Within the Walls of Hell (12 page)

Vladimir:
We-e-e-e-l-l-l-l-l-l, I think I did.

Messenger:
You are accepting with less conviction which means that you yourself are not sure. Let's see, what happened between you and John McLean?

Vladimir:
He was my neighbor and I had a dream house I wanted to build for myself. My piece of land was small and I asked him to sell his to me and obtain another one else where. But he refused saying that he wasn't going to do it even if I paid him the world's money. I-I –I ….

Messenger:
Finding yourself in a position of strength, you seized the land. Since your own land was small, why didn't you sell it to go and buy one elsewhere much bigger? Do you know what became of your neighbor as a result of your action?

Vladimir
: (
Remains silent)

Messenger
: Well, he was forced to go back to his village where he sunk into frustration and finally died of stress. You took away the only hope he had for his wife and children. Let's leave your neighbor aside…. What about George Kim?

Vladimir
: A lady mistakenly accused him of unlawfully taking her radio set. I picked him up and locked him in my cell. After some investigation, it was established that George had an identical set and that the Lady's Radio set was actually taken by her own younger brother.

Messenger
: Did you release George as soon as you realized that he was innocent?

Vladimir
: (
Remains silent
)

Messenger
: You didn't. You waited until an amount which you called ‘bail' was paid. You forced him to pay it even though you knew he was innocent.

Vladimir:
But that was the system and I was not the only one doing it.

Messenger
: It was the system and you knew that it was wrong. But because you benefited from it, you kept it alive. Many people died in your custody because you always said that they were worse than rats. You considered them outcasts simply because they were brandished criminals. You did not allow those that were sick to take their medicines and the money and food which their relatives brought for them became yours. That was not all….you equally siphoned gifts and funds given by humanitarian groups for the upkeep of the prisoners. All that could not be called greed but to me, it was man's inhumanity to man. I don't know what you would call it. That too aside, what about Sergio?

Vladimir
: He was an illegal immigrant. He had no valid documents and by law, he had to be behind bars.

Messenger
: But that was not the reason why you locked him up. You locked him up because you wanted him to surrender or part with any money he had on him. Unfortunately for you and him, there was no money and you left him in that cell for three days and three nights with no food or water. He had to sleep on bare floor.

Vladimir
: You sound like you wanted me to take money out of my pocket to provide him with legal documents or food. That was not my job.

Messenger
: I didn't say that you had to provide him with legal documents using money from your pocket. But what would have been wrong with you doing so? You knew very well that he was vulnerable without documents and you decided to take advantage of it. That is where you went wrong. Did you even bother to find out why he left his country to find himself in yours without documents? Yet, you locked him up for three days without food or water. He slept on a bare floor. That was an inhuman treatment. The fact that he never had documents didn't mean that he ceased to be human. Besides, why do you think he fell into your hands and not the hands of another?

Vladimir:
I think it was just coincidental and he was unlucky to have been caught.

Messenger
: There was nothing coincidental about it. It was my master's design and he wanted to test your humanity. But then, you did what you were not supposed to do. You were supposed to fight for those who could not fight for themselves, protect those who could not protect themselves, help those who could not help themselves and seek justice for those who were persecuted. That was a divine ordination. That's why you were strong and powerful while those who came to you and some of those you confronted were weak. You and I know that I have cited just three cases but there were many others. Can you confidently tell me that you did your job honorably?

Vladimir
: (
remains silent
)

Messenger
: I don't think so. You used your power to trample on those you knew they couldn't defend themselves like your neighbor and extorted money from those you knew were vulnerable. You were a law enforcement officer and always claimed to be representing the law. Rape was a crime you were supposed to punish but there were a good number of women under your command who came complaining of being raped by their male colleagues. You promised doing something about it but did nothing at the end of the day. Many young girls and women who lived around one of your bases came complaining to you that they had been raped and in some cases gang-raped by some of your men. You took no action. When they carried their complains to the journalists who came to interview you, you claimed that your men were decent and honorable and could not do what they were accused of. You defended your men without first carrying out any investigations. Not taking action made you an accomplice. Those you tried to apply the law on were the poor and you applied it by making them pay money to you. Once they paid what you wanted, you released them. Added to that, you gave your weapon to armed robbers who went around terrorizing and robbing poor-innocent citizens, the same people you took an oath to protect and defend even with your life.

Vladimir:
I asked them not to kill or harm anybody in the course of the operations.

Messenger
: Giving instructions is one thing and those instructions being respected is quite another. You asked your friends not to kill anybody but you were never there to ensure that they carried out your instructions. Well, let me inform you that they killed, raped, cut breast, tore open the stomachs of pregnant women and sent thousands down the road to poverty. You were not there and didn't care. All you were interested in was part of the stolen booty your friends brought to you after frustrating their victims. You who gave the orders were as guilty as they who carried out those barbaric acts. No one could be in trouble and run to you for help because you were going to find ways of getting money out of the individual who sought your protection. Yet, all those victims were people you were supposed to protect and on top of that you got promoted by your superiors. Can you tell us what happened in Delta district?

Vladimir:
One of my commanders was killed there and when I sent some of my men there to go and carryout investigations, they were attacked as soon as the inhabitants spotted them. They had to defend themselves and a serious gun battle ensued in which many people were killed.

