Sir, – There were presidential elections in the Ukraine in 2010. There were a total of 3,249 international observers including several from Ireland supervising the election. The international observers including those from the OSCE called the election transparent and honest.
This government has now been overthrown and the leaders of the European Union supported its overthrow.
When the Irish people rejected the Lisbon Treaty, which was in essence about accelerating the centralisation and militarisation of the EU, the response of the Fianna Fáil government was to abolish the Forum on Europe, chaired by Maurice Hayes (who had believed in and supported democratic debate). Then, with the rest of the Yes side, it spent millions of euro ensuring a Yes vote in the second referendum.
Whatever the values of the EU are, a commitment to democracy is not one of them.
Yet, however bad it might be to live in a profoundly anti-democratic EU, already some of the EU fanatics are calling for “intervention” in the Ukraine. Does this mean the EU battle groups are going to be sent to the Ukraine? What would be the consequences of such a decision? Would Russia stand idly by?
The Red C poll commissioned by the Peace & Neutrality Alliance in September 2013 showed that 78 per cent of the Irish people in the Republic supported a policy of Irish neutrality, so I am confident of the wish of the Irish people not to become involved in the conflict in the Ukraine that could so easily spiral out of control. I am not so confident that the political/media elite will allow such views to be expressed, let alone supported. After all, the corporate media largely ignored PANA’s Red C poll. – Yours, etc,
ROGER COLE,
Glenageary Park,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.