Brussels Weaponises Migration Against Belarus

Above: Refugees deal with barbed wire fences, with Polish security forces on the other side. http://www.dailypostla.com

28-11-2021: The once famed humanitarianism of Europe towards those seeking safe sanctuary appears to have vanished into thin air. In the last two months, thousands of refugees predominantly from Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan have attempted to reach Germany through Belarus and Poland. The Polish security forces, however, have repelled them at the Poland/Belarus border. So far, eight refugees have perished[1], many of them going without food and water for days on end. Even the EU (European Union – headquartered in Brussels) Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, has bemoaned the fact that families, including children and elderly relatives, have spent weeks and sometimes months in freezing cold and wet conditions.[2] Many are suffering from frostbite, exposure, exhaustion and extreme stress. Word has been spread amongst them that Germany will offer them safe haven, and a chance to start a new life – away from the war and devastation blighting their homelands. Risking all for their families, one can understand the frustration at being repelled by Polish security forces, who hardly care if the refugees breathe their last breath in the surrounding forests.

Crisis manufactured by EU/NATO/US

The blame for this crisis lies squarely at the feet of EU/NATO/US imperialism. In the first place, NATO and the EU are the marauding behemoths who have waged pitiless wars of regime change over the last two decades, creating the very refugees now attempting to flee for their lives to Europe. Washington and its Brussels sidekick devastated Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya. In Yemen they wholly backed the Saudi Arabian monarchy which ruthlessly waged war on the Ansar Allah resistance in Yemen, as a spin-off from being effectively defeated in Syria. Even though Syria, with the assistance of Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, was able to survive, untold human suffering and physical damage to the country was widespread. Iraq was all but levelled, and almost 20 years later it has not recovered. Afghanistan is only beginning to regain its sovereignty after 20 years of occupation by the Pentagon and associated mercenaries. In fact, despite “withdrawals”, some US troops remain in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria – despite bitter objections to their presence.

The imperialists left a trail of death and destruction in the Middle East and North Africa, yet now they have the nerve to point accusing fingers towards Belarus and its President Alexander Lukashenko, and even Russia and its President Vladimir Putin for the crisis on the Poland/Belarus border. The Polish government is pushing the migrants back into Belarus, saying it is protecting the border for all of Europe. For this, it has received strong declarations of support from the EU, NATO and the US government.[3] The Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki declared to an emergency session of the Polish parliament that Lukashenko is conducting the “attack”, but the mastermind is President Putin.[4] This is about as believable as the claim that Russia “hacked” the US presidential elections in 2016.Poland, no doubt with instructions from Brussels, deployed 10 000 troops[5] to the border with Belarus in early November. Needless to say, these are manoeuvres of war, and have nothing to do with protecting borders from refugees and asylum seekers. Poland’s other security forces had already been using water cannon against refugees hurling rocks in protest against being forced backwards.[6] Not only that, Polish security forces have fired tear gas grenades. President Putin admonished Poland, reminding them that children are among the crowds.[7] Putin also reaffirmed that the crisis is the result of the actions of the Western and European nations for waging wars throughout the Middle East and Afghanistan, and also stated that “Belarus does not have anything to do with it”.[8] President Lukashenko, on his part, has stated that Belarus will not stop migrants at the border, because Belarusian troops are aware that the refugees are heading to Germany. He commented, “We are Slavs, we have hearts….they are not coming to my country, they are going to yours.” [9]

Regime change redux

The current weaponisation of the refugee crisis at the Belarusian/Polish border by the EU and NATO is nothing less than a second attempt at regime change. Belarus never fully dismantled the structures and positions inherited from its time as an integral republic of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). This, along with its ongoing fraternal relations with modern day Russia, infuriates Washington and Brussels. However, the abject refusal of President Lukashenko to play along with the ruse of Covid-19 was the final trigger for imperialism to dramatically ramp up its internal subversion of Belarus. Correctly, Belarus never locked down, shut down its economy, or imposed anti-working class political repression in the supposed name of a virus. While there were some “safety” measures taken, Belarus made a huge contribution to the exposure of Covid as a fraud perpetrated by imperialism.[10]

This, combined with the fact that Belarus effectively serves as a buffer state defending Russia from NATO provocations, was the reason for the attempt at an ultra-reactionary “colour revolution” during 2020.[11] Making false claims of electoral rigging in the Belarusian Presidential elections, the West mobilised thousands of anti-socialist elements which had been procured by decades of funding for subversive “NGOs”. For example, the US state department funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an arm of the CIA, spent at least 24 million dollars[12] in Belarus during the year 2000. This subversive interference linked with “dissident” groups who attempted to dispute the results of the Belarusian elections. This is despite Belarus’ Central Election Commission reporting that with an 83.24 % turnout, Alexander Lukashenko won 80.23% of the vote in the early August 2020 election. Opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya won just 9.9%.[13] While there are Belarusians who do not support Lukashenko, the overwhelming majority of the mobilised opposition to Lukashenko do not hesitate to align with any political ideology to achieve their aims – including Nazism.

