What is a humanitarian disaster? Definition and examples

World news from time to time, talking about the events in the poorest countries of the planet (Rwanda, Cambodia, Somalia), use the term "humanitarian disaster". Imagination of the viewer draws a gloomy picture, backed up by documentary shots from the scene. Naked children with swollen stomachs and sores on the skin, to the bulging bones, emaciated adults, infirm old people, helpless and exhausted lying right on the ground ...

What is a humanitarian disaster and why is it happening?

In addition to natural causes, such as drought or other natural disasters, there are other factors that cause such grave consequences. On the television screens, some people flit, most often dressed in camouflage, they waving machine guns and bazookas, chanting something warily and shooting at someone.

Humanitarian disaster is a phenomenon in the modern world most often associated with civil war. Its main feature is the emergence of a threat to the lives of a significant part of the population of the region it has covered. Most often the situation looks as if conflicts occur on interethnic or interdenominational soil, but with careful study of circumstances, it is usually found that the main reason is the clash of economic interests, and the ethnic or religious factor is only an occasion, skillfully used by invisible players.

War and destruction of the usual way of life

The humanitarian catastrophe is the result of the destruction of the basis on which the life of the state or its parts is built. The work of enterprises is stopped, sowing or harvesting works are not carried out, the energy infrastructure is seriously damaged, state authorities, health care and education systems can not function fully. This happened in the besieged Leningrad. Similar phenomena occurred during the famine in the Volga region and in Ukraine. The international armed conflict in Yugoslavia, the Holocaust (the ethnic extermination of the Jewish population during the Second World War), the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait and many other sad events of the 20th century also fall under the term "humanitarian catastrophe". Its symbol is the notorious "man with a gun", a faithful companion of revolutions and upheavals.

More recently, it was difficult to assume that something like this could happen in Ukraine, a country that was not rich, but peaceful enough, in which a certain political balance was formed, and the majority of its population were not in the mood for revolutionary sentiments.

What does modern history teach us?

History teaches us first of all that does not teach anything. And secondly, it clearly demonstrates that long-term political stability serves as a guarantee of prosperity or at least the welfare of any state. Examples of "color" revolutions, liberation wars, overthrow of "dictatorial-totalitarian" regimes in Iraq, Libya and many other countries eloquently testify that after them the country is in chaos and, as a consequence, economic stagnation. Civil war in a new democratic country can last for years, its consequence is a humanitarian catastrophe. It does not care about the organizers of revolutions, they care about others.

The situation in Ukraine, despite the predominantly European appearance of its citizens, painfully resembles what is happening in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Libya. Private paramilitary units, controlled by local oligarchs, appeared. Armed people consider themselves to be military men and reserve the right to establish orders that seem fair to them.

Ukraine on the Eastern Front

The humanitarian disaster in Ukraine (so far only in its eastern part) occurred for the same reasons that it always occurs. A war has begun, which the acting government calls an operation, and an anti-terrorist one. When covering the events, journalists, both Russian and Ukrainian, usually focus on the emotional side of the material, showing the bodies of the deceased (including women, children and the elderly) or demonstrating the funeral of "heroic defenders of the unity of the country". Residents of Donetsk and Lugansk regions, fleeing from the destroyed houses, become refugees, they find shelter in Russia or in other regions of Ukraine. The real extent of the disaster the media are trying to hide, like the military losses. Moreover, the state, in addition to the human lives carried out by the war, incurs huge material losses. It is quite possible that the humanitarian catastrophe will soon spread to the rest of the country, even in the case of the most favorable for Kiev option of the end of hostilities.

Crimea

If we ignore the outraged exclamations of Ukrainian national patriots, it remains only to ascertain the fact that the separation of the peninsula occurred for quite legitimate reasons. Centripetal moods were peculiar mainly to the ethnic Russian population during the whole period of Ukraine's independence. "Maidan" was a serious reason to think about the direction of the movement of the whole country, and the presence of Russian troops precluded the possibility of attempting an "indicative flogging" of recalcitrant people.

Before the referendum, the proponents of unity and indivisibility foresaw the imminent humanitarian disaster in the Crimea on the basis of many economic factors. They pointed to the impending blockade of the peninsula, the inability to deliver food, the inability to provide it with water, electricity and gas, the unprofitability of the economy, expressed in the traditional budget subsidies, and many other reasons why the indignant population of the autonomous region will soon be asked to return to Ukraine. That did not happen. The reason is still the same - war. More truly, its presence in Ukraine and its absence in the Crimea. All the rest, of course, is a problem, but solvable.

What's next?

If we consider the most optimistic scenario for the development of events in Ukraine, then there are reasons to believe that to the official Kyiv it is represented by the following items:

- The Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics are liquidated, their defenders expelled or destroyed.

- From the European Union and the United States, assistance has been received, through which the consequences of hostilities can be leveled and the trade with the Russian Federation reduced.

- Western markets are open for Ukrainian goods, Europeans are happily being built in line to buy them.

- Under pressure from the EU and the US, Russia agrees to sell gas at a symbolic price.

- Under the same pressure, Crimea returns to where it came from. Sevastopol joyfully greet the parade of the Ukrainian army.

- There will be no humanitarian catastrophe.

History will show which of these expectations will come true ...