Tuesday, June 10, 2014

A note to Readers





Dear readers and supporters, FFML is taking a few weeks holiday, so there will be fewer posts in the next while.



Paul Dillon will be in El Salvador and will send a few reports from there.



FPB is in Spain helping the movement against the EU austerity program.



A new  additional Contributor will be joining at the end of this month.



Thanks to all who visit and read our posts. We would like some feedback even if only to use the tick-boxes at the end of each post but comments are welcome too.



We appreciate all visits but especially those who are regulars from various countries around the world.

Please continue to read and circulate our blog. We endeavour to be serious and informative about politics and economics but, with some humour attached.




FearFeasaMacLéinn

Meitheamh/June 2014

Baile Átha Cliath/Dublin

Friday, June 06, 2014

Ukraine: Junta renews violence in East



POROSHENKO TALKS
"PEACE" BUT MAKES
WAR IN UKRAINE:

WASHINGTON FINANCES FASCIST TERROR:



Only 24 hours after being declared “President of Ukraine” without any votes being counted in the illegal Kiev Junta regime’s fake “election” and proclaiming he wanted “Peace” in the country, Poroshenko apparently launched a renewed offensive against the Eastern Oblasts where independence from Kiev has been proclaimed by popular referendums. It’s not clear yet whether Poroshenko is actually giving the orders himself or is just the front-man, pro-tem, for the Fascist Guard and other Washington financed and trained death-squads which have been unleashed against Donetsk and Lugansk.




On the 26th of May 2014 the Fascist Guard started renewing a war against the people of Donetsk. The Peoples’ Republic of Donetsk declared independence from Ukraine in accordance with valid international law. But Poroshenko is not accepting this independence. He has now started a war of terror against the local  population in Donetsk and the Donbass region. This has led to dozens of casualties amongst the civil population. The Fascist Guard tried to take over Donetsk Airport, which was held by local militias of Peoples’ Defence Forces of the Donbass. Confirmed so far, at least, are the deaths of 43 armed citizens of Donetsk and 2 civilians, who were killed during the air strikes on the city. No condemnation of these air strikes against residential areas, that were carried out with fighter jets and MI-24 helicopters, was forthcoming from the hypocritical EU/NATO “law and order” countries who have tried to blame Russia for the situation.



Attacks against Slavyansk, however, have been going on for many weeks. Kiev regime forces suffered a heavy blow on May 29 when a helicopter carrying General Serhiy Kulchytskiy and 12 or 14 soldiers was shot down outside the city and all its occupants died. Kulchytskiy was the head of training of Kiev’s  so called “National Guard”. That is the stormtrooper force created in the wake of the secession of Crimea from Ukraine in March. It is composed of volunteers from right-wing and fascist political movements across Ukraine mainly Svoboda and Pravy Sektor thugs financed by local oligarchs. The formation of the Fascist Guard has been prompted by the refusal of many soldiers in Ukraine’s conscript army to fire on fellow citizens. Since the beginning of Kiev’s assaults in eastern Ukraine in April, there have been frequent reports of mutinies and other forms of refusal by army conscripts to fire on citizens. The frequency of soldier rebellions is growing.

In a news report on Sky TV in the UK, a leader of one of the shocktroop death squads said that once his forces have completed their murderous rampage in the east, they will carry their “revolution” back to Kiev and “clear out” the government there. So, Mr Poroshenko is likely to enjoy only a short term of office as “President” of a few streets in Kiev.



On the 2nd of June, an air attack was launched on the town of Lugansk. The target of the aerial bombing was the civil administration of the city. At the time of the attack the institution was under control of local residents of the city. They were ordinary civilians. Pro-Junta media tried to cover up the crime by spreading propaganda and false claims. But the international OSCE mission confirmed that the bombing took place on the 2nd of June about 3pm local time. At least 8 civilians died during the air raid.The attack was carried out by a Junta Air Force type Sukhoi Su-25. Bomb shells were found afterwards and the rockets used were most likely, according to witnesses, S-8KOM high explosive anti-tank air-to-surface rockets. The S-8 rockets are launched from B-8M1 rocket pods, each capable of carrying up to 20 rockets.


A local resident took photos with a cell phone camera of the shocking scenes of  devastation and death of the people who were injured by the air strike on the city.

The Lugansk city authorities called the Monday airstrike on the city center, which killed eight people, a war crime on behalf of the Kiev Junta. This is correct under international law as the Kiev Junta is not a legitimate government and its actions are illegal which makes the killing of citizens a war crime.



