Yurii Sheliazhenko was subjected to a search, the seizure of his computer and telephone. He was denounced by the Security Services as the author of the Peace Agenda for Ukraine and the World, judged as supporting the Russian invasion. Today he will be interrogated and risks indictment and therefore a trial and conviction. He wrote this memorial that the Nonviolent Movement is spreading in Italy. Our Campagna di Obiezione alla guerra (Objection to War Campaign) has already concretely supported the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement and intends to continue to do so.
Dear friends, Greetings from Kiev.
There were two air raid alerts today due to the Russian criminal war against Ukraine.
Our pacifist document entitled “Agenda of peace for Ukraine and the world” is, of course, a statement totally opposite to any justification of Russian aggression, which we explicitly denounce.
The problem is that hate is a kind of disease in which sick people think they are healthy and others, who love peace, are described as sick.
This distortion of perception of reality is a well-known part of the conflict escalation mechanics. Professor Friedrich Glasl, whose models I used to analyze the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in the academic article on which the statement is based, explains the mechanics of escalation very well in his monograph “Conflict Management” (by the way, I am grateful for a letter of support).
To put it briefly and popularly, hatred and animosity are like a partial madness of generally sane people. People infected with animosity tend to think they are sane and that anyone who doesn’t hate their enemies is sick. Animosity distorts their perception of reality, they see enemies everywhere, much as some psychiatric patients see evil ghosts.
The so-called expert of the Security Service of Ukraine wrote that the following sentence, written by me, justifies Russian aggression: “The desire for peace is a natural need of every person, and its expression cannot justify a false association with the myth of an enemy to hate.” This is a general common-sense observation, which no one will dispute when it comes to Putin’s war machine which turns “foreign agents”, opponents of his criminal militaristic regime, into enemies, by smearing them in propaganda and repressing them. I never thought this general truth would be used in my case, but here it is: an innocent pacifist treated as an enemy because of the fictitious and socially harmful character of any enemy image.
Our “Peace Agenda…” was sent to President Zelensky, but his government chose to ask the Security Service of Ukraine to persecute me as an enemy, instead of considering the “Peace Agenda…” seriously and of giving an appropriate response, as every democratic leader should handle petitions.
According to the law, the Security Service of Ukraine is directly subordinate to President Zelensky and is also a guarantor of human rights according to the Constitution of Ukraine, therefore it bears the ultimate responsibility for the violation of my human rights (and I know for sure I am not the only victim).
The court mandate to search my apartment is a set of unfounded hate stereotypes, hardly applicable to me.
For a year the Ukrainian security services have been secretly monitoring me, trying to find links with Russian agents. Of course, they found nothing, but they are still convinced that I am an enemy because of my defense of peace by peaceful means, our call for “ceasefire” and the peace talks I attended to stop the senseless bloodshed and destruction of our country
Nonviolent resistance to aggressors and tyrants is always possible, even the Armed Forces of Ukraine know it. They have published Gene Sharp’s 198 methods of nonviolent resistance on their official website; all Ukrainians should know this after two nonviolent revolutions and the Ukrainian nonviolent uprising in the gulag.
But when a pacifist speaks of nonviolent resistance, the Security Service of Ukraine suspects that he or she is an enemy and violates his/her human rights, as if the enemies were not human beings. It’s painfully stupid.
This illegal search of my apartment and seizure of my computer and smartphone are very annoying. I have to prepare a constitutional complaint for conscientious objector Vitaliy Alexeenko in the next two weeks due to a deadline, and all my work is on the seized computer. There are other cases that require my contribution, so this seizure is a serious obstacle to my work as a human rights defender.
Also, my notes on the “Fundamentals of Pacifism” training course have been confiscated, so the course will have to be postponed, if I ever get to do it.
But I will not run away from my home and my Country; if I am sent to prison for pacifism, I will find a way to be useful to Ukraine as a pacifist in prison, I will think and write and look for ways to contribute to the permanent world dialogue on peace, I will educate fellow prisoners about peace and human rights and tell them I will help, especially if they are political prisoners.
Thank you all for your support, I am grateful and humble.
The nomination of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement for the Nobel Peace Prize by the International Peace Bureau is particularly touching, and I am proud that our organization was nominated in the company of brave Belarusian and Russian friends who do a lot to help people refuse to kill Ukrainians (or anyone else), to escape Putin’s meat grinder.
Thanks also to Alexia Tsouni, president of the European Office for Conscientious Objection, who is in Kiev on a human rights monitoring mission and will help me.
I am grateful for your letters of support and solidarity with me, which I will use in interrogations and if necessary in court hearings which could decide [a fate ranging] from house arrest to pretrial detention.
David Swanson, my friend and executive director of World Beyond War, wrote in the reference letter: “Self-government is not possible without people who are willing to nonviolently and cooperatively stand up for their beliefs and work to persuade or be persuaded by others through dialogue rather than violence. Especially needed are the people who, when they feel their government is at fault, work to improve it rather than turn against it, people who would never think of supporting another government against their own. This is the kind of person the world is lucky to have in Yurii Sheliazhenko.”
Thanks David!
I ask everyone: please materially support the peace movements in your countries, and I hope that in one way or another, part of your support will be useful to Ukrainian peace and human rights activists, and also to my situation, through the international networks in which our organization participates.
Please support peace movements, create them, participate in them and finance them. Make a contribution to peace!
Together, acting nonviolently, with scientific knowledge, faith and hope, we could build a better world where everyone will refuse to kill and therefore [in which] there will be no wars.
I wish you peace and happiness.
Kiev, August 5, 2023
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Yurii Sheliazhenko, Ph.D. (Law)
Executive Secretary, Ukrainian Pacifist Movement
Member of the Board of Directors, European Office for Conscientious Objection (Brussels, Belgium)