Paul
Goble
Staunton, February 6 – In their rush
to end the fighting in southeastern Ukraine, Western governments are in danger
of creating a far larger and long-lasting problem for the region and themselves
in the future, according to Bacho Korchilava, because if the West legitimates a
role for Russia in the Donbas, Moscow will be able to destabilize Ukraine for
decades ahead.
In a comment on NV.ua, Korchilava, who served as press attache at
the Georgian embassy in Kyiv, says that “if Russian peacekeepers appear in the
Donbas, Russia will obtain a powerful level on Ukraine;” and Georgia’s
experience shows that Moscow will use it to destabilize the situation well into
the future (nv.ua/opinion/korchilava/kak-rf-zakonserviruet-konflikt-v-donbasse-na-desyatiletiya--32682.html).
The Georgian diplomat offers his
comments on this point, he says, because ever more people are talking about
some kind of joint peace-keeping force in southeastern Ukraine and because
these same people appear to have forgotten how Moscow exploited exactly the
same method against his own country.
If Russian
forces are involved in some kind of peace-keeping operation in Ukraine, that
will create a situation in which Russia “will be able to use it as a powerful
lever” on Kyiv, blocking its development and its integration into Western
organizations like the European Union and NATO. Neither will take in a country
with such “problems.”
“Why am I so
certain?” Korchilava asks rhetorically. “Because that is what has already
happened with us in Georgia. In fact, it has happened twice, first in South
Osetia and a second time in Abkhazia.”
In the case of
South Osetia, these forces were organized by the OSCE and in that of Abkhazia,
by the United Nations. And the peacekeeping
contingents were composed differently. But because the Russians were involved
in both, the result, the Georgian diplomat says, was the same – and disastrous
for Georgia.
In South
Osetia, there was a mixed force consisting of four battalions, one from the
Russian Federation, one from North Osetia, one from anti-Tbilisi forces in
South Osetia, and one from Georgia. “Why such a strange formula was adopted no
one can explain to this day,” Korchilava says.
But Russian
officers were in command, and consequently, “with three votes against one, the
command of the Georgian battalion never could influence the decisions and
actions of this continent. Everyone
knows the result.”
In Abkhazia,
the continent was called “the Collective Forces for the Support of Peace of the
Commonwealth of Independent States,” but despite its name, Russia decided who
was in it and who was not. And despite seven years of effort, Tbilisi was never
able to get Ukrainian troops to replace Russian ones there. Once again, “everyone knows the result.”
The same thing
will happen in the Donbas “if Russian peacekeepers appear there. They will
simply fix the border between the Donbas and Luhansk and all the rest of
Ukraine.” They will promote the flow of contraband and narcotics and allow for “trans-border
crime. “Just as it was with us” Georgians.
Such Russian
peacekeepers will “constantly” promote local clashes “in order to keep Ukraine
in tense situation and not allow it to develop. More than that, they will
become a guarantee of the existence of these two gray zones, the DNR and the
LNR, guarantees of the existence of two illegal quasi-formations.”
“And they will
also guarantee that Ukraine will not be able to conduct an operation to restore
the constitutional order” as well.
As a general
rule, Korchilava says, “Russian peacekeepers are unacceptable regardless of how
they are dressed up.” And consequently, if the international community decides
that peacekeepers are necessary, it is absolutely necessary that it insist that
they consist of anyone except the Russians.
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