"I declare that the air strike on a non-combatant city is a war crime," the head of the Lugansk People's Republic's press service Vladimir Inogorodsky said in a statement on Tuesday. He added he was outraged by the following claims that the air attack had never taken place, and the blast had been instigated by the local self-defence."I was a direct witness of the attack. I saw planes in the run-up. We have a surveillance camera on our building, and now, pro-Junta media are spreading information that we shot at ourselves from manpads," said Inogorodsky.



On Monday, Kiev controlled military aircraft struck Lugansk from the air twice. The first attack was at the administration building in the center of the city. The second airstrike went into a roadblock by the outskirts of Lugansk. According to LPR officials, cluster bombs banned by the international convention were used in the attack. At the same time, a fight between independence supporters and the Fascist Guard border patrol lasted all day on Monday. A total of 13 people were reported dead as a result of the airstrike and the border fight. Eight members of the Kievan Special Forces were injured, according to the State Border Guard Service.



City officials in the town of Krasnyi Lyman in the Donetsk region told media that the local hospital came under intense shelling Tuesday night, inflicting a number of casualties. An initial report said the head surgeon was killed by shrapnel and at least three patients severely wounded. But on Wednesday, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), which was proclaimed following a referendum on autonomy held last month, reported that Junta regime troops entered the hospital and executed over 25 wounded local fighters.



“More than 25 people were killed, and this figure can rise,” DPR Chairman Denis Pushilin told Rossiya-24 television. “This is a blatant war crime; it is genocide.” It was only one of a growing number of strikes against civilian targets as the Kiev regime unleashed fighter jets, attack helicopters, heavy artillery, rocket launchers and other weapons of war against the region in attempt to quell popular opposition to its illegal rule. Schools, daycare centers, housing blocks and office buildings have also been struck, sending families fleeing for air raid shelters or desperately attempting to leave the war zone. Many lost their lives and at least 11 people were wounded. A video posted online Wednesday showed the grim aftermath of the air strike.


(Some of the videos of the Junta air strikes are too graphic to be posted without prior
warning, so readers may chose themselves what to watch by clicking on the YouTube logo)


The Kiev regime attempted to deny that its warplane was responsible for the attack—which was caught by a number of town residents on video—claiming that the explosion had been caused by anti-regime elements misfiring a manpad surface-to-air missile.This lie was quickly debunked by an inspection team from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which concluded, based on the line of blast craters leading up to the building and the extensive damage to trees in a nearby park, that the explosion could have been caused only by a missile fired from a plane.



The OSCE Ukrainian mission’s daily report stated that "on 2 June, shortly after 15:00 hrs, rockets hit the occupied regional administration building. Based on the SMM’s limited observation these strikes were the result of non-guided rockets shot from an aircraft."



Nonetheless, the US State Department and large sections of the US media have continued to insist that the cause of this massacre of civilians remains “unclear.”

The weapon used in the attack has been identified as an S-8KO missile, which is a type of cluster bomb that is outlawed under international conventions.

The Kiev regime has itself given conflicting reports on the human toll of its so-called “anti-terrorist operation.” The head of the operation has reported that 300 regime opponents have been killed and another 500 wounded. Leaders of self-defence groups in Lugansk and Donetsk have ridiculed this claim, insisting that the troops and militias fielded by the regime have suffered more losses than they have. Another estimate, given by Kiev’s acting prosecutor general, Oleg Makhnitsky, a member of the neo-Nazi Svoboda party, was of 181 people killed, including 59 regime troops, and 293 wounded.



Claims from Kiev that its forces are “cleansing” the east of rebels are contradicted by recent events on the ground, with the regime acknowledging Wednesday that a border guard camp and the headquarters of a Fascist Guard regiment, both in the Lugansk area, surrendered after coming under attack by superior forces of anti-Junta fighters.In a bid to reverse these losses, the regime announced Wednesday that it was drawing up plans to declare martial law in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. “This is a real war, and what we are doing is upgrading the legal status to match the reality,” Victoria Siumar, deputy secretary of the  Junta “National Security and Defence Council” told media in Kiev. “There is a decision to call things by their proper name,” she added. Except that the Junta is not calling itself by its proper name; the Fascist Usurpers of the Sovereignty of the Ukrainian people contrary to Article 5 of the Ukrainian Constitution as applied before February 22, 2014.



It appears that the main aim of the Junta is to order civilians to evacuate areas like Lugansk, a city of nearly half a million, so that it can subject all who remain to a full-scale bombardment. The Kiev Junta forces have also stepped up their siege of Slavyansk, a key centre of opposition. In addition to air attacks and artillery shelling, they shut off the town’s water supply.







