi, got so worse that even the Egyptians themselves were not expecting it and all these gave a reason for military powers to intervene and oust the elected government of president Morsi.
While the announcement of economic aid by the Russian government came in a time which cannot be termed as reasonable and indiscriminate. It was like an attempt to make the people change their decisions and in a way, change their thinking approaches. Many experts believe that conditions in Ukraine got worse when EU and USA on one side and Russia on the other, made it a battleground for their own aims and objectives. This clash of objectives has now became clear when other day president Obama clearly criticized the role of Russian president Putin in the unrest in Ukraine while similar comments were made from Russia in reply.
Although developed countries of the world always propagate about the rule of law and importance of human rights but when it comes to their own objectives, they keep all these standards on a side and employ all those means that best suit their objectives without any consideration of right or wrong or ethical or unethical. It is also a fact that international powers, mostly lead by the United States, intervened in a number of countries of the world on the name of freedom, public rights and equality but their policies were backed by dishonest intentions so their results came out to be very frightening. The experiments of international intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Egypt and many others only resulted in loss of millions of lives, instability in the region and the world and economic problems in the United States and its allied nations and no positive gain has been noticed in all of these nations.
Every nation has the right to decide upon its good and bad factors and it is not the duty of international powers to dictate other nations as what is good or bad. The freedom of every nation must be respected and no kind of intervention in the internal issues of a nation should be tolerated. The only form of intervention can be tolerated and that can be for promoting education, health and other basic facilities of a nation. A world with such an approach can be termed as more safe and stable that would be free of any kind of fear and violence.