AVALIK PÖÖRDUMINE MALEORGANISATSIOONIDE POOLE SEOSES GAZA SEKTORI POMMITAMISEGA

Venemaa sõjaline invasioon Ukrainasse algas 24. veebruaril 2022. a. ja see sõda kestab veel ka täna.

Vaid mõned päevad pärast Ukraina sõja algust algatas Rahvusvaheline Maleföderatsioon (FIDE) protsessi Venemaa ja Valgevene, kes Venemaad selles sõjas abistas, maleliseks blokeerimiseks. 

Mõne kuu pärast võetigi vastu otsus, mille kohaselt Venemaa ja Valgevene malevõistkonnad ei saa FIDE rahvusvahelistel turniiridel osaleda, individuaalsed maletajad aga ei tohi mängida Venemaa või Valgevene lipu all.

Peatselt ühinesid selle kampaaniaga ka maleplatvormid internetis. 

Lõpuks ühines selle blokaadiga ka Rahvusvaheline Kirimale Föderatsioon (ICCF).

Samuti kehtestas FIDE ajutise rahvusvahelistel turniiridel osalemise keelu rahvusvahelisele malesuurmeister Sergei Karjakinile. Seetõttu jäi Karjakin, kes on üks maailma tugevamaid maletajaid, välja male maailmameistri pretendentide turniirilt.

Karjakini süüks peeti seda, et ta avalikult “õigustas” Venemaa sõjalist agressiooni Ukraina vastu. Seda Karjakin tõepoolest ka tegi, viidates Ukraina poolt süstemaatiliselt korda saadetud kuritegudele vene rahvusest inimeste vastu. 

Karjakin oli arvamusel, et Ukrainas toimuva genotsiidi peatamise nimel on Venemaa õigustatud alustama sõda.

Ent Ukrainas aastal 2014 alanud kodusõjas oli aastaks 2022 hukkunud paarkümmend tuhat tsiviili. Aastal 2022 alanud Venemaa sissetungi tagajärjel oli novembriks 2023 aga hukkunud juba sadu tuhandeid Ukraina sõdureid ja samuti sadu tuhandeid Venemaa sõdureid.

Rahvusvaheliste maleorganisatsioonide sanktsioneerival tegevusel seoses Ukraina sõjaga on aga olnud rida puudusi.

Venemaa ja Valgevene maleliseks blokeerimiseks puudusid nendel organisatsioonidel vastavad reeglid. Keelud kehtestati, uusi reegleid käigu pealt ad hoc kehtestades. Neid reegleid rakendati tagasivaatavalt. Ka on nende piirangute puhul tegemist kollektiivse karistusega, mis on kaasajal rahvusvahelise õigusega keelatud. Samuti rikkusid vastavad otsused spordi ja malespordi tunnustatud moraalseid põhimõtteid. Tegemist oli spordi politiseerimisega. 

Üheks peamiseks puuduseks oli aga see, et Venemaa ja Valgevene karistamine oli diskrimineeriv, selektiivne. 

Nii näiteks pole tõkkeid seatud maletajatele teistest sellistest riikidest, mis on alustanud õigustamata sõda, okupeerinud või annekteerinud võõraid alasid, sooritanud sõjakuritegusid vms. 

Näiteks pole rahvusvahelised maleorganisatsioonid mingeid tõkkeid seadnud USA maletajaile hoolimata sellest, et USA alustas õigustamata sõdasid Afganistani ja Iraagi vastu, okupeeris neid maid palju aastaid ning sooritas seal sõjakuritegusid. Sel hetkel, kui karistati Venemaa ja Valgevene maletajaid, oli USA just äsja oma väed Afganistanist lõpuks välja viinud, ent Iraagis on mõned USA sõjaväebaasid sees veel ka täna.

Käesoleva, 2023. aasta 07. novembril ründas palestiinlaste relvastatud rühmitus Hamas, väljudes Gaza sektorist, ootamatult Iisraeli. Selle rünnaku käigus hukkus üle tuhande Iisraeli sõduri ja tsiviilisiku.

