On Wednesday night the crisis in the Ukraine became deadly, with 3 anti-coup rebels killed by National Guards in the Black Sea port city of Mariupol. The next day, in Geneva, the USA, Russia, EU and Ukraine reached an 'agreement' after just a few hours of negotiations.
There follows a review of the key points in the text:
The text starts as follows:
"All sides must refrain from any violence, intimidation or provocative actions. The participants strongly condemned and rejected all expressions of extremism, racism and religious intolerance, including anti-Semitism."
How can the coup government keep a straight face and add its signature to this statement?
This is a regime that placed a fascist in charge of National Security. After the coup Andriy Parubiy was appointed secretary (the operational head) of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. Between 1998-2004 he was the leader of the Patriots of Ukraine, the paramilitary wing of what would go on to become the Svoboda party. In 2012, the British Sun newspaper exposed this groups involvement in training football hooligans ( http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4284461/The-Sun-investigates-anarchy-in-Ukraine-Euro-2012-hate-camps.html ). The group was offloaded by Svoboda in 2004 as part of the 'Orange Revolution' revamp of the Ukrainian fascist movement. This is a classic ruse by neo-nazi and fascist groups when they garner sufficient support to hold out the possibility of some form of power. The hair is grown out, the football hooligan element pushed to one side, the rhetoric and symbolism is 'refreshed' and 'updated' to reflect the new found 'respectability' of the movement. Prior to 2004, Svoboda was an out and out neo-nazi group - called the 'Social National Party'. It had a modified 'runic symbol' as its party logo, restricted membership to ethnic Ukrainians, and actively recruited football hooligans and skinheads.
The current operational head of Ukrainian National Security was the co-founder of this nazi party and the leader of its paramilitary wing. It has three members in the government. If the government was serious about the Geneva agreement it would kick out the fascists. The reason it hasn't is because they are a critical part of the regime's support base.
The Geneva Text continues:
"All illegal armed groups must be disarmed; all illegally seized buildings must be returned to legitimate owners; all illegally occupied streets, squares and other public places in Ukrainian cities and towns must be vacated.
Amnesty will be granted to protestors and to those who have left buildings and other public places and surrendered weapons, with the exception of those found guilty of capital crimes.
It was agreed that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission should play a leading role in assisting Ukrainian authorities and local communities in the immediate implementation of these de-escalation measures wherever they are needed most, beginning in the coming days. The U.S., E.U. and Russia commit to support this mission, including by providing monitors."
The intention here is to disarm the Eastern rebels - the supposedly Russian 'terrorists' and 'special forces' that carried out a series of occupations and raids last week in South Eastern Ukraine. Three of these rebels were killed in an attack on the National Guard base in the Black Sea port city of Mariupol the night before the Geneva talks. AP reported that 63 of the rebels were detained and that 38 were later released. At time of writing this article, it is unknown how many of the remaining 25 are 'Russian special forces'. The only rebel named in the AP report was identified as a '40 year old business man from Donetsk'
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