Such An Important Fact

Peter Hitchens writes:

Friday night's Any Questions on BBC Radio 4, repeated on Saturday afternoon and then available on i-player, opened with a very interesting question about the legitimacy of the new Kiev government.

I don't have the exact wording to hand but I think it could be fairly summed up as 'How big does a mob have to be to supplant an elected government?'

The panel was pretty mainstream and dominated by conventional wisdom, and rather struggled with the point of the question, which I thought very sharp and carefully-crafted.

They didn't particularly want to consider the possibility that the Euromaidan crowd were anything other than spotless heroes of freedom.

Eventually a sort of consensus was reached that the Yanukovych government had lost legitimacy because it had opened fire on what was repeatedly described as a peaceful crowd.

Once again I need to say here that I am not defending the actions of the Yanukovych state. It was corrupt, ill-governed and not very bright.

The shooting of demonstrators is almost always wrong, and invariably a mistake in an open society. Though the Kazakh government, whose society is not exactly open,  recently got away with it , and was subsequently blessed by a visit from Mr Cameron.

 But everyone seems to have forgotten (or maybe it has been shown that this was untrue, in which case I'd welcome information) that 13 Ukrainian policemen, acting under the lawful authority of a legitimate government, were shot dead and another 130 suffered gunshot wounds, and it was only after this that the Yanukovych government authorised the use of lethal weapons by the police.

Demonstrators were also seen and filmed carrying firearms. I might add that many policemen were injured in previous clashes with demonstrators, who used firebombs and clubs without much hesitation.

It simply cannot be said, given these facts, that the demonstration was peaceful.

I don't claim that this fact resolves any issues. But surely people in public life ought to know that?

I think it is a reflection on the very poor coverage of these events by British media, that nobody on the panel, or even the chairman, seemed to be aware of such an important fact.