TERROR IN BRUSSELS
MIROSŁAW PIOTROWSKI
‘Terrorists’ purpose is Europe’ – said the president of France Francois Hollande a few hours after terrorist assassinations in Brussels. Before that other government chiefs had expressed their opinions, among the others, prime ministers of Belgium and Poland. The assassinations took place a few days after arresting the main coordinator of assassinations in Paris, Salah Abdeslam in Brussels, and also shooting and arresting other terrorists. The revenge assassination in the capital of the European Union was expected. Although for many months, one could see armed patrols of police and army outside the European Parliament and in the streets, I saw the doubtful state of safety in this city. Brussels is divided into 19 communes, that is, communities, districts. For fear of its safety, police have not even controlled some of them for years. This problem was noted 12 years ago by my Belgian friend, an euro-deputy elected from the lists Vlaams Belang. He even said that police cars are attacked in one district of Brussels with cocktails of Mołotow. I will remind that when Jerzy Buzek was the chairperson of the European Parliament. He even suggested fencing the Parliament with barbed wire, in fear of euro-deputies’ safety. His idea was inspired by assaults, among the others, on a German euro-deputy, who was calling the Belgian police in vain. In Brussels there has been dichotomy till today. On the one hand, this city is proud of being the heart of Europe, the capital of the European Union, which was pictured by a big phrase welcoming visitors at the Zaventem airport – ‘Brussels – the Heart of Europe’. However, on the other hand, this city has been defined as a ‘breeding ground of terrorism’. Here there are big aggregates of Muslim population from various parts of the world. Functioning of the most important EU institutions, such as Parliament, Commission and Council, causes necessity of employing a few dozen thousand employees and interns who successively change. Here delegations from nearly all countries of the world arrive here. It is the reason that people got used to constant flow of people. This is an unusually favouring circumstance for terrorists, who are encouraged by the fact that inhabitants of Belgium do not usually cooperate with police or share information with it, which is completely different in Germany. Another encouragement for terrorists is both the recently launched migration policy in the EU, as well as the crisis of identity and European values. Here I mean disappearing Christian culture, in whose place, the so-called multi-culture is launched. Undoubtedly, terrorists were happy to accept the EU policy towards the USA. Particular content was caused in them by established commissions of Europe Council and the European Parliament, stigmatizing and revealing mechanisms of fighting terrorism through CIA. All reports and the so-called European investigations in this matter would weaken the fight with terrorism and would surely contribute to the tragedy in Brussels. It could have been predicted. I noted the problem of a necessary fight with terrorism in many statements and texts, among the others, of December 2014 for ‘Niedziela’ in a column entitled: “More about CIA’. The assassinations in Brussels shocked ordinary people, but did they shock also the EU elites in the same way? The fight with terrorism is very difficult, and belongs to the most important challenges of our epoch. The Holy Father John Paul II said that terrorism ‘is not only a motor of unforgiveable crimes, but it – using terror as a political and economic strategy - is a real crime against humankind’. Crimes must be fought, and specialized state units must deal with the dangerous ones. With a great effort, and first of all, a good will, this fight can be effective and can prevent similar tragedies like the ones in Paris and Brussels. However, it depends on a real, not pretended propaganda diagnosis and undertaking extra-ordinary steps and means. In the verbal sphere such determination was declared by a lot of leaders, among the others, the quoted president of France, stating that it is necessary to fight against terrorism ‘with all available means’. There were similar political declarations after the terroristic assassinations. Their effective realization will depend on whether the assassinations in Brussels will be treated only as another incident after London or Paris, or much more seriously, as an attack on the heart of Europe, that is, Europe-wide values. The real ones. Only then will we be able to speak about the turning point in the fight against terrorism, like after the attack on the World Trade Centre.
AA
„Niedziela” 14/2016