Seejärel kuulutas Iisrael Hamasile sõja ja alustas sõjategevust Gaza sektoris, mis on müüri ja okastraadiga eraldatud ala, kus paarisajal ruutkilomeetril elab üle kahe miljoni inimese. Tegemist on planeedi ühe tihedaimalt asustatud piirkonnaga, mis on sisuliselt muudetud vabaõhuvanglaks.

Selle sõjategevuse käigus kehtestas Iisrael Gaza sektorile absoluutse blokaadi, mitte andes sellesse piirkonda vett ja elektrit. Ka toiduaineid ja ravimeid ei saanud sinna saata. Lõpuks lisandus ka internetiühenduse blokeerimine. Inimesi pole sisse ja välja lastud, väljaarvatud üksikud erandid.

Iisrael asus müüriga piiratud alal võimsate lennukipommide ja rakettidega hävitama elumajasid, tabades ja/või kahjustades ka haiglaid ning põgenike varjupaiku. 

Kuu aega hiljem, tänaseks päevaks, on Gaza sektoris hukkunud 9000 tsiviilisikut, kellest üle poole on naised ja lapsed. Üle 10 000 inimese on veel rusude all lõksus.

Rahvusvahelised organisatsioonid kinnitavad, et Iisrael on Gaza sektoris 2023. a. suutnud ühe kuuga tappa rohkem lapsi kui hukkus planeedi kõikides sõjakolletes kokku terve 2022. aasta jooksul. Seejuures on Iisraeli pommide all hukkunud kuu ajaga märgatavalt rohkem lapsi kui Ukraina sõjas kahe aasta jooksul kokku. Vt. n.:

“GAZA: 3,195 CHILDREN KILLED IN THREE WEEKS SURPASSES ANNUAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN KILLED IN CONFLICT ZONES SINCE 2019” 

Save the Children, 29 October 2023 

https://www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-3195-children-killed-three-weeks-surpasses-annual-number-children-killed-conflict-zones# 

Sarnased näitajad on ka statistikal hukkunud tsiviilide kohta.

ÜRO on esitanud kahtlustuse, et Iisraeli tegevus Gaza sektoris on sõjakuritegu. 

Kolumbia president nimetas seda aga otsesõnu genotsiidiks.

Kui nüüd malemängu juurde tagasi pöörduda, siis rahvusvahelised maleorganisatsioonid nagu FIDE ja ICCF, samuti suured maleplatvormid, pole Iisraeli tegevusega seoses mitte midagi ette võtnud.

Seetõttu teen kõikidele maleorganisatsioonidele üleskutse kas viivitamatult tühistada Venemaale ja Valgevenele seatud piirangud või rakendada samu piiranguid ka Iisraelile, kelle ebaproportsionaalse ja valimatu sõjalise tegevuse tõttu hukkub iga päev katastroofiline arv tsiviilisikuid Gaza sektoris.

Kui on lubatud tõkestada Venemaa sportlasi eesmärgiga, et Venemaa lõpetaks oma sõjalise kallaletungi Ukrainale, siis peab olema lubatud tõkestada ka Iisraeli sportlasi eesmärgiga, et Iisrael lõpetaks oma sõjakuritegude sooritamise ning et süüdlased saaks karistatud.

Kuna pole ilmselt lootustki, et poliitiliselt kallutatud rahvusvahelised maleorganisatsioonid Iisraelile sellised piirangud kehtestaksid, siis teen ettepaneku kõigile individuaalsetele maletajatele - ettepaneku, mida mina ise järgima hakkan:

• Keelduge malet mängimast ükskõik kellega, kes maletab Iisraeli lipu all.
• Keelduge malet mängimast ükskõik kellega, kes on Iisraeli kodanik ja kes ei mõista avalikult, selgelt ja valjuhäälselt hukka Iisraeli sõjakuriteod Gaza sektoris.
• Keelduge malet mängimast ükskõik kellega, kes avalikult toetab või õigustab Iisraeli sõjakuritegusid Gaza sektoris.