This is no exaggeration. The white-red-white flag that the opposition flew during the blatant coup attempt after the elections last year is NOT a symbol of noble resistance to tyranny. It is in fact the flag of the Byelorussian Central Council, which briefly operated in Belarus from 1943 to 1944.[14] It was the body which openly worked with the original Nazis at the period of their ill-fated war for fascism. Many are no doubt fooled by this theatre, but it is no coincidence that Washington would encourage such symbolism. Earlier this year, the West condemned Belarus for grounding a plane to detain a Belarusian “democracy activist” – who turned out to be a US state department funded Nazi collaborator. Roman Protasevich had his media career launched by the absurdly named Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and even served with the Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion in Ukraine.[15] The US government orchestrated coup in Ukraine in 2014 did not shy away from allying with violently anti-socialist and anti-Russian armed nationalists prepared to assault or kill real or suspected opponents.

Protasevich literally took money from the US state department in order to help overthrow his own country in cahoots with Neo-Nazis in Ukraine. Despite the Belarusian government taking the eminently sensible action of detaining a Nazi allied and Washington funded “journalist” bent on regime change, the EU in response applied severe sanctions on 166 persons and 15 entities in Belarus.[16] Recently, the EU has imposed even more sanctions on Belarus in response to the migrant crisis – which they have arranged! In an act of stunning hypocrisy, in early November the EU applied additional sanctions on Belarus “for the instrumentalization of migrants for political purposes”.[17] In reality, it is Brussels (via the Polish government), which is inflicting intolerable suffering on migrants seeking safety and the possibility of a better life in Europe. It is the EU which is weaponising migration – not Belarus.

Hands Off Belarus!

A NATO/EU led war on Belarus would obviously be catastrophic and is primarily aimed at destabilising Russia. Working people internationally have a vital interest in defending both Belarus and Russia against Washington and Brussels, the drivers of NATO led terror. Belarus and President Lukashenko are, in addition, allies of workers and the oppressed taking to the streets in their millions against tyrannical Covid restrictions such as lockdowns, facemasks, vaccine mandates and vaccine passports. At the same time, real political leadership is required for the vital struggles against the many and varied forms of imperialism – the funding of regime change “opposition” groups, the removal of liberal democracy in the West under the pretense of a “health emergency”, the abuse of humanitarian sentiment for the well-being of refugees and asylum seekers, and relentless war provocations. This requires the building of internationally linked Leninist vanguard parties, animated by Permanent Revolution, which can once again light the path towards socialism across the globe.

WORKERS LEAGUE

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@redfireonline.com

[1] https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1509965/eu-news-migration-summit-belarus-border-Poland-Lithuania-Latvia-lukashenko (24-11-2021)

[2] https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-11-20/Poland-Belarus-border-alarming-situation-EU-human-rights-official-15kUmtxV6Mw/index.html (24-11-2021)

[3] https://apnews.com/article/europe-poland-germany-migration-belarus (24-11-2021)

[4] https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-mastermind-is-president-putin-lithuania-poland-protect-borders-from-thousands-of-migrants (24-11-2021)

[5] https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/belarus-denounces-polands-deployment-of-soldiers-to-border (24-11-2021)

[6] https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2021/11/poland-turns-water-cannon-on-rock-throwing-migrants-at-belarus-border.html (24-11-2021)

[7] https://tass.com/world/1363499 (24-11-2021)

[8] https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/west-has-created-migrant-crisis-on-belarus-poland-border-putin-3584120 (24-11-2021)

[9] https://www.politico.eu/article/alexander-lukashenko-migrants-belarus-poland-border/ (24-11-2021)

[10] https://fort-russ.com/2020/06/covid-19-psychosis-defeated-how-belarus-ignored-the-who-and-beat-coronavirus/ (28-11-2021)

[11] https://redfireonline.com/2020/08/20/belarus-covid-19-colour-revolution/ (28-11-2021)