Obama’s proclamation of solidarity with Poroshenko, in Poland, came amid new evidence of war crimes by the Junta regime’s military and by fascist militias fighting on its behalf. These crimes have been directed at terrorising into submission the populations of Donetsk and Lugansk, which have refused to accept the legitimacy of the regime brought to power in the Western-backed and fascist-spearheaded coup of last February.



In his meeting with Poroshenko Wednesday, June 5, Obama left no doubt that Washington is determined to see this criminal strategy succeed, no matter how many are killed in the operation . There is good reason to believe that the military operations are being carried out under direct US supervision. The latest offensive was launched immediately after a visit to Kiev by Derek Chollet, Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Security Affairs. Obama also announced an additional $5 million in so-called non-lethal aid to assist the Junta regime in the slaughter it is carrying out in eastern Ukraine. This is on top of $18 million worth of military equipment previously approved and is to include such items as night-vision goggles, body armour and communications equipment. He also indicated that the US would provide additional military training.



He met with Poroshenko for a full 70 minutes, which came on top of lengthy meetings between Poroshenko and Secretary of State John Kerry. He said they discussed Kiev’s “plans for bringing peace and order to the east” as well as “economic plans” that are to include the imposition of drastic austerity measures against the Ukrainian working class.




Obama called Poroshenko’s installation as president a “wise selection,” even though, as classified diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks showed, Washington had previously regarded the billionaire as a “disgraced oligarch” who was “tainted by credible corruption allegations.” Obama described himself as “deeply impressed by his vision, in part because of his experience as a businessman.” This “vision” guided Poroshenko in the corrupt and at times violent plundering of formerly state-owned assets, which turned him into a billionaire.



Russia, meanwhile, has attempted to advance a resolution in the United Nations Security Council calling for an end to violence in eastern Ukraine and the creation of “humanitarian corridors” to allow civilians to leave the battle zone and enable the Red Cross and other aid agencies to get in. Washington and the other major Western powers have blocked the measure, insisting that there is “no humanitarian crisis”.



As the Junta regime launches a bloody crackdown in the east of the country, however, Washington and the Western European powers have no interest in raising humanitarian concerns. On the contrary, having already organised regime-change in the fascist coup of last February, they are determined to consolidate their puppet regime by stamping out any resistance under the cover of describing all opposition to Kiev’s illegal regime as “pro-Russian seperatists”.

 "THERE BE NO NAZIS 'ERE, GUV"

The Western Whore Press and TV churns out propaganda on a daily basis that “there are no Nazis in Kiev” and all the conflict in Ukraine is organised personally by Russian President, Vladimir Putin, the latest demon-figure in the Imperialist Bloc’s attempt to cover up its responsibility for the openly Fascist Coup which was staged in Kiev last February, financed and supervised by FBI and CIA agents located in Kiev as revealed by German newspapers quoting the German Intelligence Service last month (see previous posts). But, unfortunately for the Western media hacks and lapdogs of Washington, the Fascists are too fond of strutting their stuff in public in their new Washington financed and supplied uniforms and uploading it to their websites, for the propaganda to be swallowed by anyone in the West with an ounce of sense. As can be seen in comment pages in West European newspapers, the majority of replies are completely hostile to EU/NATO’s insane policies in Ukraine and the recent European Parliament elections showed that most West European political leaders haven’t a shred of credibility left with their own people.

Kiev "National Guard"  shoulder eppaulettes showing similarity with Nazi "swastika" design



  

Members of Kiev "National Guard" "Azov" Battalion showing off their new outfits.








Note similarity to Nazi Third Reich insignia.












The 15 minute meeting today at the Normandy Landings commemoration between Poroshenko and Putin achieved nothing significant but, may possibly augur for some more dialogue in the future. One thing is certain, the situation will not be resolved by further destabilisation and the threat of more widespread civil war.

Firstly, there must be an end to military attacks by the forces of the Kiev Junta. A new Constitution is required for Ukraine that takes account of all regional differences in some broader federal arrangement than heretofore. Any new Constitution must be discussed at meetings of the people without threat or hindrance by any party. The illegal usurpers of the Kiev Junta must be disbanded and legitimate government restored. The war crimes of the illegal Junta must be prosecuted at the International Criminal Court. There is no place in modern Europe for neo-nazi thug militias; these groups must be disbanded and those members of such groups who committed criminal acts be prosecuted. There must be a return to the guarantees of neutrality for a reformed Ukrainian Federal State that precludes NATO membership. The People's Republics of Lugansk and Donetsk should be allowed the choice of remaining independent or joining a new Federal Ukraine by democratic vote. The principles of the Helsinki Agreement on non-interference in the internal affairs of European states must be re-established and reinforced by new agreements if necessary. The quickest way to end the Kiev Junta is for the EU and USA to stop financing it, which is illegal anyway under EU and US law.