Need piirangud kehtiksid seni, kuni Iisrael on Gaza sektori blokaadi ja sealsete elanike pommitamise lõpetanud ning Iisraeli peaminister Netanyahu ja tema käsilased on sõjakuritegude eest kohtus süüdi mõistetud.

Loomulikult saavad sarnaseid piiranguid kehtestada ka kohalikud maleklubid, kohalikud maleturniiride organiseerijad jne.

Ent mitteindividuaalsel, organisatsioonilisel, ametlikul tasandil tuleks hoiduda kolmandast punktist ülal, mis nõuab Iisraeli tegevuse avalikku hukkamõistu. Nimelt on Iisraeli politsei ähvardanud karmi käega karistada kõiki neid, kes kritiseerivad Iisraeli praegust sõjalist tegevust Gaza sektoris. Pole mõistlik ametlikult nõuda sportlaselt, et ta teeks sellise avalduse, mille tagajärjel ta oma kodumaal võimude käest karistada saaks.

Mis puutub rühmitusse Hamas, siis Euroopa Liit juba kuulutas Hamasi terroriorganisatsiooniks, mistõttu puudub vajadus selliseid spordialaseid sanktsioone sellele rühmitusele rakendada. Pealegi niikuinii ei kohtuta kusagil maletajaga, kes mängiks Hamasi lipu all.

Mis puutub juutidesse, siis kollektiivkaristust nendele rakendada ei tohi. Mitte kedagi pole lubatud süüdistada või diskrimineerida tema rahvuse alusel.

3. novembril, Tallinnas

Jüri Eintalu, maletaja ja filosoof

An Open Letter to the Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation

Jüri Eintalu

Please exclude me from the membership of the Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation.

I no longer pay the membership fee, I no longer participate in competitions organized by the Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation, and I no longer represent the Republic of Estonia in correspondence chess.

All my games as a representative of Estonia have ended by now. (I drew all four games in the Baltic/Sweden friendly match.)

Justification

Last year, in 2022, the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) adopted two fundamental decisions.

The first decision established that ICCF member states could also be expelled or temporarily suspended for non-financial reasons.

In doing so, however, no set of rules was adopted for which reasons and how the activities of the member states may be suspended.

Another decision suspended the participation of Russia and Belarus in ICCF activities, citing the war in Ukraine.

However, this decision did not correspond to good legal practices and was also of morally dubious value.

First, this decision was retrospective because the penalized conduct began before adopting the new rulebook.

Second, this decision was discriminatory and selective. For example, US correspondence chess players were not punished for the fact that the US had started wars in Afghanistan, Iraq or Serbia.

Third, this decision applied collective punishment because the sportspersons were punished for the decisions of their homeland government.

Fourth, the method of counting votes was absurd and not transparent when decisions were made. Neutral and non-voting countries were excluded from the calculation without distinction; at the same time, there was no established quorum — the minimum number of countries that must vote (positively or negatively) for the meeting to be capable of making a decision.

It was necessary to reach 2/3 of the votes to pass decisions. However, the decision-making mechanism used was such that the decision could have been adopted even if only 3 countries had voted resultant (for example, the USA and the UK “Yes” and Russia “No”) and all the others had remained neutral.

In other words, a system was used where remaining neutral or not voting acted as a positive vote “Yes”. Because if the countries that remained neutral had been included in the total number of those who voted, the proportion of those who voted in favour would have remained less than 2/3, and such decisions would not have been adopted.

My complaints to the Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation

According to the data from ICCF, the Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation initially had not nominated a representative for this vote. Still, in the end, the name of one particular person appeared there. However, according to the data from ICCF, this person either remained neutral or did not participate in the vote (the ICCF does not specify this important nuance).

The Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation website did not have any information about this voting, nor was a relevant e-mail sent to the correspondence chess players. Furthermore, the organization’s website also lacked information about the voting results, and the results were not announced in e-mails either.

