This article originally appeared at The Voice of Sevastopol

And that is why the global community has founded several collegial organizations whose purpose is to monitor the adherence to human rights and main freedoms. Conventions signed by heads of most states guarantee a peaceful sky over our heads, make the rights of simple people a priority in any act and declare comprehensive protection of our rights in the event they are grossly violated. One such organization that is a watchdog of human rights is the OSCE – the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. OSCE unites countries throughout Europe and beyond and includes 57 states as its permanent members. It would seem that this is a good argument in the fight for peace throughout the world…

The first time I personally encountered OSCE observers was at the end of the spring or beginning of the summer in 2014, a year very memorable for all of us. Concerned with the combatting near the Russian border, they walked about Rostov Region, or more exactly, the town of Donetsk [Russia], and recorded Ukrainian munitions hitting Russian territory. Their faces serious and concerned, citizens of problem-free Europe wearing vests appropriate to their status measured craters and examined the consequences of shelling. Being completely normal people, they expressed sincere indignation at the ease with which the Ukrainian military not only shelled their own peaceful cities, but periodically also shelled residential blocks of the town of Donetsk in Rostov Region. The OSCE observers studied the burned roofs of Russian homes and brick pieces knocked out from walls and at that time I thought that in the nearest future everything will change drastically. I honestly expected that the reports written as a result of objective investigations will create a commotion in the European Union and will open eyes for inhabitants of the Old World to the crimes committed by official Kiev. I was greatly surprised when, after returning home, the observers did practically nothing. The reports turned out vague and all the blatant facts of crimes against peaceful folks, Russian as well as Ukrainian, simply disappeared from the pages of the reports. An awkward silence took over the corridors of the OSCE…

Further on, I encountered the “silent” OSCE representatives throughout practically all of the Donbass territory. They wandered around the Boeing that was shot down, they examined houses and bus stops that were subject to shelling, they even went to the front lines to document facts of the peace agreements being violated. These worthy people reacted very quickly to what was happening and were practically the first on location at places where military crimes had been committed. Their reports were full of schematics, photos, testimony of the locals and video materials. All this put together should have, at minimum, proven the criminal essence of the Kiev regime and put on trial at the international tribunal several hundred Ukrainian military men and politicians who gave criminal orders. But the observers returned to Europe and once again an uneasy silence hung in the air. No one demanded to hold accountable the military men shelling peaceful cities, no one called on Poroshenko to cease the inhumane punishing operation and not a single European leader called for sanctions to be imposed against Ukraine at war with its own people.

At certain times, I am overwhelmed by a wave of fury so alien to me, and I want to board a plane, fly to Europe and go to the main square of one of the capitals and scream “People! What are you doing?” I want to put so much sense and images into this short scream so that each European who is in the blast area stops and finally opens his eyes. I am tired of their long-lasting silence, their blindness and deafness. I am tired of the one-sided position of the European leaders. I am tired of the constant waiting for another world war…

In my understanding, a person who has witnessed a crime and hides facts about it is at minimum an accomplice. International law is of the same opinion. The silent observers from the OSCE who readily and with pleasure frisk Russian humanitarian aid convoys and search for Russian tanks along the border, but at the same time stay silent about the thousands of killed civilians and dozens of destroyed residential towns and villages, are without exaggeration accomplices to these inhumane crimes. Instead of documenting military crimes of the Kiev regime and demanding that those responsible be held accountable, they are covering up for the criminals, intentionally hiding or distorting facts. Where they need to scream, they are silent. And the organization itself, as well as the people of the member countries, will in the end pay dearly for this silence. Those who are growing a new fascist regime at their side are mistaken when they think that they will be able to control this regime.

The European political elite are so busy forming the image of Russia as an enemy and aggressor, that they have completely forgotten about such things as objectivity and justice. Today, they are intentionally transmitting lies to their public with just one goal – to please the USA. They hold so sacred the interests of the superpower, that they often put them above the interests of their own people. It is specifically this process, an irreversible process, that has given birth to the silent observers in white vests, who see everything, understand everything, but cannot say anything.

If someone thinks that the OSCE representatives do their work well, and are fulfilling their mission with honor, let them tell me the answer to one simple question – where were the OSCE representatives when an armored vehicle of the Ukrainian Armed Forces ran over a woman with two children? Why did no one condemn the drunken soldiers killing a woman and her eight year old daughter who died under the caterpillars of a multi-purpose light armored hauler? Why didn’t anyone voice a reproach of the national guard fighters shooting automatic weapons above heads of indignant people who came to the administrative buildings in Konstantinovka with only one goal – to demand that the murderers be held accountable? And moreover, none of the OSCE observers drew parallels between behavior of the fighters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and behavior of soldiers from Nazi Germany on occupied territory! They are silent again…

Everyone is silent. They are silent when we are trying to scream of the tens of thousands of innocent victims and thousands of destroyed homes. They are silent when we talk about firebombs and cluster bombs being showered down on women, old people and children. They are silent when we accent attention on torture behind Kiev’s walls. They are not silent only when there is talk of mythical separatists, terrorists and Russian military aggression. During such moments even the most timid display high oratory skills. When watching these convulsions of reason one wants to understand – are they doing this because they are submissively listening to America or because they are scared mindless of Russia?