Statkevich on Zolotova and Kolesnikova's appeal: It devalues suffering and sacrifices, it's an ideology of opportunism

"A group of former political prisoners appealed to the free countries of Europe with a passionate call to take a more active part in the trade of Belarusian political prisoners as buyers," writes Mikalai Statkevich.

— The topic is almost a win-win, because who is against the release of innocent people? Such calls will be positively received not only by the political prisoners themselves and their relatives, which is perfectly understandable.

They will also be positively received by the regime, which keeps political prisoners in detention and constantly replenishes their ranks, making participation in the appeal, at the very least, safe.

The regime's attitude is also clear: the more buyers, the greater the profit for the seller. And there are no problems with replenishing the "goods" stock.

The proponents of revitalizing the political prisoner market themselves, besides the media effect, are trying to attract the attention of the political elites of asylum countries, which is also significant for refugees.

Such proposals have been made and will continue to be made precisely for the reasons listed here. Therefore, I don't even want to discuss them here. But their justification deserves attention.

For example, "There is nothing more valuable than human life." Here, the initiators of the appeal replaced one word. Instead of "human," it would be more honest to write "my."

Such a substitution is not obvious in free, developed countries, where one can live a life and never encounter a situation where one has to choose between one's own life and the lives of other people.

In the history of all surviving nations, such a choice has arisen many times, and in many other countries around the world, it may arise even now. What would those who wrote in the appeal about the undisputed priority of human survival choose? The answer is obvious to me.

Although the authors of the appeal ignore the importance of ideologies — that is, ideals, values, or convictions — they are actually promoting the oldest and most widespread ideology: the ideology of survival and adaptation at any cost. Adherents of such an ideology form the backbone of every repressive regime, because for their own well-being and self-preservation, they are ready to violate any norms of human morality. Or simply to submissively ignore such violations.

The authors of the appeal also claim that "no political goal is worth people's health and life." In doing so, they obviously mean the political goals of people's freedom and countries' independence.

I am convinced that the dissemination of this thesis is one of the main tasks of the true authors of the appeal, which does not absolve the others who joined due to "humanitarian goals" and "respected" company.

To devalue the suffering and sacrifices of fighters for the freedom of Belarus, the freedom and independence of Ukraine, the freedom of all oppressed countries of the world throughout all times, to discredit these values, to reduce the number of their supporters – this is the true goal of the true authors of the appeal, which offends me personally, as well as a large number of very worthy people. Both living and dead.

Conscious or unconscious executors of this special operation do not even bother with the fact that they live at the expense and under the protection of the peoples of free and wealthy countries, who became such thanks to the struggle for freedom by their national heroes.

By discrediting all "political goals" in general, you do not bypass those ideals and values that gave the countries that accepted you the motives to do so. Because you were considered followers of their own revered heroes.

One can still somehow explain why you expect to desecrate the graves of fighters for the freedom of your country, the graves of those who died for the independence of Ukraine, with impunity.

But if you do the same towards the fighters for the freedom of the countries that gave you refuge, then are you not ashamed, or rather, not afraid? Or perhaps your ideology is precisely what pushes you to do this?

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