Guyana’s abstention does not amount to support for Russia

Apr 11, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – America is winning the war in Ukraine. Though it is not a combatant in the physical hostilities, the USA has waged a relentless propaganda blitz against Russia.
America has only political interests in Ukraine. Its long-held objective was to encircle Russia militarily and surround it with states which are part of the European Union and NATO.
As Russia massed its troops on the Ukraine border before the invasion was launched, America made it clear that it would not intervene in any invasion. It has no economic interests in Ukraine but it has long wanted to endanger the security of Russia in order to put the final nail in the coffin of the Cold War. America’s only interest in Ukraine is political.
The American media has long been an instrument of the US foreign policy objectives. Behind the façade of objectivity, the US media has long been a handmaiden of objectives the US military industrial complex, as War in Iraq proved when the US media pushed the line about that country having weapons of mass destruction.
In the case of Ukraine, the US media has been in the forefront of a propaganda assault. Its objectives were primarily four-fold: first to paint Putin as a despot on a mission to make Russia great again; second to create in the public minds that Russian forces were deliberately targeting civilians and were engaged in genocide and other crimes against humanity; third to isolate Russian diplomatically and economically; and fourth to use the conflict to increase western arms sales to Ukraine and other Eastern Europe states which are already in NATO’s orbit.
Putin has been demonised in the western media. The image of Putin as a maniac obscures Russia’s security interests. Most of the media attention has been around berating Russia for the violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty – an undeniable fact. But little attention has been paid to the 30-year campaign waged by the US, NATO and the EU to encircle Russia and thus threaten its National Security. As one Caribbean diplomat has said, while respect for international law implies that we should abhor the use of force of threats, Russia also has a right to defend itself particularly against being encircled and corralled by western-aligned states.
From day one of the invasion, the America’s media went to work in painting the Russian military as targeting innocent civilians. Western media coverage has emphasised the effects of the invasion on the humanitarian and refugee crises in Ukraine and Poland, and in highlighting what it deemed as both indiscriminate and deliberate shelling of civilian areas.
The US does not have clean hands when it comes to crimes against humanity. The US and its allies remain silent about innocent deaths during its missions in Afghanistan, Iraq Libya, Syria and Yugoslavia. The western press is not telling the world that more bombs and missiles were fired, during the first night of the shock and awe attack on Iraq, than that which Russia fired during the first three weeks of its invasion of Ukraine.
Now deposed Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, argued that the US War on Terror actually bred terrorism and led to the loss of more than 80,000 lives. He called for the US to review its drone policy because these drone attacks were not quite as accurate as what the US government was telling its citizens. He related that bombs were exploding in villages resulting in tremendous collateral damage which was unknown to US public.
The US media, acting in concert with US national objectives was interested in making a case of crimes against humanity and genocide so as to open some backdoor to a NATO pre-emptive response in the interest of saving and protecting civilians.
It is also intended to isolate Russia and justify sanctions which are aimed at not only punishing Russia but also of effectively destroying its economy.
Despite all its claims about crimes against humanity, America has refused to send troops to defend Ukraine. But it is using the crisis to increase arms supplies to Ukraine and to its allies in the Region.
America is the world’s largest arms exporter in the world. The United States is a major armament supplier to the Saudis which are leading a coalition that is waging genocide in Yemen.
The US scored a major victory this past week when the UN General Assembly expelled Russia from its Human Rights Council. This was a flawed vote because the UN has not yet launched an investigation to establish the veracity of the claims that civilians were executed by retreating Russian forces in Bucha, a Ukrainian town.
The vote this week set a bad precedent because it was not taken before any independent or UN-led investigation to establish guilt or to afford Russia due process. Russia was tried and lynched without an independent UN investigation or without affording Russia a hearing
The Government of Guyana and those CARICOM states which abstained from the vote did so, rightly on principle. You cannot convict without due process. And the UN has yet to establish the alleged atrocities which took place or were committed by Russia.
The government of Guyana therefore abstained in relation to the vote for the expulsion of Russia from the UN Human Rights Council. As President Irfaan Ali said, Guyana’s position is that it is opposed to the use of force and threats but it believes in due process.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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