From India Today an interview with a Donetsk spokesman:
EB: If the goals adopted by the President of the Russian Federation [Vladimir Putin] are not implemented, that of demilitarisation and denazification, the situation will be similar to that of India and Pakistan and India and China.
This question should be solved right now. (On a lighter note) If even 5% of your (Indian) population comes to help us, we will win and this will be over.
There is an attempt by Western forces in Ukraine to destroy the Russian Federation. They will not stop at that. India will be next because it has similar problems — territorial, language, faiths, etc.
I am not asking India to blindly follow and help us. You can help in many ways. The neutral stance at the UN Security Council is helpful as well.
IT: There are accusations of war crimes by the Donetsk and Russian forces against civilians. What is your response?
EB: War crimes started in 2014. Everyone has heard about it. I am not just talking of the summer of 2014 when whole cities were shelled by Ukraine. Nobody from Ukraine called that a war crime — not the UN, not human rights, not even other international organisations or foreign journalists.
Suddenly in 2022, war crimes against civilians are making headlines.
Let’s go back to Indian history. Was anybody from the British Army charged for war crimes committed in India? Someone accused Japan of massacring 2,00,000 people. But nobody recalls that. They need pictures only to accuse Russia.
IT: We still need a direct answer on the accusations of war crimes committed by your forces and the Russian forces.
EB: I decline to respond. Why should I prove my innocence to someone when it is true. I am scared there will be more bloodshed in the future. There are accusations of using chemical and biological weapons. Should we keep explaining ourselves? It is simpler to go there and expose the lies.
We will go in and bring foreign journalists to show them the truth. We should respect ourselves.
IT: India has taken a neutral stand by abstaining from voting at the UN Security Council but has also added in its statement the need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations.
EB: Why do they think that the Russian Federation attacked and invaded Ukraine? I live here in this territory (Donetsk, Donbas) and everything happened in front of my eyes. The Ukrainian Army came here and started to kill my people. It is our war.
The situation was forcibly brought to the head and then they started saying that Russia is an invader and is only here to capture.
We don’t want to let go of our faith, language, our lifestyle and our history. It is not about Russian aggression. It was what the foreign media portrayed to destroy Russia.”
In recent days there has been considerable pressure applied against India to take a stronger stance in favor of US/NATO. The US has even warned of severe consequences if India continues to remain neutral. The Donetsk spokesman’s interview is welcome, especially in India Today, for providing an opposing view.
For myself, I do not understand how so-called international bodies are said to be rules-based when their every action involves arm-twisting and bending and breaking rules for their own side or using them to hit the other side over the head. What is to be gained by trying to stay cozy with such an order? Nothing. One doesn’t talk to Nazis, as the Russians have said.
On the Saker blog, I mentioned the comprador elites in India, who would prefer to side with the West, as that is where they themselves go to study, to shop, and to invest.
I see that the Saker himself has mentioned them today.
But I want to make a further point. Can’t the criticism about the comprador class also apply to people in the West?
Indeed, doesn’t it apply to bloggers and activists themselves, who are so zealous to self-censor and comply with every unjust and self-interested speech code, simply to gain visibility or networks or access to sell their products and books?
Is this not equally reprehensible? You would sell out the truth and those who are telling the truth so easily, yet you wish large countries with the responsibility to take care of millions, if not billions, of people living close to the edge, to throw away their ability to feed themselves? But you yourself do not abandon thinking of your mouths and bellies first of all.
An aside:
My great grand uncle fought in World War II. He was taken POW by the Japanese and managed to escape. Then he made the long walk back through Burma into India. Along the way he was forced to eat snakes and insects to survive. As a child, I heard from my mother, his grand-niece, tales about Japanese torture. About skulls piled up in the prison camps. The Japanese ate many Indian soldiers.
The Indian contribution to both World Wars has also been erased.
In this post, however, it is the erasure of history and memory, not simply by states or elites, but by ourselves, voluntarily, that concerns me. So-called activists, self-styled truth-tellers, are so quick to condemn the state and the elites for what they do, when they do it everyday, all day long, themselves.