In 1989 the fall of the Berlin Wall seemed to many an exciting event. The end of the Cold War, of the confrontation between the two blocs, of the eastern Europe dictatorships that made such ferocious repressions in Budapest, Prague, Poland. But hopes of that year later collided with the harsh reality. Russia and Eastern Europe were quickly colonized by the most brutal capitalism.
Unemployment, impoverishment, the destruction of the welfare state, labor exploitation, rampant crime. The new rulers of these nations became the more unscrupulous capitalists who with the help of corrupt bureaucrats of the previous regimes acquired cheaply state-owned enterprises, bringing little benefits to the general population. But the most disappointing part twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall is the lack of progress on human rights worldwide.
Soviet Russia foreign policy claimed to act against Western imperialism, for equality and justice. Of course that was not really true, but at least after the death of Stalin the USSR supported national liberation struggles that had their reasons, as in Cuba, Vietnam, in Afghanistan. In many cases, its existence aided many countries to free themselves from Western control. Because it must be said that the United States and the West in general have a very bad record in foreign policy. Since the end of the Second World War to 1989 Usa and Nato supported the worst regimes imaginable, as in Chile, Argentina, Greece, Guatemala, Nicaragua, South Korea and in many other states. Providing they were anti-communist, the bloodiest governments in the world could have carte blanche by the CIA and NATO.
Democracy and human rights did not count anything in practical foreign policy of the West. The USSR was not much better, but at least in some cases its existence served to balance the abuses of Western neoolonialism in the world. Sometimes even the abuses of communism: Vietnam, ally of the USSR, intervened against the genocidal regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia, supported by China and the United States for anti-russian reasons.
Sometimes, however, the struggle between the two blocs led only to the worsening of the internal situation of a country. This happened in Afghanistan where the struggle between Usa and Ussr nourished, financed and brought up two generations of fanatical Islamists who created the Talibans and Al Qaeda. Also in Iraq, where firstly the Soviet bloc and then the West supported and armed Saddam Hussein. In Iran, where Western nations in 1953 fostered the conspiracy against the democratic government of Mosaddeq and the USSR in 1979 helped bring to power the Islamic theocracy, although this was not the original intention. Both blocks subsequently supported both Iran and Iraq in the war between the two nations, hoping in vain to weaken both Saddam and Khomeini.
The fall of the Berlin Wall had nurtured the hope that Western states would stop supporting dictatorships for anti-communism and the end of the Cold War would lead to democracy in many countries. But unfortunately things did not go so well. Modern Russia, which hasn't made great progress in democracy, now for economic or political reasons supports bloodthirsty governments as Iran and completely undemocratic countries such as Belarus and Syria. China is not better, after having supported in the past abominable governments as Pol Pot's Cambodia, now in practice keeps up dictatorships in Burma and North Korea.
The advance of human rights in the world has still a very long way and recent events such as the pretext of "bringing democracy" used by Bush to control oil in Iraq, do not justify much hope for the future. But the truth is that no state or block has ever acted for democracy, freedom or justice, but only for political and economic reasons, often trampling human and civil rights. The only force that can counter these abuses is the world public opinion, especially now that people have the opportunity to learn the truth outside government control, override repression and censorship, as in the case of Iran, and hope that a better world will come in the next twenty years.
Francesco Defferrari
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