Messenger
: Was that the real story or was it what you wanted people to believe? You have left out too many details there. The truth which you are afraid to say here is that most of your men were fond of supporting armed robbers, kidnappers and were in the ranks of those who committed crimes. Your commander decided not only to give weapons to some armed robbers to go and carry out a robbery in Delta District but he decided to be part of the gang. Unfortunately for him their target on the night of the operation was a well armed man who fired a shot from a hidden angle of his home. Your commander died in his yard and he dragged the body and dumped it in the street a distance further from his home. You did not send your men there to go and carryout any investigations. You sent them there to go and carryout revenge. They killed hundreds on sight and arrested many who were last seen alive only in your custody. Before their deaths, you paraded them in front of TV cameras as suspected thieves and kidnappers. You treated them like condemned criminals when the law clearly stated “Innocent until proven guilty.” When you were accused of extra judicial killings, you always claimed you acted within the law. Well, you could tell such lies to get away from justice down there but here, you can't escape. You must render account because everything Everyman does, think or say is recorded here. That was not all about the revengeful acts you carried out. You personally went to the home of Jay Charles when he accidentally knocked down your kid brother with his car and he unfortunately passed away. Jay Charles presented his condolences and took total charge of the funeral program from start to finish. That was not enough to tell you that he was sorry for what he did?

Vladimir
: He might have been sorry but that did not appease my family members who piled pressure on me to avenge the death of my brother because if I didn't, his soul was not going to rest in peace.

Messenger
: Did it dawn on you that by carrying out the revenge act, you were instituting a cycle of revenge? It seemed you forgot that you yourself carried out some killings. What would have happened if the families of those you killed directly or indirectly also decided to come and carry out revenge on you and your family? Did you think of the creator who created everything including you and His command concerning revenge? By carrying out the revenge, did you know that you violated your creator's fifth command? Revenge is not for you or any human but for my master alone. You preferred to please your family members and displease your creator. That was not good at all. That not withstanding, what happened on 6
th
April?

Vladimir
: The president decided to modify the constitution to remain in power but most people in our big towns and cities were against it. They turned out in the numbers on the streets to manifest but the authorities were against it because the manifestations obstructed traffic and paralyzed businesses. That was costing the state billions and they became afraid that if the manifestations were not stopped, the government would crumble. The official version of the cause of the manifestation which the government wanted the international community to believe was that there were some individuals who wanted to seize power and were inciting the population to move out to the streets. I was asked to disperse the crowd in my town and in the course of trying to do so, many protesters were shot dead while thousands of others were arrested and imprisoned without trial.

Messenger
: Did you at any one moment think that the population was being manipulated to descend to the streets?

Vladimir
: No, because no one needed to incite anybody who was hungry to manifest. There was grinding poverty every where and a lot of inflation too.

Messenger:
Were you in favor of the modification of the constitution?

Vladimir
: If I became a colonel, it was thanks to those who were in power. I was gaining a lot from their system of governance. I had to be on their side.

Messenger:
Do you think the people had the right to manifest?

Vladimir
: The constitution made provision for that. Yes, they had the right.

Messenger:
Were those manifesting in the majority or the minority?

Vladimir
: Well, because of the economic hardship, most people in the villages left for the big towns and cities. On television I could see thousands in each town that television cameras went to. I think they were in the majority.

Messenger
: If those who were against the revision of the constitution were in the majority, don't you think that their will should have been given a chance to prevail?

Vladimir:
I think so.

Messenger
: In that case, the voice of the people was the voice of my master. By refusing to listen to the voice of the people, you refused to listen to the voice of my master.

Vladimir
: But I had no choice. I was just following orders. And if I didn't obey, I would have been made to face court-martial and possibly sent to prison.

Messenger
: Someone is rejected by a population but you use guns to impose him on them. Someone preaches separation instead of integration and you go ahead to see into it that what he preaches is implemented. Tell me something….if you are asked to jump into a deep river when you do not know how to swim and know that if you jump in you would die, you would do it simply because it is an order?

Vladimir
: I don't know.

Messenger:
Of course you know. Listen, my master created Everyman and endowed Him with the ability to reason. My master did not give you a brain to serve as a decoration or for you to be sleeping on. My master wanted you to act out of your freewill after making use of that brain because you were to be responsible for your actions. Have you seen any of those you took orders from here? Is any of them here to answer questions in your place or on your behalf? You are here to face your fate alone just as they would face theirs. Orders were not supposed to mar your sense of reasoning. Being a man in uniform does not mean that you would be given special considerations simply because you were trained only to take follow orders. Do you know why? It is because the Ten Commandments were meant for Everyman irrespective of race, origin or occupation. By the way, did I hear you say you had no choice? You did have a choice. You knew that those people who were manifesting were given the right to do so by the constitution and they equally had the right to vote in or vote out anybody they no longer wanted to be their leader. You had the choice to either fight by their side and by so doing disobey your superiors or to obey your superiors and slap the people in the face. You preferred to stand against the people you were supposed to defend under the pretext that you feared for your life. Well, anybody who tries to save his or her life looses it and he or she who looses her life for the sake of my master gains it. My master never forgets those who undergo persecutions for His sake. Your statement to most of those you arrested and imprisoned was that “Nobody is above the state.” A state can never be a land surface or the trees and rocks and animals found in it. If there are no people, there will be no state. The people make up the state and if majority rejected someone who was not supposed to be above the state, you had to stand by them. Your actions proved that your commander in chief was above the state. Is that not ironical? The truth is that you thought of only your self and that explains why you did the things you did. You were supposed to, through your job make yourself worthy of my master's kingdom by serving those that came to you and those that you met on your way.