The opinion of the Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation members, on whose behalf the Estonian representative at least formally participated in the vote, has not been asked, nor has there been any discussion or voting in Estonia.

I have never received any response to the official inquiry I sent, before the vote, through the ICCF website, to the official representative of the Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation.

That the Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation can still send e-mails to correspondence chess players is evident from the fact that recently, in an e-mail sent to many addresses, the Estonian Correspondence Chess Federation invited Estonian correspondence chess players to participate in a friendly match as representatives of the Estonian team.

I do not regard it possible to belong to an organization on behalf of whose members essential (and weird) international decisions are made in such a way that the opinion of the members of the organization is not asked, their questions are not answered, and they are not even informed afterwards about the vote or its results.

With respect

Jüri Eintalu

Tallinn, March 29, 2023

ICCF HAKKAB HÄÄLETAMA VENEMAA JA VALGEVENE TEGEVUSE PEATAMISE ÜLE

https://www.iccf.com/Proposals.aspx?id=76

Online hääletamine algab 27. aprillil ja lõppeb 09. mail 2022. Vajalik häälteenamus on 2/3.

Juriidiliselt ja moraalselt seisukohalt on ettepanekud äärmiselt kahtlased

Nimelt saab praeguse Põhikirja paragrahv 17 alusel mingi riigi kirimaleühingu tegevust ICCF-s peatada ainult liikmemaksu maksmata jätmise eest. Sel alusel visati ICCF-ist hiljuti segastel asjaoludel välja segases olukorras olev Venetsueela. 

Seekord aga kavatsetakse seda Põhikirja punkti muuta nii, et kedagi saaks välja heita ka muudel põhjustel kui finantspõhjused. 

Kaalutlustena on märgitud ainult "self-evident" ("enesestmõistetav", "evidentne").

Kuid miks ei ole ICCF siis täiesti endastmõistetavat asja varem mõistnud ja mõistab seda alles nüüd — just Vene/Ukraina sõjaga seoses? Näiteks Iraagi või Afganistani sõjaga seoses pole ICCF sellist endastmõistetavat asja endastmõistetavaks pidanud. 

Järgmine nüanss on see, et seda Põhikirja muudatust kavatsetakse rakendada tagasivaatavalt — Venemaa ja Valgevene liikmelisus kavatsetakse peatada lähtudes Põhikirja punktist, mis võeti vastu alles pärast seda, kui Venemaa alustas sõda Ukraina vastu. 

Seda nimetatakse ka Ad Hoc argumendiks (spetsiaalselt selleks puhuks kasutusele võetud argumendiks, tõendiks, seaduseks, vms). 

Samal virtuaalsel kongressil kavatsetakse selle Põhikirja uue punkti alusel välja hääletada Venemaa ja Valgevene (ent mitte tagasivaatavalt näiteks USA ikka veel kestva Iraagi okupeerimise alusel).

Siin esitatakse põhjendusena aga mitte põhjendust, vaid häälteenamust. Mis tähendab seda, et igaüks võib riigi X ühingust välja heita omaenda põhjenduse alusel, peaasi, et saavutataks häälteenamus.

See Kongress puudutab ka Eestit

Ent Kongressi delegaadid ei ole veel ICCF-il teada. Kes esindab Kongressil Eestit ja kuidas ta hääletab?

Eesti Kirimaleühingu koduleheküljel pole sellest Kongressist mitte sõnagi mainitud. Raske on sealt leida ka isikut, kes asja eest vastutab ja kelle käest saaks küsida.

Kusagil internetis on informatsioon, et Eesti Kirimaleühingu koduleht on nüüd hoopis Eesti Male Toetusühingu alla viidud. Ent Facebookis, EMTÜ leheküljel aga samuti pole sellisest Kongressist ega selle delegaatidest kusagil juttu.

Niisiis, kes Eesti esindajatest hääletab ICCF Põhikirja muutmise küsimuses ja Venemaa ning Valgevene tegevuse peatamise küsimuses? Ja kui ta hääletab, siis mis alusel? Kus on diskussioon ja argumentide ning arvamuste vahetus?

