In Ukraine, the term “busification” has emerged. Men are stopped and taken to recruitment centres. To me, the word itself shows how serious the crisis of trust has become.
A price tag on every human being
What worries me even more is the money.
There has been talk of 250 dollars per person procured for mobilisation. My own contacts in Ukraine tell me of far higher sums, up to 1,000 dollars per person. I also hear stories of men being led away in handcuffs, transported further into the military system and from there straight to the front. This can be seen in the many videos posted online.
So I ask myself: has mobilisation in some places developed into a business in which money, pressure and the need for ever more soldiers are mixed together?
To me it is not hard to understand why suspicion arises. Ukraine has had major corruption problems for many years. When a recruitment apparatus is at the same time put under enormous pressure to procure ever more people, I believe we must dare to ask what interests and incentives arise.
If recruitment centres or individuals in the police were to receive payment or other benefits for the people they bring in, I believe the limit of what Norway can accept has been crossed.
A human being should not have a price on their head.
Could the pressure move westward?
This becomes even more disturbing when we see how many Ukrainians are now outside Ukraine. Poland has taken in a great many. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian men of mobilisation age also live in Norway.
What happens if Ukraine has even greater problems finding soldiers?
Could the pressure gradually move westward? Could Ukrainian men in Poland start to experience stronger pressure? And could we one day see similar issues among Ukrainians in Norway?
I am not claiming that Ukrainian authorities are carrying out “busification” on Norwegian streets. But I believe Norway must draw the line before we ever get there.
No one should be able to hunt people on Norwegian soil to provide soldiers for a war. No foreign authority, organisation or private individual should be able to use physical force against people in Norway to have them sent to the front. Norwegian law applies here.
From the bus to the trench
As a veteran, I react particularly strongly to the idea that money could be linked to how many people are sent into a military system. I have seen what war does to people. I know that the man sitting on a bus today may be sitting in a trench tomorrow. A few days later he may be wounded, traumatised or dead.
We cannot then reduce the question to how many new soldiers Ukraine needs each month.
Norwegian support requires critical questions
Norway supports Ukraine with enormous sums. But support can never mean that we stop asking critical questions. In my view, Norwegian taxpayers should not support a system if money is used for corruption, coercion or financial rewards for procuring people for the front.
This we must not support.
I therefore want the Norwegian authorities to ask far tougher questions about the mobilisation. How do the recruitment centres work? How do they cooperate with the police? Are there financial rewards or other benefits linked to the number of people brought in? And what happens to people who refuse?
The line is human dignity
This is not about being for or against Ukraine. It is about where the line goes for what we as a society are willing to accept in the name of war.
For me, that line is human dignity.
If a human being one day acquires an economic value because someone needs to fill a bus that will send them on towards the front, the war has already taken far more from us than territory.