ICCF dokumentatsioonist

Kopeerin allapoole mõned lõigud ICCF erinevatest dokumentidest, sest need ei ole juurdepääsetavad neile, kel pole kontot, et sinna sisse logida:

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EC 2022-001 Amendment of ICCF Statute Article 17 (Statute - Requires 2/3 Vote) Proposed by Michael Millstone, ICCF Executive Board

Abstract

Expanding ICCF Statute Article 17.

This proposal is being offered based on the stated reasons for the E.C. The Executive Board does not take a stand on any of these, believing instead that it is the role of Congress to determine if and when there are to be exceptions to our longstanding policies of (our motto) "amici sumus" and "… improving contact and harmony among all peoples of the world" (quoted from Article 8 of ICCF statutes).

Proposal

ICCF Statute (01.01.2019), Article 17 states:

"The members acknowledge and accept these Statutes, as well as the bylaws, the various rules of play, and ICCF decisions. They must pay their membership fees without delay during the time period set out for this by the Finance Director, member of the Executive Board. The violation of these duties can lead to suspension or loss of membership by the Congress, as proposed by the Executive Board."

The proposal is to modify Article 17 by adding the following to the end of the existing article:

"The Executive Board is empowered by Congress to propose suspension or dismissal of member federations for non-financial reasons."

Rationale

The ICCF statutes only allow Congress to dismiss a Member Federation for financial reasons. This addition would allow Congress to vote for suspension or dismissal of Member Federations for reasons other than financial reasons.

Assessment

If approved, this change to the ICCF Statutes would take effect immediately after approval of Congress (with the requisite 2/3 minimum votes of those voting).

Effort

Changes to ICCF Statutes are mostly documentation. The modified statutes will need to be translated into French (as the French version will prevail), and both the French and English versions signed by both the President and General Secretary.

Practically, if any changes to the statutes are approved, the revised copy could be uploaded to the ICCF webserver immediately.

Considerations

Self-evident

Documentation

ICCF Statutes, dated and signed on 01.01.2019 Proposals

These are all the proposals for ICCF Online Voting 2022. The deadline for proposals is 27/03/2022. Online voting starts 27/04/2022. Online voting ends 09/05/2022.

THE INTERNATIONAL CHESS FEDERATION FIDE IS DEAD

FIDE started its activities after the Second World War and organized the most corrupt world chess championship of all time, "The Hague-Moscow 1948", in which the Soviet chess player Botvinnik became the world champion. 

Botvinnik was abnormally resultative against Keres, the representative of Estonia, occupied by the Soviet Union. 

By now, however, FIDE has gone beyond what is reasonable.

On March 2, 2022, the FIDE Council issued a statement on the war in Ukraine:

The Official Statement of FIDE Council

• FIDE states that Russian and Belarusian flags may not be used in FIDE competitions.
• FIDE terminates all sponsorship agreements with the state of Russia or Belarus or with state-controlled companies.
• FIDE will discuss the issue of "supporting unjustified military action" statements by grandmaster Sergei Karjakin in the FIDE Ethics Committee. — This committee has just decided that Karjakin will not be able to play in the FIDE competitions for 6 months, so he will not be able to play in the World Championship tournament where he was eligible to play.
• FIDE does not organize any chess competitions or events in Russia and Belarus. (This place in the FIDE statement is particularly absurd because it refers to the safety of chess players, but instead, the war is going on in Ukraine, and there are serious security problems in Ukraine at the moment.)

The problem is the justifications provided by FIDE.

We can first read about human rights in the text of the FIDE statement.

— On what basis does the chess federation FIDE decide that Russia and Belarus have violated human rights in the Russian invasion of Ukraine?

Starting a war is not a violation of human rights. However, concerning human rights violations during the war, on what basis does the chess organization decide that the Russians and not the Ukrainians are violating human rights in this war? On what basis do chess organizers decide that war crimes in this war are committed by one party and not the other?

Next, on what basis does the chess organization FIDE assume that human rights were not violated in Ukraine before the war? Who gave the chess judges the mandate to decide that the Ukrainians did not commit war crimes and genocide in Donbas — as Russia claims they did?

The FIDE statement then states that FIDE is against wars and condemns the use of military force to resolve political conflicts:

"FIDE stands united against wars as well as condemns any use of military means to resolve political conflicts."

— If FIDE does condemn the use of military force to resolve political conflicts, FIDE should also have condemned Ukraine's violations of the Minsk peace in Donbas. According to reports from the OSCE Mission to Ukraine, the situation on the dividing line with the Donbas separatists worsened in early 2022, with minesweepers fired as many as a thousand times a day, with most hits in the separatist areas.

If FIDE is indeed against the wars, why has FIDE not made similar statements against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, for example? The war in Iraq has been going on for 19 years. The United States has still not completely stopped occupying Iraq. Millions of people have been killed in that war, while the war in Ukraine has only lasted a month, and the death toll is apparently below 100,000.

Regarding Karjakini's question, FIDE also uses the argument of unjustified military action:

"FIDE Council condemns any public statement from any member of the chess community which supports unjustified military action..."

— On what basis do the chess judges decide which war is justified and which is not?

I, too, believe that Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine is not morally or legally justified.

For example, suppose Russia's accusation that Ukraine carried out genocide in Donbas is justified. However, it seems complicated to justify the decision to attack Kyiv, which is far from Donbas, to defend the civilian population of Donbas. At first glance, it would seem more natural for Russia to deploy its troops only to the separatist regions of Donbas for this purpose.

The paragraph above is just a fraction of the possible debate on whether or not Russia's war in Ukraine is justified. This fragment alone shows that the issue is complex. Different parties here have different understandings of the facts and cause-and-effect relationships. New facts may emerge that we do not yet know. It is also necessary to be familiar with the Geneva Convention and other articles of international law to take part in the debate. Finally, Russia has more excuses, such as the need to defend itself against NATO invasion. Whatever the right verdict, it is evident that chess judges cannot competently make this decision!

However, what is certain now is that Russia has at least mitigating circumstances — while the United States did not even have any mitigating circumstances when it invaded Iraq and Afghanistan.

So we know now that there were no chemical weapons in Iraq, and the talk of these weapons of mass destruction was a fiction to justify a war. We also realize that Iraq posed no military threat to the American motherland, America, because America is on the other side of the globe, and Iraq did not have intercontinental missiles or nuclear bombs.

FIDE's condemnation of "supporting an unjustified war" may well prove to be a ban on proving that the war is in fact justified; in such a variant, it would simply prove to be a dogma that war is unjustified, a dogma that must not be doubted.

However, if FIDE were indeed against unjustified wars and support for such wars, FIDE should have condemned the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unfortunately, after a long search on the FIDE website, I would say that FIDE has never even discussed these topics.

When the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq broke out, most people in Europe and the United States supported these wars, either openly or tacitly. It was only thanks to the work of Julian Assange and Wikileaks that Western audiences learned that the West had committed war crimes in these wars. However, FIDE has not responded in any way to the fact that some chess players have publicly agreed to these wars.

In conclusion, I find the FIDE statement and decisions extremely hypocritical. Although FIDE makes anti-war declarations, it only defends Ukraine and attacks only Russia. The wars launched by the United States have not been criticized or responded to by FIDE.

Therefore, I simply do not believe that the real purpose of FIDE is to prevent wars, condemn them, protect human rights, prevent war propaganda, prevent war crimes, and so on.

In fact, the FIDE decision is an example of the politicization of sport and, moreover, of the biased politicization of sport. FIDE has chosen a side in the war and turned itself into a weapon in the hands of one side against the other.

As a result, I no longer participate in FIDE tournaments, and I no longer recognize an organization like FIDE.

I am also considering interrupting my correspondence chess tournaments in the ICCF, which is officially under FIDE. However, the ICCF has not yet taken such abrupt decisions as FIDE.